Christian Pongratz, M.Arch, Architekt AKB, Intl. Assoc. AIA, IDSA, Professor of Architecture, Director M.S. Health and Design, Co-director reMEDIALab School of Architecture and Design, New York Institute of Technology
Christian R Pongratz, Director M.S. Architecture Health and Design (M.S.AHD), co-director of reMEDIALab and Professor of Architecture, at the School of Architecture and Design (SoAD). He also served in the role of Senior Advisor to the Provost, as well as Interim Dean of the School of Interdisciplinary Studies and Education at New York Institute of Technology.
His research is in regenerative strategies of the built environment protecting and improving human health and biodiversity. From an embodied behavioral health perspective, he explores the environment of care, lifestyle and technology enabled services enhancing the impact of inclusive design for neurodiverse and underserved communities along the cracks of the healthcare ecosystem. Within his systems perspective, his material research centers on creatively leveraging local renewable biomaterial flows, from natural stone to precious agricultural waste or industrial waste in order to reduce carbon and toxic footprints in most impacted communities.
Professionally, he recently completed the project Crispr, an invited project to MACCA museum for a design and construction of public plaza, in Peccioli, Italy, 2022–23 and Crispr Locus, an onsite installation of a micro plaza, at the 17ᵗʰ International Biennale, Venice, Italy, from June – December 2021.
Among many awards, his designs received the segnalazione Compasso d’oro XXI, awarded by ADI, Italy, with inclusion into the historical design collection and the cultural patrimony of Italy, and inclusion into the archive of Material ConneXion New York, Silver Prize in interior design and Honorable Mention in Urban & Landscape Design of the Biennal Miami, 1st Prize international Estetica Design Award, or Honorable Mention for Gwangbok Street & PIFF Plaza in Busan, Korea.
He is currently overseeing the construction of a new 3DPXL lab, a facility at SoAD NYIT in collaboration with 3DWasp for full building scale 3D printing in earth based and bio-geopolymer materials operable by summer 2025. He participated at NYIT in a grant proposal to the IDC foundation receiving a $2 million gift supporting two new interdisciplinary master’s programs, a first endowed chair, a digital fabrication robotics lab, and reMEDIALab for biomaterials at SoAD.
He co-authored books on (with Perbellini M.) “Heliopolis21, Architecture: between nature and artifact” (Skira 2021), “Digital Media for Design” (Cognella Academic Publishing 2015), “Cyberstone, digital innovations with natural stone” (Edilstampa 2009), “Natural born CaaDesigners” (Birkhaeuser 2000), “Peter Eisenman” (C3 1997), and books on “Digital Design and Fabrication” (2015), and “Urban Stage” (with White D.)(2015). His most recent paper is Health in Public Space, Microenvironments, in The Dusk of Design, Exploring Multidisciplinary Approaches and Evolutionary Biology in Architecture, Springer Nature, 2024.
His most recent exhibition is reGROUNDmatter, experiments on regenerative materials for construction and manufacturing, in Un-natural Mat(t)erial at Center for Mediterranean Architecture (CAM), Chania, 2024.
He was prior full professor at Texas Tech University and director of the M.S. Digital Design and Fabrication, taught at the School of Architecture, University of Texas at Austin, and was visiting professor at Yeungjin Jr. College, Taegu Korea, AA London, and in Busan Korea. He studied Architecture at TUM, Munich and Sci-Arc, Los Angeles, and is a licensed architect in Berlin, Germany.
Discover more about his vision for low-emission architecture: