APPARATA is a studio for architecture, design and research, led by Nicholas Lobo Brennan, Astrid Smitham and Theo Thysiades, founded in 2015. They design and construct buildings, furniture and books: tools for everyday life that open up unknown possibilities. They work with how things are put together: materials, structures, identities, communities, landscapes.
They have just completed the design and construction of the reuse of Old Manor Park Library, London, as a new form of public building for the local neighbourhood, and the exhibition design for Seth Siegelaub's diversiform collections and activities for Seth Siegelaub: Beyond Conceptual Art at the Stedelijk, Amsterdam; House for Artists, a new form of low rent co-housing combined with community arts centre, Barking, London.
They have lectured at TU München, ETH Zürich, EPF Lausanne, Berlage TU Delft; taught at ETH, CASS LondonMet, HEAD Geneva, Sandberg Institute, Royal College of Art, Kingston School of Art (associate professorship). Prizes and exhibitions include the Swiss Art Award 2012, Venice Architecture Biennale 2018, Making It Happen RIBA 2019, and Is this Tomorrow? Whitechapel Gallery, 2019. In 2020, Astrid Smitham was named as one of the Architects’ Journal’s 40 under 40.
They have just completed the design and construction of the reuse of Old Manor Park Library, London, as a new form of public building for the local neighbourhood, and the exhibition design for Seth Siegelaub's diversiform collections and activities for Seth Siegelaub: Beyond Conceptual Art at the Stedelijk, Amsterdam; House for Artists, a new form of low rent co-housing combined with community arts centre, Barking, London.
They have lectured at TU München, ETH Zürich, EPF Lausanne, Berlage TU Delft; taught at ETH, CASS LondonMet, HEAD Geneva, Sandberg Institute, Royal College of Art, Kingston School of Art (associate professorship). Prizes and exhibitions include the Swiss Art Award 2012, Venice Architecture Biennale 2018, Making It Happen RIBA 2019, and Is this Tomorrow? Whitechapel Gallery, 2019. In 2020, Astrid Smitham was named as one of the Architects’ Journal’s 40 under 40.
