VEDRAN MIMICA is a Croatian born Dutch architect and educator currently working as Professor at IIT College of Architecture in Chicago. Mimica joined the Berlage Institute Amsterdam in 1991, where he assumed the position of Course Director in 1995. From 2007 to its closure in 2012, he was directing the Institute, being responsible for educational and curriculum programs, in addition to guiding research activities. Mimica has been a lecturer, visiting critic and examiner at numerous schools of architecture all over the world: Architectural Association, London, ETH, Zurich, University Paris IV-Sorbonne, Paris, Strelka, Moscow, Columbia University, New York, MIT, Boston, SciArch and UCLA, Los Angeles, Tsinghua, Beijing, Tongji, Shanghai, UN University, Tokyo, Catholic University of Chile, Santiago, University Torcuato Di Tella, Buenos Aires, Technion, Haifa and Faculty of Architecture, Aleppo.

ALASKA FU is a Digital Designer whose focus is creating unique experiences within the digital frontier. Developed while  studying architecture at the Illinois Institute of Technology, his unique approach to projects utilizes new technologies, processes, and methods to achieve a deeper relationship, between the physical and digital. His thesis project, titled Senior Care 2040, is a topic that each one of us will face as we age. Through his multi-cultural exposure, he has developed a deep and profound respect towards seniors and their care. The concepts he presents address the problems that will arise as our society becomes more digital and individualized. His goal is to get us thinking about growing old, the seniors in our lives, and to ask one of the hardest questions in life, “what happens when I get old?”

SANDBOX FOR THE PHYGITAL FUTURE – the theme of the 2023 ArchAgenda Debates – delves into the emergent blend of digital and physical environments shaping a novel seamless social reality. The series envisions the city and metaverse as as symbiotic spaces to rehearse, inform, challenge, test and design the phygital future.

THE 2023 ARCHAGENDA DEBATES SERIES features series of presentations by practicing architects presenting with their students, bridging together research and design in academia and industry. Each presenter is asked to propose a thesis for the evolving Phygital discourse. Design presentations and thought-provoking debates aim to collectively explore ideas about future phygital cities.