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MARK GOULTHORPE

SIAL Visiting Research Fellow
dECOi Architects

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Project Involvement

Links:
Distinctions/Awards | Design Competitions Awards | Teaching | Project CV | Art/Research Works | Exhibitions | Publications | Lectures | Decoi Structure

SIAL Project Links
Aegis Hyposurface
Paramorph II
Decoi Folly

Biography
In 1991 Mark Goulthorpe established the dECOi atelier to undertake a series of architectural competitions, largely theoretically biased. These resulted in numerous accolades around the world, which quickly established a reputation for thoughtful and elegant design work suggestive of new possibilities for architecture and architectural praxis. Significantly, such work was presented under the rubric ‘dECOi’, which was intended to allow for possibility of collaborative practice, and which has latterly become essential to a digitally-networked creative enterprise.

dECOi's portfolio ranges from pure design and artwork through interior design to architecture and urbanism, and at every scale their work has received acclaim. They have been awarded numerous commissions for artworks / sculptures, and have taken on a small but significant number of architectural projects which begin to give a distinct professional outline to the group. The practice has developed carefully and consistently, focussing on a small number of high-quality international projects. This has been reinforced by numerous publications, international lectures and conferences, and frequent guest-professorships, including a design unit at the renowned Architectural Association in London and the École Speciale in Paris.

Based in Paris and London, dECOi has developed a supple working practice to be able to bring its design skill to bear effectively in an international arena. This has resulted in a high level of technical expertise, a fully computerized working practice and an extensive network of affiliations with engineering support groups in Europe and Asia such as Ove Arup (London) and Rice Francis Ritchie (Paris). This has extended to collaboration with Foster & Partners to offer creative technical input to various of their projects.

dECOi has received awards from the Royal Academy in London, the French Ministry of Culture and the Architectural League of New York, and has represented France at the Venice Biennale and the United Nations. They were selected by the Architects Design journal in its international survey of thirty 'Emerging Voices' at the RIBA in London, and were awarded second place in the BD 'Young Architect of the Year' Competition, 1999. dECOi was invited to exhibit in the International Pavilion at the Venice Biennale 2000, and to exhibit 10 years of work at FRAC in Orleans. Most recently they were awarded the prestigious international FEIDAD Digital Design Award 2001, and invited to the ‘Architecture of the Non-Standard’ manifesto at the Centre Pompidou in Paris 2003.

Mark Goulthorpe has been invited to take a professorship at MIT, divided between the school of architecture and the renowned Media Lab, which will begin in January 2003. A book of dECOi’s Architecture is forthcoming from Hyx Publications/FRAC (Centre Pompidou).

dECOi Ethos
dECOi is a small architectural/design practice that looks to opening the boundaries of conventional practice by a fresh and exploratory approach to design. We are flexible, efficient, and high-quality, and have a keen interest in developing new technological practices. We continually look to developing creative partnerships with people in other domains, and have a network of research affiliates (mathematicians, programmers, etc) whose skills we deploy according to the project. Our reputation is for sophisticated design work which we are committed to achieving consistently. We take every design project as a fresh challenge and work imaginatively within the given constraints to achieve something exceptional.