Sam Jacob
Design
Sam Jacob is principal of Sam Jacob Studio for architecture and design, a practice whose work ranges from urban design through architecture, design, art to curation.
Sam is interested in how architecture and design makes ideas real socially, formally and materially. From nightclubs to social housing, from community centres to exhibitions, his projects are striking yet also are full of familiar references, creating places and spaces with character and surprising beauty. Inspired by context, his projects try to embody stories, sensations and feelings in space, form and materials.
His work has been shown at institutions including the Art Institute Chicago, the MAK Vienna, the V&A, and the Venice Biennale where he was co-curator of the British Pavilion in 2016. He has worked with museums including Design Museum, the Science Museum, Tate and MK Gallery, and has contributed to events including the London Design Festival, the Chicago Architecture Biennial and the Lisbon Triennale. Previously, Sam was a director of FAT Architecture.
Recent projects include a new mixed use building in Hoxton, offices for Art Review, exhibition designs for Somerset House and the refurbishment of the V&A’s Cromwell Road entrance. Current projects include the Science Museum’s Collection Centre, public spaces in Belgravia and Covent Garden and light industrial buildings in Lovelands, Colorado.
Alongside the studio’s main work, Sam has made t-shirts and scarves that act as manifestos, designed an opera in a cow shed and interviewed Lou Reed, all in the name of expanding the possibilities of architectural production.
Practice
2014 – Principal, Sam Jacob Studio
1995 – 2015 Director, FAT Architecture
Selected Built Projects
2022 Yinka Ilori Studio, workspace, London
2022 Transformation of V&A Cromwell Road Entrance,
2022 Victoria and Albert Museum, London
2022 NCC Welcome Building
2022 The Horror Show, Somerset House, London
2021 Building ONE, Science Museum Collections Centre, UK
2021 In Search of Sharawadgi, Exhibition design, curation and art direction, Heerlen,NL
2021 Beano, Art of Breaking the Rules, Exhibition Design, Somerset House, London, UK
2020 Pavilions within the historic landscape of Stowe, UK
2020 The Electric Nemeton, installation, London, UK
2020 Offices for Art Review, London
2020 Kingly Court Phase 2, Carnaby Street, London
2020 Public WC and Public realm improvements, Carnaby Street, London
2019 DKUK 2, Gallery & Hair Salon, London
2019 Lie of the Land, MK Gallery, Milton Keynes
2019 Cartoon Museum, London
2019 An Office of Stacked Things, London
2018 Dido & Aeneas, Staging Design, Shatwell Opera, Somerset
2018 Ideas Depot, Exhibition Design, Tate Liverpool
2018 The Sun, Living With Our Star, Exhibition Design, Science Museum, London
2017 V&A Shekou, Exhibition Design, Shenzhen, China
2017 The Stack for Mini Living, London Design Festival Landmark Project
2017 DKUK, Gallery & Salon, London
2016 Illuminated River, Shortlisted, International Design Competition
2016 Surrey Street Market, Urban Design, London
2016 Fear And Love, Exhibition Design, Design Museum, London
2016 One Thing After Another, Installation, Sto Werkstatt, London
2016 Dar Abu Said, Installation, Venice Architecture Biennale
2015 MK Menhir, Public Art, Milton Keynes
2015 Shortlisted team, VPAC Arts Complex, Chicago
2015 Architecture Curator, ArDe, London
2015 V&A East, Brief & Concept Development, London
2015 Cambourne Pavilion, South Cambs
2015 MK Menhier, Public Art Commission, Milton Keynes
2015 A House For Essex. Living Architecture, Essex
2014 Biomimicry, Exhibition Design, Roca London Gallery
2012 Roath Basin Studios, BBC TV Studios, Cardiff
2011 Middlehaven: 84 unit residential building, Middlesborough
2009 Selfridges: Design of 3rd floor retail space, London
2008 Heerlijkheid Hoogvliet: Park and cultural centre Rotterdam, The Netherlands
2007 St Lucas Art Academy, Boxtel, The Netherlands
2006 Islington Square, affordable housing development, Manchester
2006 Museum of Croydon: Museum within listed building
2002 Ten: Offices for advertising agency in Antwerp, Belgium
2001 The New Civic: Three public art installations, King’s Cross, London
1998 Kessels Kramer: Design of offices for advertising agency , Amsterdam
Selected Exhibitions
Solo
2019 Empire of Ice Cream, Betts Project, London
2018 The Lie of The Land, MK Gallery, Milton Keynes, curator
Disappear Here, Architecture Gallery, RIBA, London
