Peter Macapia is the director and founder of the experimental office labDORA.

Macapia studied at the Rhode Island School of Design, Harvard University, and Columbia University. He started labDORA in 2003 after receiving his PhD from Columbia where he was the recipient of the Presidential Fellowships. His interests involve the problem of geometry in the age of computation, the geometry and topology of matter/energy relations, and the possibility of an elastic density in the contemporary metropolis for which he has received numerous academic grants.   He has won distinction in competitions and collaborated with engineers from Ove Arup and Buro Happold as well as artist-in-residencies.

His work and writings have been published internationally in Log, Huffington Post, Monitor, A+U, Architectural Review, Architectural Record, Interior Design, Pin-Up and others. Macapia’s projects Dirty Geometry 1 and Dirty Geometry 2 were acquired by the FRAC Centre in Orleans France in 2007. Recently Macapia’s Pavilion Seroussi, has been shown throughout France as part of the Dentelles d’architectures exhibition, which includes Nouvel, FOA, and Philip Morel. Macapia’s work has been exhibited in Basel, Miami, New York, Chicago, London, Paris, and Los Angeles including the recent solo shows titled Swarm, Ship of Theseus, Skullcracker, and The Birth of Physics. His work on Dirty Geometry, including the Dirty Geometry Pavilions, will be published in 2011 by the FRAC titled Architectures experimentales, 1950-2010.

Macapia began teaching at Columbia’s GSAPP on architecture and ontology in 1999 and has since taught nationally and internationally in both art and architecture at Sci-Arc, Pratt Institute, Parsons School of Design, the Ecole Special d’Architecture, Malaquais, TU Delft , School of Visual Arts and other schools.

CV

Ph.D.      Columbia University
Major, Theory and Criticism/ Rosalind Krauss advisor
Minor, 19th Cent. Arch. Theory and History/Barry Bergdoll advisor
Dissertation:  Minimalism:  The Problem of Meaning (committee: Rosalind Krauss, John Rajchman, Akeel Bilgrami, Richard Brilliant)
M.Phil.    Columbia University
M.A.     Columbia University
M.T.S.     Harvard University
B.F.A.     Rhode Island School of Design

Solo Exhibitions
9. 2011 “Origins of Distance,” Sebastian Barquet, New York
4.2010 “Birth of Physics,” Sebastian Barquet, New York
6.2009 “Ship of Theseus,” Nous Gallery, London
6.2009 “Skullcracker,” Angstrom Gallery, Los Angeles
5.2009 “Swarm2,” Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago
4.2009 “Swarm,” Bridge Gallery, New York

Selected Group Exhibitions
5.2011 “Audi Urban Future Awards,” New York, curated Mark Kushner
4.2011 “Lady Dior,” Shanghai, curated Herve Mikhailov
8.2010 “Chiachiarita,” Sebastian Barquet, curated Nick Kilner
10.2009 “Architeture et dentelle,” la maison de l’architecture et de la ville, Lille, France
9.2009 “Digital Primitivism,” Lisboa, curated by Katerina Tiazzoldi
10.2008 Beijing Biennial, Beijing, curated A. Andrasek, N. Leach, X. Wei-Guo
9.2008 “Light.” Norman Schaffler Gallery, curated Keith Sonnier
9.2008 “Natural and Artificial Behavior,” Bridge Gallery, New York curated Marilyn Garber
12.2008 “Seroussi Pavilion,” AA School, London, curated Brett Steele
11.2007 “New Work,” Johnson Trading Gallery, New York curated Paul Johnson
9.2007 “Scriptedbypurpose,” Fuel Collection, Philadelphia, curated Marc Fornes
6-9.2007“Pavilion Seroussi,” Maison Rouge, Paris, curated Elias Gounoun
2.2007 “The Computational Turn,” Maison de l’Architecture et de la Ville, Marseille, France, curated Philippe Morel Curated by Peter Macapia
7.2009 “Wild Child,” Bride Gallery, NY
4.2007 “Line, Grid, and Network,” Pratt Institute, Brooklyn

