Dr Rachel Armstrong

teaching fellow at Bartlett School of Architecture, co-director of AVATAR (Advanced Virtual and Technological Architectural Research), a global TED Fellow and interdisciplinary practitioner who collaborates extensively with artists, scientists and architects to create new experimental spaces that re-engage with the fundamental creativity of science

Dr Rachel Armstrong innovates and designs sustainable solutions for the built and natural environment using advanced new technologies such as Synthetic Biology - the rational engineering of living systems - and Smart chemistry.

Rachel encourages and designs change as well as promoting transferrable ways of thinking 'outside the box' that to help others develop innovative environmental solutions. Her approaches are outlined in her forthcoming TED book on Living Architecture.

Rachel Armstrong graduated from Cambridge University with First Class Honours. In 2009 she embarked on a PhD in chemistry and architecture to pursue her long standing passion for evolutionary processes and environmental impact. Core to her practice is the belief that new ways of thinking can drive innovation and generate technology that can help us overcome seemingly impossible problems to create a better future for ourselves. "The biggest threat to our survival is our resistance to change in an unstable world. Architecture can only truly be sustainable when it is connected to nature, not insulated from it."

She was awarded a TED Fellowship and a Senior TED Fellowship, and has an international platform that enables her to connect with a range of audiences, sharing her broad knowledge and experience. Rachel is a member of the RESCUE "Collaboration between the natural, social and human sciences in global change research" Working Group, an interdisciplinary body of European experts making recommendations to the EU for strategic investment for interdisciplinary/scientific research of climate change.

Rachel was named as one of the top ten UK innovators by Director Magazine and featured in the top ten 'big ideas, 10 original thinkers' for BBC Focus Magazine.

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