Thomas Mical, Professor of Architectural Theory at Auckland University of Technology, New Zealand, and international professor at the School of Design at the Shangai Institute of Visual Arts, gave a talk entitled “Design Thinking and Global Intelligence” as the guest of Department of Architecture of Faculty of Fine Arts and Design in İzmir University of Economics.
Thomas Mical has been teaching and researching globally on modern and hypermodern architecture and urbanism over a long career in diverse international architecture programs. He has an M.Arch. from Harvard GSD on sci-fi urbanism and a Ph.D. from Georgia Tech in architectural theory (with minors in philosophy and art history). He has taught 50 design studios globally and has been a tenured professor at Carleton University, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, University of South Australia, and Auckland University of Technology. He has held fellowships at the Architectural Association (UK), London School of Economics (UK), and DAAD and Fulbright (Germany). He was in the NEH Summer Institute on modernity in Delhi in 2011. His recent appoint include Visiting Professor at the Technical University of Vienna (2016), Tongji University CAUP (2017-2018), Shanghai Institute of Visual Arts (2018-2020) and Université libre de Bruxelles (2018-2020).
His teaching in architectural theory examines how concepts are formed, transformed, and mutate into architecture and wider cultural fields. He has taught internationally across a range of design disciplines - including architecture and urban design studios, masters and doctoral design thesis research methods, modern history-theory, design thinking, and a range of courses in media studies and culture studies to support innovative design pedagogy.
The research in architectural theory engages with the intrinsic and extrinsic drivers of emergent modes of spaces, mechanical and cognitive, and is increasingly focused on how sense and meaning are situated spatially, since modernity. The research methodologies involve qualitative analysis of new forms of subjectivity, emergence, and differentiation in the pervasive spatial mechanics of hypermodernity. He has published a book Surrealism and Architecture (Routledge, 2005) and is working on a few new books including “What Comes After Transparency?” this year.