Selected Publications About Peter Macapia
Yokayama, Kei, “The New York Grid,” A+U, no. 12, September 2011
Stewart, Matt, “Top Ten Emerging Architects,” PinUp Magazine, no. 10, Spring/Summer 2011
Brayer, Marie-Ange, ed., Architectures expérimentales 1950-2010 (HYX, Paris 2011)
Burry, Mark, ed., Scripting Cultures: Architectural Design and Programming (Wiley, London 2011)
Goldfarb, Max, ed., Speculative Structures: Radical Architectural Renderings (Mark Batty Publishers, New York 2011)
Hirose, Daisuke, “New Practices in New York,” A+U, no. 10, March 2010
Padovano, Gabriella, Complessità e Sostenibilità: il territorio e l’architettura (Gangemi, Rome 2009)
Rafaat, Afshin, Tall Buildings, MA no. 35 (Tehran: Memari Iran, 2009)
Lovell, Sophie, Once Upon a Chair: Furniture Beyond the Icon, ed. S. Moreno (London: Gestalten, 2009)
Meyers, Holly, “Review: Peter Macapia at Angstrom Gallery,” Los Angeles Times, July 19, 2009
Wei-Guo, Shu, Architectural Beijing Biennial, World Architecture, Vol 4, 2009
De Looz, Alex, “Dora’s Dirty Deeds”, PinUp Magazine, no. 6, Spring, May 2009
Yudina, Anna, “Peter Macapia,” Monitor Magazine, no. 53, February 2009
Ezichielle, Carlo,“Tra Logiche et Principe: intervista Peter Macapia”, Io Architetto, V. 4, no. 2, March 09
Moreno, Shonquis, “labDORA seating based on Fluid Dynamics,” ID magazine, June 2008
Gendall, John,“Ranch House,” Architectural Record Online, May 2007

Selected Publication By Peter Macapia
Macapia, Peter, “Influence,” Spread Art and Culture, Vol 4, Spring 2009
Macapia, Peter, Dubin, Abbey, Diaggrama Agon, Nous Gallery, London, 2009
Macapia, Peter, “From Geometry to Industry,” Interview with Bernard Cache
Macapia, Peter, “Dirty Geometry”, Log No.10, Fall, 2007
Macapia, Peter, “Question: on Space and Power,” Cambridge Architecture Journal, no. 19, 2009
Macapia, Peter, “Singularities,” Proceedings International Workshop on Computational Morphogenesis, Cornell, 2009
Macapia, Peter, “Turbulent grid part 1: dirty geometry,” Arch’It, January 2007
Macapia, Peter, “Turbulent geometry,” International Workshop ComputationalMorphogenesis, Nagoya University
Macapia, Peter, Performative architecture: beyond instrumentality, ed. B. Koralevic (London: Spon Press, 2004)
Macapia, Peter, “Edge Unlimited,” Architecture Review Australia, 90, September 2004
Macapia, Peter, “The material grain of geometry,” Log no. 3,September 2004
Macapia, Peter, “Analytical instruments,” in E.Keller ed., Chronomorphologies (Columbia University, New York 2003)

Selected Lectures/Conferences
11.26.09 École Nationale Superieure d’Architecture de Paris Malaquais, “After the Night Watch,” Paris
07.30.09 Storefront for Art and Architecture, “Immaterial Processes,” panel discussion, New York
06.15.09 Hellenic Institute of Architecture , “Ship of Theseus,” Synathroisis conference, Athens
04.23.09 Kent State School of Architecture, “Cartesian Wax,” Kent State University
03.19.09 The Drawing Center, “Blindleadingtheblind,” New York
01.19.09 Princeton University, “WarAndPeace”, Princeton University, Princeton
01.17.09 SciArc, “The Smell of Geometry,” Los Angeles
03.24.08 UNAM, “Bananas: or the algorithm”, Nonstandard Geometry Conference, Mexico City, Mexico.
03.22.08 Estonian Academy of Arts, “Geometria Conflictus,” Tallinn, Estonia, Lecture
12.10.06 University of Pennsylvania, Graduate School of Architecture, “Kinds of Sublime,”
11.05.06 University of Paris, Malaquais “On the Prehistory of Computation,” Paris, Lecture
03.29.06 École Special d’Architecture, “Pressure,” Paris, Lecture
03.28.06 École Nationale Superieure d’Architecture de Paris Malaquais, “Dirty Geometry,”
10.11.06 University of Pennsylvania, Bites, Bits, Bricks, Philadelphia, Cecil Balmond and David Ruy organizers
05.02.06 École Nationale Superieure d’Architecture de Paris Malaquais, “Geometry under pressure,”
3.30.05 Nasa Goddard Institute for Space Studies, “Hybrid architecture: Manhattanville,” New York, Lecture
12.05.05 “Hedonist Geometry,” Marco Brizzi and Paola Giaconnia Organizers, Florence, Italy
10.22.05 University Technology Sydney, “Mixology,” Cosmopolitanism and Place, Sydney, Australia
10.24.04 University of Pennsylvania, Graduate School of Architecture, “Crunk Space,” Lecture
11.23.03 AA School, “The Material Life of Geometry,” The Intimate Metropolis, London
03.14.02 Columbia University, “Tati’s Playtime: The shelf life of modern geometry,” New York

Artists in Residencies
6.2011 l’entreprise culturelle, Paris, France
8. 2010 Pilchuck Center for glass, Washington State, USA