2015 A Clockwork Jerusalem, AA Gallery, London
2014 A Clockwork Jerusalem, Curator, British Pavilion, 14th Venice Architecture Biennale British Pavilion, Venice Biennale, Italy
2010 Ornament is Crime, MAK, Vienna
2009 Duplicate Array, Lucy Mackintosh Gallery, Lausanne
2006 In a Lonely Place: Florence Hall, RIBA, London
2006 All You Can Eat: Stroom, The Hague. NL
2000 Kill the Modernist Within, Cube, Manchester
Group
2022 Hand and Machine, National Museum, Oslo
2021 Namely Words, Betts Projects, London
2020 Earth Drawings, Architectural Association, London
2019 Silver Gala exhibition, Architectural Association, London
Pattern as Politics, Lisbon Architecture Triennale
Museum Show, DKUK, London
Draw, Saatchi Gallery, London
Alternative Histories, Cork Street Galleries. Architecture Foundation
Turn Me On, Side Gallery, Barcelona, Spain
2018 UABB, Shenzhen Biennale
2017 Spaces Without Drama, Graham Foundation, Chicago
Chicago Architecture Biennial, USA
2016 Fragments, Soon Museum, London
XYZ, Etage Projects, Copenhagen
2015 All Of This Belongs to You, V&A, London
2013 Book of Copies, AA Gallery, London
2012 Museum of Copying, 13th Venice Architecture Biennale
Image for a Title: Placebo Effects in the Cultural Landscape, London
2008 From Now to Eternity, Biscuit Building, London
2006 Gritty Brits, Carnegie Museum of Arts, Pittsburgh
2005 Intimate Space: MOT Gallery, London
2004 Extreme Houses: Munich and Liepzig, Germany
2003 Home Time: British Council Exhibition of British Design in China
International Architecture Bienalle: Sao Paulo, Brazil
Sign as Surface, Artists Space, New York
Architecture Biennale: Rotterdam, NL
2002 Trespassing – Shaping Spatial Practices, Secession, Vienna
2001 Space Invaders: Lisbon/ Pasadena/Tokyo
2000 Manifesta 3, Ljubljana FAT, FOA, MUF: arc en reve, Bordeaux
Selected Visiting Lectures and Conferences
2022 Index of Modern Architecture, International IGmA Symposium
Stuttgart,, Germany
Symposium “300 YEARS ENTWURFF” at TU Wien
1:1, Lecture, European Architecture Students Assembly, Romania
2021 Webinar seminar, Städelschule, Frankfurt, Germany
Korrekturen, Tu Graz, Austria
2020 Mies as Teacher, University of Genoa
How will we live together, panel discussion, Agora magazine, Italy
In conversation, New York Review of Architecture
Architecture Foundation 100 days, inaugural talk (online during lockdown)
Imaging The Earth, panel discussion, AA
California College of the Arts, Keynote lecture and workshop
Keynote talk and workshop,Independent School for the City, Rotterdam
2019 University of Cincinnati, Keynote Lecture
2019 San Rocco Plays the Potemkin Theatre, panel discussion, Architecture Foundation
Complexity and Contradiction at 50, panelist, MoMA, New York
2019 Frieze Academy, London
2018 Chart Art Fair, Copenhagen
2016 One Thing After Another, Taubman College, University of Michigan
2016 Exquisite Corpse, Berlage / TU Delft
2015 Relevance, Rice School of Architecture, Houston
2015 University of Southern California
2015 Taste, RIBA, London
2015 Post Craft Symposium, ICA, London
2015 ‘Lloyds of London’ ETH Zurich
2014 The Difficult Double, EPFL, Lausanne
2014 Theorie Salon, Vienna
2013 The Rest Is Noise, Southbank Centre, London
2013 In Pursuit of Architecture, Log / MoMA, NYC
2012 ‘So Lonely’, AA, London
2011 ‘Magic Format’, AA , London
2011 ‘Copy Culture’, Berlin Design Week, Berlin
2010 ‘Wrong Thing, Right Place”, MAK, Vienna
2010 ‘Copies, Fakes, Replicas’ HEAD, Geneva
2010 ‘Extra/Ordinary’ Sydney, Australia
2008 On Pop, the Everyday, and Escapology. Architectural Association London
2008 Off Shoring Audacity, Chicago Humanites Festiival
2008 New Ways to Inhabit the City, UIC, Chicago
2008 2008 Lubetikin Lecture, London
2008 Architects Journal Define Your City, Southwark Catherdral, London
2007 Clip / Stamp / Fold, Architectural Association, London
2007 Chalmers, Gotenberg
2007 Cambridge School of Architecture
2007 University of Illinois in Chicago
2007 Ohio State University
2007 Petcha Kutcha, Purcell Rooms, London
2006 Royal College of Art, London
2006 L’Accademia di -Architettura di Mendrisio, Switzerland
2005 Myriam Bellazoug Lecture, Yale School of Architecture
2005 Mackintosh School of Architecture, Glasgow
2004 Fabrica, Benetton communication research centre,Treviso
2002 Sci Arc, Los Angeles Selected Writing / Criticism
Magazines / Journals
2013 – Columnist, Dezeen
2009 – Columnist, Art Review
