Dr. Miro Roman is an Assistant Professor at studio2 at UIBK Innsbruck where he founded the research platform House of Coded Objects, and the design studio0more. He is as well a senior lecturer at Meteora at the Chair for Digital Architectonics at ETH Zurich. As an architect, coder, and scholar, he focuses on the intersection of Artificial Intelligence, big data, social media, and information technologies with design, architecture, art, and fashion. Roman explores, designs, codes, and writes about the world while playing with a lot—‘all’ the objects, books, and images; clouds, avatars, streams, lists, indexes, and pixels. What is this abundance of information about, and how does it shape our world? To navigate and surf these vast flows, he codes and articulates synthetic alphabets. For Roman, computation is a form of literacy.
Roman has a longstanding research interest in the exchanges between art and science, particularly through multimodal projects supported by artificial intelligence and big data. He is both an author and a coder, writing books and creating applications that explore these intersections.
Together with Alice_ch3n81, Roman authored A Play Among Books (Birkhäuser, 2022), a book based on his Ph.D. thesis that explores the infinite flow of online books to discuss architecture. This work combines humanistic expression with scientific rigor in a digital framework. As a byproduct of the book, Roman developed the computational library Xenotheka and its search engine, Ask Alice, which have been instrumental in establishing design and research methodologies at the House of Coded Objects (UIBK). These instruments also inform his teaching at Meteora (ETH Zurich) and Studio0more (UIBK). In collaboration with Jorge Orozco and Adil Bokhari, Roman developed Search0more, an application for navigating 3D models and images.
Roman was as well a guest lecturer at ATTP at TU Wien and a researcher at the Future Cities Laboratory, part of the interdisciplinary Singapore ETH Centre, where he co-edited A Quantum City book (Birkhäuser, 2015). This book invites readers to explore the vast indexes of the world and embark on a journey to (re)discover the city.
In collaboration with Silvio Vujčić, Roman developed artificially intelligent fashion designer SOLL and its fashion brand, E.A. 1/1 A.I. Together, they produced a movie Planet SOLL and edited the fashion magazine STORYBOOK: ON RECYCLING (Mondo, 2024). This StoryBook presents a spectrum of stories about recycling, encouraging us to think beyond the usual frames: resources and waste, good and bad, artificial and natural.
Roman has lectured widely at institutions including TU Berlin, ENSA Paris Malaquais, ZHdK Zurich, UF School of Architecture, TU Vienna, Southeast University Nanjing, Academy of Architecture Mendrisio, Politecnico di Milano, URA Singapore, and the University of Indonesia. His research has been featured in publications such as A+U, Arch+, and Oris, and his work has been exhibited at venues like the Taipei Fine Arts Museum, London Design Biennale, and the Museum of Contemporary Art in Zagreb.
Asst. Prof. Dr. Miro Roman
House of Coded Objects, Studio Zwei, UIBK
Studio Meteora, Digital Architectonics, ETH
miro(at)romanvlahovic.com
PUBLICATIONS
Roman, Miro, Jorge Orozco, and Adil Bokhari. 2024. “Meteora – ‘I Play with the Plenty.’” A+u: Post-Digitality in Architecture. 🔗
Roman, Miro. 2024. “Architectonic Writing: A Portrait of Google.” In Synthetic Realities: New Frontiers in AI-Driven Design, Fabrication and Materiality, 1. edition, 156–68. Baunach: AADR – Art Architecture Design Research. 🔗
Roman, Miro. 2024. “Digital Literacy and One of Its Characters.” In Radio Explorations: Architectonic Studies of Electromagnetic Milieux, edited by Selena Savic, 131–37. Bielefeld: transcript publishing. 🔗
