Role: Alumni

Nikola Miloradovic has worked on a variety of permanent and temporary test-beds around the world including Meander, Chun Long Tiao ‘Spring Dragon Tail’, Sentient Chamber, Transforming Space: Aegis and Noosphere, Anthozoan Veil, Aletheia, Futurium Noosphere, Threshold, and Nebula Prototype: Liminal Architecture. Nikola is involved in many steps of the design process including modeling, prototyping, fabrication, visualization, and installation. He is a graduate of the University of Waterloo School of Architecture and is completing his Master of Architecture at the Architectural Association in London, where his research focuses on the leftover spaces of London and potential counter-values to the highly commercial inner-city built landscape.

Mark Francis was responsible for the on-site direction of installations for the LASG/PBSI studio. Along with numerous smaller projects, he carried this responsibility for Amatria at Indiana University, Transforming Space at the Royal Ontario Museum, Toronto, Noosphere at the Futurium in Berlin, Germany, Radiant Soil in Daejeon, South Korea, and Meander at Tapestry Hall, Cambridge, Ontario. His training includes an M. Arch. degree from UBC and a B. F. A. from York University. He continues to maintain an independent art practice in parallel with his professional work.

Muhammad Tahir Pervaiz served an extended studentship with the LASG during which he produced a thesis that focused on the underlying geometric form-language currently used within studio scaffolds. His thesis Mediation: Resonating Between the Organic and Inorganic at the University of Waterloo School of Architecture includes historical references that expand the context of LASG research-creation. His academic research focused on evolved geometries and form languages, and the relations ‘in-between’ inherent polarities in nature; the organic and the inorganic, conceiving of deep relationships between individual parts and wholes. His work included a focus on the visionary mid-twentieth-century designer Jekabs Zvilna, contributing to LASG coursework and a folio publication, New Geometric Systems: Jekabs Zvilna and Integrative Form-Languages. 

Expanding his studies, Tahir became a designer at the LASG. He has contributed to LASG projects Meander, Threshold, and Le Frout. He graduated with distinction from the National College of Art and is a licensed architect in Pakistan under the Pakistan Council of Architects and Town Planners (PCATP).

Michael Lancaster leads the design, production, and installation of electronic and software systems in PBSI’s actuated sculptures. Michael is also responsible for directing research and development of hardware and software systems. Current development projects include compact embedded electronics for use within kits, and a modular software system supporting behaviour composition and simulation. He has worked on mechanical and electrical redesign for actuated components of large test-bed scaffolds including Meander, Amatria, and Futurium Noosphere. Michael holds a BASc in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Toronto.

Mac has worked as a designer and installation manager for the Living Architecture Systems Group, on projects including Meander in Cambridge, Threshold in San Jose, and Grove, shown at the 2021 Venice Biennale.

Mac Van Dam is a multi-disciplinary designer working in architecture, art, object design, and material science. He has studied architecture and design at the University of Waterloo (BAS, with distinction), and the Bartlett School of Architecture, Bio-Integrated Design Lab (MArch, with distinction). His work is rooted in a material-led design process and a desire to bring biological/living sensibilities to the everyday. He is currently designing artworks and contemporary forms of urban green infrastructure (Vertical Grounds Design Lab). Before founding design studios, Mac was a research member/artist at the Living Architecture Systems Group in Toronto and has worked at internationally acclaimed architecture firms. His solo work has been shown at the Lisbon Triennale, London Design Festival, MB&F MAD Gallery, Coachella, and several other international exhibitions.