Farzin Lotfi-Jam

Farzin Lotfi-Jam is an architect whose work explores the politics of technology and cities. He is an assistant professor in architecture at Cornell University where he directs the Realtime Urbanism Lab. The lab uses and invents new spatial media and technologies to visualize and simulate how algorithms, models, and notions of ''real time'' govern urban life.  He is also director of Farzin Farzin, an interdisciplinary design studio working across architecture, urbanism, computation, and media. From modeling the control matrices of smart cities to spatializing the cultural logics of social media, his individual and collaborative projects are research based and multimediatic. Lotfi-Jam's work has been collected by The Centre Pompidou and the Sharjah Art Foundation, and he is a recipient of the 2022 Architecture League of New York League Prize, as well as recent grants and support for his research from the Alexander S. Onassis Foundation, the Graham Foundation for Advanced Studies in the Fine Arts, M+/Design Trust, and The Shed, where he was an inaugural Open Call Artist. He has been exhibited at Storefront for Art and Architecture, MAXXI, the Venice Architecture Biennale, the Oslo Architecture Triennale, the Istanbul Design Biennial, the Seoul Architecture Biennial, the Sharjah Architecture Triennial, and elsewhere. His coauthored book Modern Management Methods: Architecture, Historical Value, and the Electromagnetic Image was published by Columbia University Press.

Related Links

• Realtime Urbanism Lab

Related News

• Farzin Lotfi-Jam Joins the Editorial Board of TAD Journal
• Developing a Digital Twin for Climate Adaptation in New York City
• Farzin Lotfi-Jam — A Recursive History of Urban Simulation
• Preston H. Thomas Memorial Symposium: Real Time
• Preston H. Thomas Memorial Symposium Exhibition: A Recursive History of Urban Simulation

Awards, Grants, and Fellowships (Selected)

• Award Recipient, National Center For Preservation Technology and Training. Co-PI with J. Minner (2023)
• 2022 League Prize, Architecture League of New York (2022)
• Graham Foundation for Advanced Studies in the Fine Arts, for "The Machine at the Heart of Man: Doxiadis' Informational Modernism" with M. Wasiuta (2021)
• Onassis Foundation Grant, for "The Machine at the Heart of Man: Doxiadis' Informational Modernism" with M. Wasiuta (2019)
• M+/Design Trust Research Fellowship, for "Auto Pilot Cities: Computational Urbanism in Southeast Asia" with M. Wasiuta (2019)
• Epic MegaGrant, for "Dynamic Constraints: Architecture Curriculum and Tools" (2019)
• Inaugural Open Call Artist, The Shed (2018)

Exhibitions and Presentations (Selected)

• A Recursive History of Urban Simulation. Hartell Gallery, Ithaca (2023)
• My Domestic Routines. Aksioma - Institute for Contemporary Art, Ljubljana (2023)
• The Machine at the Heart of Man: Doxiadis’ Informational Modernism. Stegi Museum, Athens. Co-curator and co-designer with Mark Wasiuta (2023)
• Media Habitat, c. 1975. In Sharjah Architecture Triennial, curated by Adrian Lahoud. Fall 2019. Co-author with Felicity D. Scott and Mark Wasiuta (2019)
• Modern Management Methods: United Nations Headquarters. In Open Call, curated by Emma Enderby. The Shed, New York. Co-curator and co-designer with Caitlin Blanchfield (2019)
• No-Stop Classroom: Audio-Visual Education in America. In A School of Schools: Travelling Exhibition, curated by Jan Boelen with Vera Sachetti and Nadine Botha. Luma Foundation, Arles, France. Co-author with Mark Wasiuta (2019)

Publications (Selected)

• "Infrastructures of urban simulation: Digital Twins, virtual humans and synthetic populations." In The Routledge Handbook of Architecture, Urban Space and Politics, Volume I, edited by Nikolina Bobic and Farzaneh Haghighi. Routledge, 2022.
• "Modern Management Methods: Architecture, Historical Value, and the Electromagnetic Image." New York: Columbia Books on Architecture and the City, 2019. Coauthor with Caitlin Blanchfield.
• "Unstable Control." In Barber, D, et al., Eds. Structural Instability. E-Flux Architecture. Fall 2018. Coauthor with Mark Wasiuta.
• "The Bedroom of Things." In Kolb, Jaffer, Ed. Guest Edited Section. Queer Log. Log 41. Fall 2017. Coauthor with Caitlin Blanchfield.