2008 – Contributing Editor, Icon
2007 – 2009 Columnist, Architects Journal
2005 – 2010 Architecture Editor, Contemporary Magazine
2003 – Contributions to magazines including:
Icon, Art Review, San Rocco, Modern Painters, Volume, Metropolis, Log, Domus, The Guardian etc …
Selected Books / Catalogues
2022 Butterfly, Introduction essay for Fala Atelier, pub Libria
Essay, Blank: Speculations on CLT, ed Jennifer Bonner, pub ORO Editions
Essay, Hand and Machine, Catalogue essay, pub National Museum, Oslo
Essay, A Section of Now: Norms and Rituals as Sites for Architectural Intervention, ed. Giovanna Borasi, pub CCA
Essay, 6A Architects A+U Magazine
2021 Rocky, Introduction essay, pub West County Modern
2020 Rewriting Architecture: 10+1 Actions – Tabula Scripta, Chapter contribution, Academy of Architecture Amsterdam & Valiz
2020 Italian Collage, Introduction essay, pub Lettera Ventidue Edizioni
2020 Hall and Oats, Introduction, pub West County Modern
2019 Home Futures, chapter contribution, pub Design Museum Publishing
2019 Complexity and Contradiction at 50, Chapter contribution, pub MoMA
2015 Chapter, The World of Charles and Ray Eames Catalogue, ed Catherine Ince, pub Thames and Hudson
2015 Perspecta 48: Amnesia (MIT press)
2015 Radical Pedagogies : Architectural Education and the British Tradition, eds.Daisy Froud & Harriet Harriss, RIBA Publishing
2015 Catalogue text, Formal Economies, Marte Eknæs, Dolon Books
2015 Introduction, The Politics of Flatness, Jimenez Lai
2014 A Clockwork Jerusalem, British Council / Vinyl Factory
2013 Landscape Futures, ACTAR / Nevada Museum of Art
2012 Make it Real: Architecture of Enactment, Strelka Press
2011 Radical Post Modernism. Editor (with Charles Jencks), AD
2010 Malfe, Bedford Press
2008 L.A.W.U.N Project 19: The Disreputable Projects of David Greene (ed. S. Hardingham, AA Publications)
Perspecta 41: Grand Tour (MIT press)
2006 5 Codes: Architecture, Paranoia and Risk in Times of Terror (ed. S. Trubey, Birkhauser)
2006 Perspecta 38: Architecture After All (MIT press)
2006 Making the Impossible Possible: The Dream of Flying. The Dream of Paradise (ed. Claudia Weber, Gerlinde Schuller, Map One)
2006 Perspecta 37: Famous (MIT press)
2002 This is Not Architecture (ed. Kester Rattenbury, Routledge)
Selected Awards and Competitions
2022 Royal Fine Art Commission, Shortlisted Building Beautiful Award
2021 Design Week Awards, Shortlisted
Miller Prize recipient
2019 Dezeen Awards, Shortlisted
2014 AR Future Project Award, UIC VPAC proposal
2014 Shortlisted, FX Awards Exhibition Design
2014 Graham Foundation Grantee
2012 Shortlisted Housing Architect of the Year
2009 RIBA European Award: Heerlijkheid Hoogvliet
2008 World Architecture Festival: Heerlijkheid Hoogvliet shortlisted
2007 RIBA European Award for St Lucas Art Academy
2007 FX Best Museum: Museum of Croydon
2006 Architecture Foundation Next Generation Award
2006 AR Future Project Award for Masterplanned Communities: New Islington
2006 Best Public Housing Project: Brick Development Association Awards
2006 Regeneration Awards: Regeneration Partnership of the Year- Great Places, Urban Splash, FAT and Cardroom Estate
2005 40 Under 40, Architects Journal
2003 Second Prize: Young Architect of the Year
Teaching
2011 – Clinical Professor of Architecture, UIC, USA
2022 Visiting Professor, TU Wein
2020 Desktop Design Academy, online design initiative during lockdown
Visiting Professor, ABK Stuttgart
2019 Visiting Professor, Hong Kong University
2018 Visiting Professor, Staatliche Hochschule für Gestaltung, Karlsruhe, Germany
2017 Bartlett School of Architecture, Masters BPro
2016 Visiting Professor, Yale University
2014 Visiting Professor, Yale University
2012 -2016 Director, Night School, Architectural Association, London
2014 Eero Saarinen Visiting Professor, Yale University, USA
2009 – 2012 Unit Master, Architectural Association, London
2010 Bishop Professor of Architecture, Yale University, USA
2007 Louis I Kahn Professor of Architecture, Yale University, USA
2000 – 2004 Diploma Unit Master, University of Westminster
1996 – 2000 Degree Unit Master, University of Greenwich
Other Appointments
2019 – Council Member, Architectural Association, London
2018- Jury member, Architects Journal Architecture Awards.
2017- Jury Member, Retrofit Awards
2018 Jury Member Dezeen Awards
2013- External Examiner, KTH School of Architecture, Stockholm, Sweden
2003 – Fellow, Royal Society of the Arts
