A new exhibit in Ryder Hall showcases the work of the 2022-24 Design Research and Teaching fellows from Northeastern’s School of Architecture. The three fellows are Humbi Song, Alejandro Saldarriaga, and Emmanuel Osorno. This exhibit, titled “Speculative Practices,” presents each fellow’s vision for the future of architecture.

2022-23 fellow Humbi Song, visiting associate teaching professor, explores the role of AI in designing buildings and creating materials in her exhibit Gestural, Generative, Geometries. Song points out the history of architects incorporating new technology — like computer software — to design. How will artificial intelligence change the field? Song sees a future where humans work alongside artificial intelligence when designing buildings and fabricating materials. This future, where humans work collaboratively with AI, raises important questions about human agency and machine agency. Her exhibit grapples with these questions and how their answers may affect the built environment around us.

2023-24 fellow and visiting assistant professor Alejandro Saldarriga focuses on repurporsing materials and creating transient communal spaces in “Architectures of Magical Realism: Past, Present + Future.” The exhibit is broken up into three sections. “Past” features previous designs created during the pandemic in Bogota, Columbia. These designs focused on using repurposed materials with the ability to easily be built and broken down. “Present” looks to reimagine the use for pandemic-era architecture with a continued focus on community. “Future” looks to adjust the scale and longevity of these projects through the lens of magical realism, where the bizarre becomes part of human reality.

Visiting assistant professor and 2023-24 fellow Emmanuel Osorno explores public and subsidized housing in Boston. Starting by providing data on the current state of public housing in the city, Osorno then moves into showing how small-scale interventions can change how its provided. He then shows how these changes can be communicated through a satirical marketing campaign.