You take the blue pill, the story ends. You wake up in your bed and believe whatever you want to believe. You take the red pill, you stay in Wonderland, and I show you how deep the rabbit hole goes.
―Morpheus to Neo [Matrix, 1999]

Architects and designers face a similar choice today. Considerations of the environmental impact, the relationship of design to emerging technologies, and the new forms of social engagement defined through social media and collective authoring put in question not only the direction but also the very meaning and agency of architecture and design.

Architecture and design, at their best, foster an environment that not only accommodates but also enhances, inspires, and connects people. In the current media-rich and technology-enabled world, architecture more than ever should and can address global needs and individual preferences. Adaptive and autonomous designs provide the venue to realize these aspirations.

The showcased projects represent my personal research and creative journey as well as my students’ works at the New Jersey Institute of Technology (NJIT)’s College of Architecture and Design (CoAD), the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST), the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), and at the Rhode Island School of Design (RISD). They form inquisitive projections and futuristic scenarios with possible mappings of Wonderland, which we have decided to explore.

Andrzej Zarzycki,
andrzej(dot)zarzycki(at)njit(dot)edu