Academia
Matteo Cainer has always been active in academia; he was a regular visiting critic at the Bartlett School of Architecture for M.Arch course by Neil Spiller, and guest critic at the AA, Columbia and at the Bauhaus Institute in Dessau. In 2009 he started teaching at École Spéciale d’Architecture in Paris, where he was Associate professor, diploma director and HMONP director until the spring of 2013. He then co-founded and co-directed with Odile Decq the ‘Confluence Institute’ in Lyon and was chair until July 2015. From 2015-2017 he continued being a visiting critique and jury member at the Rice, Columbia and USC Paris detachments. In March 2020 he launched MCA Online an online initiative to help students during COVID-19 through reviews/crits, and a series of lectures. In 2021 he started giving lectures and being a visiting critic at the Domus Academy in Milano, Italy.
The belief is that synergy between architecture, the arts, design, physics and robotics engineering, as well as advances in other fields such as space technology, AI, neuroscience and biological engineering, are the current future. Research clusters are shaping our world and have the potential not only to create new tension but empower learners to think creatively through cross-pollination research and speculative exploration. Free-thinking and innovation are paramount, therefore it is time to integrate new collaborative studios with artists, scientists, and experts from other disciplines in a ‘collaborative pedagogy’ which will foster curiosity, creativity, intellectual interests and give students the tools for a better future. These new affiliated programs will help sponsor research, offer internships and as a result, support the educational and research model while enhancing relationships between higher education and industry.