Christopher Sharples: Responsive Futures: Technology, Space, and the Human Experience

Christopher Sharples is a founding principal of SHoP Architects, the award-winning New York–based firm known for integrating design excellence with cutting-edge technology and sustainable innovation. A thought leader in digital fabrication and model-based delivery, he advocates for architecture that is collaborative, regenerative, and future-focused. He has helped redefine the role of the architect—championing a practice that merges design with advanced technology, sustainable materials, ethical sourcing and transformative construction methods such as DfMA, (design for manufacturing) and OSM (off-site manufacturing). Chris portfolio includes major civic and instructional projects including the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, Botswana Innovation Hub, Uber’s Mission Bay headquarters San Francisco, YouTube San Bruno campus CA, 111 57^th St Steinway Tower, and Embassies worldwide for the US Department of State’s Bureau of Overseas Buildings Operations (OBO). Chris holds a Master of Architecture from Columbia University and frequently lectures globally on the evolving role of the architect in shaping urban and ecological resilience.

In a time defined by rapid technological evolution and global uncertainty, Responsive Futures will explore the impact of technology on design thinking and process, paying particular focus on the role of human centered collaboration in evolving and adapting the way we design and realize our cities.

From model-based delivery and industrialized construction to immersive visualization, bio-based materials and living systems, the talk challenges participants to reimagine how we both create, deliver, and shape the architecture of tomorrow to support a more joyful, humane, and resilient built environment.