Roman, Miro, and Alice_ch3n81. 2024. “On Coding.” In Künstliche Intelligenz Im Diskurs: Interdisziplinäre Perspektiven Zur Gegenwart Und Zukunft von KI-Anwendungen, edited by Theo Hug, Petra Missomelius, and Heike Ortner, 61–75. MEDIEN – WISSEN – BILDUNG. Innsbruck University Press. 🔗
Roman, Miro, Adil Bokhari, and Agostino Nickl. 2024. ‘1001 in 1; Recycling Stories at Light Speed’. In: Trans Magazine, edited by Caspar Bultmann, Philipp Burwinkel, Lida Freudenreich, and Magellan Hauri. gta Verlag. 🔗
Vujcic, Silvio and and Miro Roman. 2023. Creative Editors of special edition No 52: On Recycling – Storybook, Mondo. 🔗
Vujcic, Silvio and and Miro Roman. 2023. ‘On Recycling’. In: On Recycling – Storybook, edited by Silvio Vujcic and Miro Roman, Mondo. 🔗
Vujcic, Silvio and and Miro Roman. 2023. ‘Recycling Storybook’. In: On Recycling – Storybook, edited by Silvio Vujcic and Miro Roman, Mondo. 🔗
Vujcic, Silvio and and Miro Roman. 2023. David__n417e2: “GOLIATH NEVER EVEN HAD A CHANCE.”. In: On Recycling – Storybook, edited by Silvio Vujcic and Miro Roman, Mondo. 🔗
Vujcic, Silvio and and Miro Roman. 2023. Open Your Mouth. In: In: On Recycling – Storybook, edited by Silvio Vujcic and Miro Roman, Mondo. 🔗
Vujcic, Silvio and and Miro Roman. 2023. SOLL’s First Dream. In: On Recycling – Storybook, edited by Silvio Vujcic and Miro Roman, Mondo. 🔗
Roman, Miro, and Constantinos Miltiadis. 2022. ‘Groundlessness’. In Chimeras: Inventory of Synthetic Cognition, edited by Ilan Manouach and Anna Engelhardt, 310–312. Athens: Onasis Foundation, https://www.onassis.org/culture/publications/chimeras-inventory-of-synthetic-cognition. 🔗
Roman, Miro. ‘Atom Letters’. 2022. In Chimeras: Inventory of Synthetic Cognition, edited by Ilan Manouach and Anna Engelhardt, 298–300. Athens: Onasis Foundation, https://www.onassis.org/culture/publications/chimeras-inventory-of-synthetic-cognition. 🔗
Roman, Miro, and Alice_ch3n81. 2022. Play Among Books: A Symposium on Architecture and Information Spelt in Atom-Letters. Berlin, Boston: Birkhäuser. https://doi.org/10.1515/9783035624052 🔗
Roman, Miro. 2021. “Thank You for the Necklace.” In Fiume Fantastika, edited by Vedran Mimica, Maroje Mrduljas, and Idis Turato, 650–57. Rijeka: University of Rijeka (UNIRI). 🔗
Roman, Miro, and Diana Alvarez-Marin. 2020. “Being a ‘Brand.’” In Atlas of Digital Architecture: Terminology, Concepts, Methods, Tools, Examples, Phenomena, edited by Urs Hirschberg, Ludger Hovestadt, and Oliver Fritz. Boston: Birkhauser Architecture. 🔗
Roman, Miro. 2020. “A Letter to a Character.” In Architecture and Naturing Affairs: Media and Architectonic Concepts, edited by Mihye An, Ludger Hovestadt, and Vera Bühlmann. Birkhäuser. https://www.degruyter.com/view/title/576169. 🔗
Roman, Miro. 2020. “A Lobster Quadrille by Alice_ch3n81.” In Architecture and Naturing Affairs: Media and Architectonic Concepts, edited by Mihye An, Ludger Hovestadt, and Vera Bühlmann. Birkhäuser. https://www.degruyter.com/view/title/576169. 🔗
Roman, Miro. 2019. “Play Among Books: A Symposium on Architecture and Information Spelled in Atom Letters.” Doctoral Thesis, ETH Zurich. https://doi.org/10.3929/ethz-b-000358286. 🔗
Roman, Miro. 2019. “IV. VOIDS, BRANDS, CHARACTERS, AND HOW TO DEAL WITH LOTS.” In Ghosts of TransparencyShadows Cast and Shadows Cast Out. Vol. 13. Berlin, Basel: Birkhäuser. https://doi.org/10.1515/9783035619171-005. 🔗
Roman, Miro 2016. ‘Abstract Object in the World of Data – A Play of Books – Symbolicity of Information as Potential for Architectural Articulation’, in eCAADe 2016: Complexity & Simplicity – Proceedings of the 34th eCAADe Conference – Volume 2, University of Oulu, Oulu, Finland, 22-26 August 2016, pp. 287-296 🔗
