SAM JACOB
Sam Jacob is principal of Sam Jacob Studio for architecture and design, a practice whose work ranges from urban design through architecture, design and art to curatorial projects.
Sam is interested in how architecture and design can take ideas and make them real. Inspired by context, his projects try to embody stories, sensations and feelings in space, form and materials. His projects are striking yet also are full of familiar references, creating places and spaces with character and surprising beauty.
Past projects have included nightclubs, social housing, community centres, parks, TV studios and exhibitions. Recent projects include a new mixed use building in Hoxton, offices for Art Review, exhibition designs for Somerset House and the V&A’s Cromwell Road entrance. Current projects include the National Collection Centre and the William Morris Gallery.
He has been a professor of architecture at UIC since 2011 and has taught at the University of Hong Kong, Yale, Karlsruhe HfG, ABK Stuttgart, TU Vienna and the AA. His work has been shown at institutions including the Art Institute Chicago, the MAK, the V&A, and the Venice Biennale, where he was co-curator of the British Pavilion in 2016. He is a columnist for Art Review and is the author of Make It Real, Architecture as Enactment (Strelka Press, 2012). Previously, Sam was a director of FAT Architecture.
TEAM
Sophie Grell is
a licensed architect and member of the Austrian Federal Chamber of
Architects and Engineers, currently working and teaching in Vienna
and Innsbruck. Grell
studied art history at the University of Vienna and architecture at
UCLA, Los Angeles and the University for Applied Arts (Masterclass
Wolf D Prix), where she received her master's degree with distinction
in architecture (Mag. arch) in 2006. She gained professional
experience working for Coop Himmelb(l)au in Vienna, Los Angeles and
Mexico, as head designer on numerous projects, including the
Martin-Luther-Church in Hainburg, Austria. She was also co-founder
and chief editor of the Prinz
Eisenbetonmagazine (2005 - 2011). Her work has been shown at various
exhibitions including the Architectural Biennale in Venice, Kunsthaus
Mürzzuschlag and the Aedes Architecture Forum in Berlin. Grell
has worked on research projects in the field of architectural theory,
art history, science and art. She is a member of the Institute of
Architecture at the University of Applied Arts Vienna and has taught
in the studios of Wolf Prix (2006-2011) and Hani Rashid (since 2011).
Eldine Heep is a Vienna-based architect. Since 2015, she has been a faculty member of the Institute of Architecture at the University of Applied Arts Vienna, teaching in the studio of Hani Rashid. In her own inter-disciplinary spatial design practice, she is working on a wide range of projects at the intersection of architecture, design and art. Heep studied architecture at the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna (Studio Farshid Moussavi) and the University of Applied Arts Vienna (Studio Zaha Hadid) where she received her master's degree (Mag. arch) with distinction in 2007. Subsequently she was awarded the MAK-Schindler residency scholarship in Los Angeles and her work has been exhibited in numerous group exhibitions. Heep gained professional experience working as a design architect at Labvert in Vienna and as a project architect and associate at Spark Architects in Beijing, China, where she worked on the design and execution of large-scale projects in Asia. Heep is a licensed architect at the Austrian Federal Chamber of Architects and Engineers.
Sophie Luger is a licensed architect and member of the Austrian Federal Chamber of Architects and Engineers, currently working and teaching in Vienna. She studied at the UCL Bartlett School of Architecture in London and the University of Applied Arts in Vienna, where she received her master's degree (Mag. arch) in architecture (Studio Zaha Hadid) in 2006. She obtained a grant from the Austrian Federal Ministry of Education, Arts, and Culture and gained professional experience as a design architect at Asymptote Architecture New York, Wolfgang Tschapeller ZT GmbH, and CAP Vienna, among others. Her work ranges from large-scale interventions to exhibition design and projects with a particular focus on sound behavior. She gained further academic qualification in acoustic building and sound performance in 2018 and continues to research in that field. Her course “Applied Acoustics” at the Institute of Architecture centers on the fundamentals of sound generation and sound propagation within the built environment. Luger has been a teaching member of Studio Hani Rashid at the Institute of Architecture, University of Applied Arts Vienna, since 2011.
Giacomo Pala
is a designer and scholar who has been an assistant at
IoA/studio Jacob since 2023 and a research associate at the Institute of
Architectural Theory at the University of Innsbruck's Faculty of
Architecture. His work focuses on the intersection of architectural
theory, history, and design, particularly exploring the concept of
syncretism to address contemporary notions of identity and aesthetics
within broader cultural discussions in architecture. Additionally, Pala
investigates the theme of multiplicity on both aesthetic and theoretical
levels through various projects and installations. His work has been
exhibited in cities such as Vienna, Venice, Innsbruck, and Vezprem. He
has also served as a visiting lecturer at Chulalongkorn University in
Bangkok (2020), collaborated with multiple offices, and contributed to
numerous projects, publications, and book chapters.
Thea Möller studied at the Academy of Fine Arts in Nuremberg and the Academy of Fine Arts, Vienna. 2015/16 she participated in the MAK Schindler Artists and Architects in Residence Program and 2022 in the OÖ AIR.GOV Artists and Scientist in Residence Program in Rome. Single and two-person exhibitions were most recently at Wonnerth Dejaco, Vienna (2023, 2021), Galerie Kunstbuero in Vienna (2018), Venice 6114 in Los Angeles (2016), Deborah Schamoni in Munich (2015) and Bianca D’Alessandro in Copenhagen (2015). Most recent group exhibitions include those at Modest common, Los Angeles (2024), Center of Contemporary Art in Tbilisi (2023), Salzburger Kunstverein (2022), Haus Wien (2021), Belvedere 21 and Loggia (2020) in Vienna, BALTSprojects in Zurich (2018), Westwerk, Hamburg (2018), MAK Center for Art an Architecture, Los Angeles (2016) and Baba Vasa’s Cellar in Shabla, Bulgaria (2015).
STUDENT ASSISTANTS
John Clayson - Studio Representative
Jonas Ramoser - Workshop Assistant
Allen Bell - Workshop Assistant
Asal Kavianifar - Webdesign and Social Media Assistant