Corneel Cannaerts

Background

About Corneel Cannaerts

Corneel Cannaerts is an architect, researcher and educator interested in the impact of digital technologies on architectural practice and culture. At KU Leuven Department of Architecture, he conducts research as part of the Material Narratives research group developing the Media Ecologies research line. Starting from a materialist understanding of contemporary media, his research critically questions the agency of digital technologies, both as media for design and making processes in architectural practice, as well as how their environmental and societal impact constitute an expanded field for architectural culture. Together with Michiel Helbig he runs Fieldstation Studio, an explorative architectural design studio combining research, teaching and practice. The work applies computational design, narrative, and time-based media to develop architectural projects that engage with technologically saturated environments. The studio is a local node in the Fieldstations Network, a non-profit organization consisting of scientists, architects, artists that explores models for architecture in relation to the complexities resulting from current ecological crises. Dr Cannaerts has obtained a master's in architectural engineering from Universiteit Gent and a PhD in Architecture from RMIT University Melbourne, under supervision of prof. Mark Burry and prof. Johan Verbeke. He has extensive international teaching and research experience, he was a guest researcher at the Architectural Robotics and Computing lab of the Aarhus School of Architecture, he has led research cluster at post-graduate Urban Design program of the Bartlett School of Architecture University College London, and is an Assistant Professor at the Master of Advanced Architectural Design at Columbia University Graduate School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation in New York. Corneel has substantial experience in using digital technologies within creative and architectural design practice and education, ranging from scanning and imaging to creative coding and parametric modelling robotic and digital fabrication, data scraping, to visualisation, animation, and audio-visual production, augmented and virtual reality. He initiated several learning environments at the KU Leuven Faculty of Architecture, to develop and share this artistic and technological knowledge. He founded the Fablab, is part of the team that manages Lab-O, and coordinates the Creative Makers project, an interdisciplinary collaboration between LUCA School of Arts, KU Leuven Faculties of Engineering Sciences and Architecture.