Assistant Professors John J. May and Zeynep Çelik Alexander have been awarded an Insight Development Grant from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRCC). Insight Development Grants support the development of new research questions, as well as experimentation with new methods, theoretical approaches, and ideas.

Through their research, May and Çelik Alexander will initiate a multi-year research project into the historical and philosophical dimensions of contemporary architectural technologies. The grant will fund a series of workshops and public symposia with international scholars from the disciplines of architecture, art history, and environmental studies; a volume of edited essays on the conceptual objects crucial to understanding the history of architectural technologies; and the creation of an extensive web archive — the first of its kind — of the many instrumental assemblages currently transforming contemporary practice: modelling and simulation software, computer-numerically controlled fabrication devices, digital sensing and imaging equipment, mechanical and laser plotting apparatuses, etc. Ultimately the project aims to give historical and philosophical content to specific technical dimensions of architectural production that at present remain largely undocumented.