Alvarez, Diana and Miro Roman 2015. ‘A Quantum City: Mastering the Generic’, Reflection on New Urbanization and Sustainability, Landscape Architecture Frontiers No.5 Volume 3: 99-109. 🔗
Tomljanovic, Petra and Miro Roman 2015. ‘From Singapore With Love’, Oris magazine 95: 148-157. 🔗
Hovestadt, Ludger, Vera Bühlmann, Diana Alvarez, Miro Roman and Michael Sebastian 2015. A Quantum City, Applied Virtuality Book Series. Basel: Birkhäuser. 🔗
Roman, Miro 2015. ‘Information, Data, Lists, Indexes, Pixels – Simbolicity of Data as a Potential for Articulation’, FCL Magazine (No3): 56–63. 🔗
Alvarez, Diana and Miro Roman 2014. ‘A Quantum City, or How to Master the Generic’, in 102nd ACSA Annual Meeting Proceedings, Globalizing Architecture/ Flows and Disruptions. 🔗
Roman, Miro 2014. ‘Four Chairs and All the Others – Eigenchair’, in Eigenarchitecture, eds. Ludger Hovestadt and Vera Bühlmann, 10–25. Birkhauser Architecture. 🔗
Roman, Miro 2013. ‘Four Chairs and All the others – Eigenchair’ in eCAADe 2013: Computation and Performance – Proceedings of the 31st eCAADw Conference – Volume 2, eCAADe, 405-415, Delft, The Netherlands 🔗
EXHIBITIONS
05.10.2024 Your Image Is My Weave and All I Want Is a Racing Coat (with SOLL, Silvio Vujicic), Just Control, IZIS, Capodistria, Koper, Slovenia 🔗
14.10.2023 1001 in 1 Night, Meteora++, (with Adil Bokhari and Agostino Nickl) curated by Lathouse, Zentralwäscherei Zürich, Switzerland 🔗
05.06.2023 “Portrait of Google on 15. November 2017” by Alice_ch3n81 at PROMPTnation, International Ai Exhibithion, Svit, Zlín, Czech Republic 🔗
01.06.2023 Meteora (with Jorge Orozco, Adil Bokhari, Katia Ageeva, Samuel Jaccard, Marius Oneta), London Design Biennale 2023, London, United Kingdom 🔗
22.04.2022 SOLL: “I don’t Design, I Write Fashion.” (with SOLL, Silvio Vujicic), Croatian Designers Association Gallery, Zagreb, Croatia 🔗
23.11.2021 Your Image Is My Weave and All I Want Is a Racing Coat (with SOLL, Silvio Vujcic), Device_art 7.021, Kontejner, Museum of Contemporary Art Zagreb, Zagreb, Croatia 🔗
28.09.2021 Profilers Profile With an Orchid in My Mouth (with Alice ch3n81), Kulturfolger, Zurich, Switzerland 🔗
21.11.2020 Architecture of Cosmopolitics (with Nikola Bojic, Damir Gamulin), Taipei Biennial 2020, Taipei, Taiwan 🔗
09.2020 Ask.Homo Effluviens, as a part of Terra Effluviens (with Nikola Bojic, Damir Gamulin); Dopolavoro; Rijeka 2020 – European Capital of Culture; Rijeka, Croatia
10.2015 Lacescape Table, WantedDesign; Ikon Arts Foundation; Croatian Design Showcase, New York, USA
01.2015 Urban Dyptich – photographic mosaic, Destruction & Rebirth, The Mill, Singapore 🔗
10.2014 Lacescape Table, Ljubljana Month Of Design 2014, Brands & Signs, Ljubljana, Slovenia
09.2014 Lacescape Table, Exhibition of Croatian Design 1314, Zagreb, Croatia
06.2014 Lacescape Table, D-Day; 5. International Design Festival, Zagreb, Croatia
06.2013 Object vs. Population – 3d Printed Generative Jewellery, D-Day; 4. International Design Festival, Zagreb, Croatia
12.2012 Hvidra Memorial, The 47th Zagreb Salon of Architecture, Zagreb, Croatia
10.2012 Object vs. Population – 3d Printed Generative Jewellery, Ljubljana Month Of Design 2012, Design Expo, Ljubljana, Slovenia
09.2010 Recognising Praxis, Architectural Association Rijeka, Rijeka, Croatia
05.2010 Opening Exhibition Of Maxxi Rome, Associate for Helena Paver Njirić’s “Moire” Exhibit, Rome, Italy
10.2009 Forest City, The 44th Zagreb Salon Of Architecture, Zagreb, Croatia
LECTURES AND CONFERENCES
24.12.2024 When Objects Talk, Re-imagining Architecture: Navigating the impact of Computing and Artificial Intelligence, SEU, Nanjing, China.
