Boundless

Niknaz Atafi 
AEC - TECH 
11.30am - 12.30pm
BIO: Niknaz received her undergraduate degree from the Baha’i Institute for Higher Education (BIHE) in Iran. BIHE was founded in 1987 in response to the Irainan government’s policy of denying Baha’is access to higher education. She received her M.arch from UC Berkeley in 2014, and has been practicing architecture in the bay area California both as a design professional as well as the design technology director.
Her background as an architectural designer, as well as her interest in using emerging technologies and new tools to improve the built environment, along with her lifelong passion for advancement of human rights and access to resources for all, finally came together when she launched aec+tech, the first online platform / marketplace exclusively dedicated to featuring the latest AEC tools & technologies and companies that use them.  Aecplustech.com is a growing community for sharing and discovering the applications of AEC emerging technologies through real-world projects.
Niknaz is a member of AIA San Francisco design technology committee. She has been developing curriculum and teaching architecture courses online to Bahai students in Iran who continue to be deprived of access to universities in their own country.
Talk Topic:
Niknaz will talk about her newly launched platform aec+tech (www.aecplustech.com), its goals and vision with respect to her background and where she is professionally coming from. 
aecplustech is an online platform / marketplace that features the use of the latest AEC tools / technologies in the AEC industry. It allows the users -- both tech innovators looking for companies interested in their products, as well as AEC professionals looking for the right tools for their projects-- keep up with and compare the most popular technologies applicable to their projects. (Including energy modeling software, project management SaaS, generative design plug-ins, construction technologies & many more) Niknaz will talk about how to document plans, projects using the latest technology. 
Ferda Kolatan:
SU11
12.30pm - 1.30pm   
BIO: Ferda Kolatan is an architect, author, Founding Director of New York-based studio, SU11 and Associate Professor of Practice at University of Pennsylvania. Ferda has lectured widely and taught design, fabrication, and theory courses at institutions such as Columbia University, SCI-Arc, Pratt Institute, RWTH Aachen, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Washington University, CCA, UCAM, University of British Columbia, and Cornell University.  Since its establishment in 1999,  su11 architecture+design has operated on multiple design fronts with interests and expertise ranging from building design to interiors, installations, and products. Over the past 15 years SU11 has been widely recognized as one of the leading design firms of its generation with projects featuring in venues such as the Museum of Modern Art, PS1 and Carnegie Museum of Art to name just a few. 
Talk Topic:
Podcast with DK and Ferda 
Design doesn’t have any particular connection to scale or even function.
Ferda says that design doesn’t have any particular connection to scale or even function, and that it doesn’t fully distinguish between art, design and architecture. Let's find out how he thinks the disciplines overlap and inform each other in his work. 

ADNZ CPD Points:

Afternoon: Design - 1, Documentation - 1

NZRAB:

Afternoon: 10 Design, 10 Documentation

Australian CPD:

Afternoon: 2 Formal

AACA Competencies:

• 3.1 Design response integrates the objectives of brief, user intent and built purpose. 
• 3.3 Design response incorporates assessment of the physical location and relevant wider regional, contextual and environmental issues.
• 5.5 Integration of materials and components based upon an understanding of their physical properties.