Welcome to srpLAB
srpLAB is focused on rethinking Design + Making with an interdisciplinary approach towards Architecture, Design and Material Innovation. Founded by Santiago R. Pérez, srpLAB promotes research and discovery through MAKING.
The confluence of robotic + digital fabrication technologies, material innovation, and design for a rapidly changing environment, informs our research. The development of new modes of practice linking material experimentation with Environmentally Innovative Strategies for Design & Fabrication, informs our teaching, research and practice.
Santiago R. Pérez is a Senior Lecturer at the University of Western Australia, Perth, AU.
In addition to teaching undergraduate and post-graduate units in design + technology, Pérez founded a Design-Robotics Lab in collaboration with Thomas Braunl, as a collaborative initiative with the School of Engineering. The lab develops new material workflows, using robotic fabrication + augmented reality to engage contemporary design practices.
Teaching:
2018 – 2022 Senior Lecturer in Architecture, University of Western Australia
2016 – 2017, Pérez was a Visiting Lecturer at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln College of Architecture, teaching Design Studios + Seminars exploring the intersection of Design + Making. He is active in writing and publishing, focusing on a critical examination of Design through the lens of Technology and Material-Practice, within the larger sphere of Social + Environmental Innovation.
Between 2010 – 2016, Pérez held a position as the 21st Century Chair Assistant Professor of Integrated Practice at the University of Arkansas, Fay Jones School of Architecture, developing new initiatives related to “Craft, Advanced Digital Fabrication & Robotics in Architecture.”
Education:
PhD Candidate at UWA, investigating Design Robotics in Education: Material Intelligence, Intuition and Procedure.
Master of Architecture with Distinction from the Harvard Graduate School of Design. Awarded the Tamaki Postgraduate Research Fellowship, as a researcher in residence in the office of Tadao Ando in Osaka, and the AMORPHE office in Tokyo, headed by Kiyoshi Sey Takeyama.
Pérez combines his passion and training in architecture, with steadily emerging talents as a Digital / Robotic Craft innovator and educator, combining advanced digital fabrication and computation with traditional craft practices, towards a confluence of the hand and technology that he has termed “FABCRAFT.” Working with his students to realize large-scale, complex material assemblies, Pérez is developing new ways of fabricating architecture with emerging technologies and materials.
The development of an ethic based in learning through direct engagement with material practice has been one of the primary endeavors in his installed work, as both an educator and innovator. Recent installations and invited events include include:
Transmedial: Robotic Printmaking Exhibition + Public Workshop Fremantle, AU 2021
Post-Digital Matters Exhibition UWA Perth, AU 2019
Robotically Fabricated Pavilion for the Fayetteville Bike Trail Fayetteville AR 2015
Viewing Pavilion for Frank Lloyd Wright’s Bachman Wilson Usonian House Bentonville AR (opening 2015)
FabCraft Computational Design + Fabrication Exhibit sUgAR gallery, Bentonville AR 2011
MicroLiving Pavilions: Full-Scale Fabricated Prototypes Lawndale Arts Center, Houston, Texas 2009
Buffalo Bayou BentWood Cloud Installation Houston, Texas 2008
Pérez has published and lectured widely on the relation between craft and digital fabrication. Recent publications include:
Towards an Ecology of Making published in MATTER: MATERIAL PROCESSES IN ARCHITECTURAL PRODUCTION.
ParaBodies: Rethinking Material InTuition in the Age of Parametric Design published in UNCONVENTIONAL COMPUTING: DESIGN METHODS FOR ADAPTIVE ARCHITECTURE
Structural and Material Innovation in Architecture published in OUTSIDE THE BOX: CARDBOARD DESIGN NOW.
As an invited panelist and lecturer, Pérez contributes to the development of critical practice and thinking. A partial list of recent invited lectures and panel discussions includes:
TEDx UWA Salon: Art+. Invited Speaker UWA Perth, AU 2019
Rethinking Wright: Adapting Usonian Principles in 21st Century Architecture Lecture: Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art, Bentonville AR, May 21, 2014
Fabcraft: Crafting the Future with Digital Fabrication Lecture : Arkansas Arts Center, Little Rock, Jan. 17, 2012
High Performance Craft Symposium Panelist: University of Washington College of Built Environments May, 2011
The Digital Imagination: Art, Design & Computing Lecture: University of Oregon’s Distinguished Speakers Series 2009
DESIGN LIFE NOW: NATIONAL DESIGN TRIENNIAL Panelist: Contemporary Arts Center Houston, 2008