24.10.2024 What if Words Were Alive?, AI & Cities 2024 Symposium, Bibliotheca Hertziana – Max Planck Institute for Art History (FCL/ETH, DVS/UZH), Rome, Italy.
22.10.2024 ON RELIGION, Grundlagen der Raumgestaltung, Studio2, UIBK, Innsbruck, Austria. 🔗
05.03.2024 ON WORDS, Day of Words, UNIVERSUM CARROUSEL JOURNEY, Studio Jan De Vylder, ETH, Zurich, Switzerland. 🔗
29.02.2024 Writing Architecture, Building Futures Lecture Series, University of Innsbruck & University of Texas at Arlington, Innsbruck, Austria.
26.01.2024 CODING SOLL: Storybook: ON RECYCLING, TZG2024 International Scientific-Professional Symposium “Textile Science & Economy”, Faculty of Textile Technology, University of Zagreb, Zagreb Croatia.
24.01.2024 CODING SOLL: Storybook: ON RECYCLING, Salons, Smilga, New Architecture School, Art Academy of Latvia, Riga, Latvia.
21.12.2023 Studio Meteora (with Jorge Orozco, Adil Bokhari), Interior ecologies, Institute for Postnatural Studies, HEAD – Genève, Switzerland.
15.12.2023.The Rise of Digital Characters. Ringvorlesung: Künstliche Intelligenz im Diskurs – Interdisziplinäre Perspektiven zur Gegenwart und Zukunft von KI-Anwendungen, Innsbruck, Austria.
13.12.2023 ANY WORD TODAY IS A ONE HOUR LECTURE TOMORROW :), AI for Architects 2023, Southeast University, Nanjing, China.
25.04.2023 VIS VIVA; ON ENERGY, MATTER, INFORMATION, Raumgestaltung, Studio Zwei, UIBK, Innsbruck, Austria. 🔗
16.02.2023 METEORA; Ai and Architectural Design (with Jorge Orozco and Adil Bokhari), Desing & Computation, TU Berlin, Berlin, Germany.
27.11.2022 THE LIFE OF CONCEPTS; On Mechanics of Writing in Someone else’s Terms, Urban Studies, Deltalab, University of Rijeka, Rijeka, Croatia.
04.10.2022 PLAY AMONG BOOKS: A Symposium on Architecture and Information Spelled in Atom-Letters, Design++, ETH, Zürich, Switzerland. 🔗
11.06.2022 Growing Objects, Playing Models; Artificial Intelligence, Architecture and Storytelling, UF School of Architecture, Orlando, Florida, USA.
04.2022 Models and Their Talks, Model Universes Lecture Series, Raumgestaltung ss2022, strudio zwei, uibk, Innsbruck, Austria.
03.2022 What wills that mask, Momus?, AI in Architecture Lecture Series, i.sd, uibk, Innsbruck, Austria.
01.2022 Ask.Alice, CryptoSchool, Crypto School – Gudskul Collective Studies #4, Gudskul, Jakarta, Indonesia.
11.2021 Your Image Is My Weave and All I Want Is a Racing Coat, (with Silvio Vujcic), Device_art 7.021, Kontejner, Museum of Contemporary Art Zagreb, Zagreb, Croatia.
06.2021 Self Portraying Google, Wahlseminar – Architekturtheorie, ATTP, TU Vienna, Vienna, Austria.
04.2021 Soll’s Coded Symbiogenesis: E.A.1/1 S.V. & Alice_ch3n81 (with Silvio Vujicic), FGAG Split, University of Slit, Split, Croatia.
