Amale Andraos and Dan Wood: The conversation at the heart of the design process

Abstract

In 2003, Amale Andraos and Dan Wood founded WORKac with a clear objective: reinventing the profession through new relations between architecture, city and nature. The Public Farm 1, the Edible Schoolyards in New York and the future Convention Center at Libreville, Gabon, are, among others, the result of this objective. Their work has been extensively awarded, including capturing the recent number one spot at 'Architect 50': Top 50 Firms in Design 2017 by Architect Magazine and AIANY Architect Firm of the year 2018.

In parallel to the profession, Andraos and Wood have become leading actors in different architecture schools. Amale Andraos has taught at Harvard, Pennsylvania and Princeton, among other schools; and Dan Wood at UC Berkeley, Princeton, Yale, Cooper Union, among others. Nowadays, both are faculty at Columbia GSAPP, where Amale Andraos holds as dean since 2014.

In this interview, Amale Andraos and Dan Wood pose their office as a subject in dialogue, which is, at the heart of their work; and through this, they build their way to think and to make architecture ‘in the world’.