AAD Seminar Event: Disruptors of Architecture

Bridging Architecture, Practice, and Industry, this course is to challenge the larger field of (a)rchitecture, and how we can redefine the future of architecture – as a profession, practice, and discourse. Why are Architects Entrepreneurial? What are other fields Architects can venture to? Who are these disruptors? How can they find a new paradigm?

Architecture as a practice and business operates between art, design, craft, and foremost, entrepreneurship. This course explores various opportunities of how creatives can use applied research and integration architecture, by leveraging the student’s diverse skills and techniques learnt in the field of architecture to create innovative business ventures within the built environment, and beyond.

Speakers include Daniel López-Pérez (University of San Diego), Salome Asega (New Inc.), Mick McConnell (Airbnb). Moderated by Wendy W. Fok (WE-DESIGNS).

Daniel López-Pérez (MAAD Columbia, 2002; PhD, Princeton, 2013) is a Professor of Architecture and a founding faculty member of the Architecture Program at the University of San Diego. His scholarship addresses design science, design pedagogy, and tectonic and environmental culture. He is the author of R. Buckminster Fuller: Pattern-Thinking (Lars Müller Publishers, 2020), which was selected by the Los Angeles Times as one of the “Best Art Books of 2021” and is currently in its second edition.López-Pérez has received numerous research grants and awards from institutions including the Spanish Ministry of Culture (ACE), Mexico’s National Council for Culture and Arts (CONACULTA), Princeton University’s Barr Ferree Foundation, and the Graham Foundation. In professional practice, he is the founder of Polyhaus (www.polyhaus.com), a design and building technology company that develops an easy-to-adopt, patented building system focused on resilience, rapid assembly, and spatial efficiency. Polyhaus was recognized in Dwell Magazine’s list of “Best Prefab Homes of 2025.”

Salome Asega is the Deputy Director of Strategy and Innovation and Director of NEW INC, the New Museum’s cultural incubator for creative practitioners working across art, design, and technology. Asega is also an artist, researcher, and educator working between participatory design and emerging technologies. Prior to joining NEW INC in 2021, Asega was the inaugural New Media Art Research Fellow for Creativity and Free Expression at the Ford Foundation, where she supported artists and organizations in the new media arts ecosystem. She is also a cofounder of POWRPLNT, a digital art collaboratory based in Brooklyn that offers free and sliding-scale workshops run by established media artists. Since 2015, Asega has been teaching studio and design methodology courses in the MFA Design and Technology program at Parsons School of Design.

Mick McConnell has shaped iconic spaces that foster connection and authenticity for more than 25 years in design and innovation. From leading the design of the F1 Yas Hotel in Abu Dhabi to creating transformative environments at WeWork, his work bridges the physical and experiential, always grounded in the needs of real people. Mick has held leadership roles at Samsung, Chipotle, and Starbucks, and collaborated with NASA, Coca-Cola, and Microsoft, with a focus on making spaces feel genuine and purposeful. As Head of Space at Airbnb and an adjunct faculty member teaching AI Design & Creativity courses at NYU for the past three years, he brings his expertise to crafting environments that inspire a sense of belonging, guided by his belief that design is at its best when it serves the people within it.