04.2021 Spelling ALICE, Practicing Architecture, Faculty of Architecture, University of Zagreb, Zagreb, Croatia.
11.2020 Talking Probabilities, Spelling Alice and how she plays with LOTs, Hybrid Reality hearings qv position, Studio Zwei, UIBK, Innsbruck, Austria.
05.2020 Spelling ALICE, Practicing Architecture, Af ZG, Zoom-Zagreb, Croatia.
11.2019 Spelling ALICE, Interaction design, ZHDK, Zürich, Switzerland.
11.2019 Spelling ALICE, Terra Effluviens, Drugo More, Rijeka, Croatia.
11.2019 Spelling ALICE, Sophistication Conference#3, ATTP, TU Vienna, Vienna, Austria. 🔗
10.2019 Xenotheka, Dealing with the plenty in the digital age (with Maarten Delbeke), gta invites, GTA ETH Zürich, Zürich, Switzerland.
10.2019 Who is ALICE, and how she plays with LOTs, Digital-Knowledge, Digital Practice, 5th ARENA Annual Conference | DR_SoM Session 7, TU Graz, Graz, Austria.
05.2019 How ALICE deals with LOTs, Digital-Knowledge, ENSA Paris Malaquais, Paris, France.
04.2019 How ALICE deals with LOTs, 2019 ETH-SEU PhD workshop and Forum, Southeast University, Nanjing, China.
03.2019 How ALICE deals with LOTs, Common Ground, Liga, Mexico City, Mexico.
12.2018 XENOTHEKA, or how ALICE deals with LOTs, Digital Architectonics, CAAD, ETH Zürich, Zürich, Switzerland.
11.2018 XENOTHEKA, or how ALICE deals with LOTs, Gegenwartsarchitektur, ATTP, TU Wien, Vienna, Austria.
05.2018 Pixels, Voxels, and Atom Letters, Bartlett Plexus Paris #5, Area, Paris, France.
11.2017 Void, Brands, Characters or How to Deal with LOTs, Institute of Architecture and Media, TU Graz, Graz, Austria.
10.2017 Big Data: Chronicles of the Present (with Diana Alvarez Marin), Gegenwartsarchitektur, ATTP, TU Wien, Vienna, Austria.
08.2017 Void or How to Deal with a LOT, Kulturfolger, Zürich, Switzerland.
12.2016 A Play of Books – Computational Object in a World of Data, TU Wien, Vienna, Austria.
11.2016 A Quantum City (with Diana Alvarez Marin), Recombinant City, Department of Architecture and Urban Studies, Politecnico di Milano, Milano, Italy.
11.2016 A Quantum City (with Diana Alvarez Marin), Act of resistance series, OSA, Academy of Architecture, Mendrisio, Switzerland.
05.2016 A Play of Books – Computational Object in a World of Data, ITA lunch Talk, ETH Zürich, Zürich, Switzerland.
04.2016 Generic Ground – A Few Objects and their many Others, MAS Urban Design, ETH Zürich, Zürich, Switzerland.
10.2015 Generic Ground – A Few Objects and their many Others, Computational Object, TU Wien, Vienna, Austria.
08.2015 Kilo Dialogues: A Quantum City Book Launch (with Diana Alvarez Marin), Kilo Lounge, Singapore.
05.2015 Abstract Object in The Word of Data, COST, New Materialism, Einsiedeln, Switzerland.
01.2015 How to master the Generic (with Diana Alvarez Marin), Future Cities: Research in Action, Urban Redevelopment Authority, Singapore.
07.2014 A Quantum City (with Diana Alvarez Marin), Quantum City Workshop, University Of Indonesia, Jakarta, Indonesia.
04.2014 Storytelling (with Luka Vlahovic), OFF AF, University of Architecture, Zagreb, Croatia.
07.2013 A Quantum City (with Diana Alvarez Marin), Lunch Talk, Value Lab Asia, Future Cities Laboratory, Singapore.
09.2010 Context (with Luka Vlahovic), Architectural Symposium – Recognising Praxis, Architectural Association Rijeka, Rijeka, Croatia.