Chris Abel is a British born architectural teacher and writer and the author of numerous publications of history, theory and criticism. A graduate of the Architectural Association School of Architecture in London (1968), he first came to international prominence with a series of groundbreaking essays published in Architectural Design in the late 1960s and 1970s. In his essays, which explored such subjects as self-organizing urban systems and computer based methods of architectural production, Chris anticipated many contemporary cutting edge developments in design theory and building technology. In the following years he continued exploring new design approaches and travelled widely, teaching at major universities in Europe, North and South America, the Middle East and Southeast Asia. In 2004 he moved to Australia and now lives in Wollongong on the Pacific coast, close to Sydney. More...
A member of the International Committee of Architectural Critics (CICA), Chris has written on leading architects and movements in both the developed and developing world and is a recognised authority on the work of Foster and Partners. His books include two edited collections of his own essays, Architecture and Identity (1997; 2nd ed. 2000) and Architecture, Technology and Process (2004), extracts from which, together with selected extracts from other publications, are included on this website. His principle interests include new forms of high-rise building and in 2003 Sir Norman Foster invited him to co-curate an international exhibition, ‘Sky High: Vertical Architecture’, at the Royal Academy of Arts in London, for which he also wrote a book of the same title.
His latest book shown here, Beijing International Airport (2010), was also co-authored with Sir Norman.
Chris currently teaches at the University of New South Wales, where he runs his Vertical Architecture STudio (c) (VAST), a focus for research into high-rise design and urban form.He continues to teach and lecture around the world and was Hyde Chair of Excellence in Architecture at the University of Nebraska Lincoln for the fall semester, 2008. His most recent VAST program at UNSW, 'Vertical Garden City, Mark IV' (shown left), further explores new high-density urban typologies developed in previous studios on a site in central Sydney. For details of these and other activities click on the relevant headings above or below.
