Location: I oA Square

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.