Rachel Armstrong

Rachel Armstrong is a Senior TED Fellow and Professor of Experimental Architecture for Newcastle University who is famed for leading the way in revolutionising the future of buildings; limiting the damaged caused to our planet which is caused by traditional industrial processes in their construction. An architect of the future, Rachel is testing and designing what she calls ‘living architecture’. With expertise like no other in her field, Rachel is a seasoned speaker who is able to deliver talks on biology, architecture, sustainability and women in STEM.

Originally starting her career as a medical doctor, Rachel made the life-changing decision to switch career after a sabbatical to India changed her outlook on life. In 2014 Rachel completed her PhD in Architectural Design at the University of Southern Denmark and so began her illustrious career in experimental architecture. Before completing her PhD, Rachel  held a Teaching Fellow at The Bartlett School of Architecture, University College London and was the Science Advisor for SCI-FI London. In 2009 Rachel made her first TEDx Talk ‘Architecture That Repairs Itself?’, and since, has been on a mission to develop technology to address climate change. Not wanting to limit the reach of her ground-breaking research, Rachel has been wanting to set up a centre in India to transfer and share this knowledge to developing countries.

Committed to finding alternative approaches to sustainability, much of Rachel’s work beings in the lab where she creates experiments, coupling the natural world with computational processes of today – this is what she calls ‘living architecture’. Rachel’s work focuses on metabolism research whereby she develops artificial biology systems which have the qualities of ‘living’ systems. Innovating designs using new technologies such as Synthetic Biology and Smart Chemistry, these systems, in the future, will be able to self-heal. A revolutionary in her field, Rachel’s work has been widely published and exhibited at the Venice Art and Architecture Biennales, the Tallinn Architecture Biennale, the Palais de Tokyo, the Institute of Advanced Architecture and many more.

Highly regarded around for world for her innovative research, Rachel has been nominated as one of the most inspiring top nine women by Chick Chip magazine, featured in the BBC’s Focus Magazine in ‘Ideas that can Change the World’ and was described as one of ten people in the UK who can shape the UK’s recovery by Director Magazine in 2012. With there being no doubt to Rachel’s expertise in her field, as a speaker, Rachel is able to transform the way her audience thinks about sustainable materials. If you are looking to learn from an expert on the future of buildings, architecture and sustainability, hire Rachel Armstrong today for your next event.