Philip Beesley Architect Inc. (PBAI) is an interdisciplinary design firm located in Toronto, Canada, associated with the University of Waterloo School of Architecture. The studio’s design methods combine the durable crafts of heavy machining and building with advanced digital visualization, industrial design, digital prototyping, and mechatronics engineering. Sculptural work in the past three decades has focused on immersive textile environments, landscape installations and intricate geometric structures. The most recent generations of these works feature interactive lighting systems and kinetic mechanisms that use dense arrays of microprocessors and sensors. Chemical protocell metabolisms are in the early stages of development within many of these environments. These works contemplate the ability of an environment to be near-living, to stimulate intimate evocations of compassion with viewers through artificial intelligence and mechanical empathy. The conceptual roots of this work lie in 'hylozoism', the ancient belief that all matter has life.
PBAI is led by experimental sculptor/architect Philip Beesley. Current collaborators include Rachel Armstrong, Philippe Baylaucq, Martin Correa, Rob Gorbet, Jon Gotfryd, Martin Hanczyc, Iris van Herpen, Mark-David Hosale, Dana Kulic, Andrea Ling, Sal Miranda, Anne Paxton, Rolf Seifert, Michael Stacey and Mingyi Zhou. Currently there are 15 artists, scientists, architects, and engineers within the collective.