RUBI LAB

Leslie Lok is an assistant professor at Cornell University Department of Architecture and directs the Rural-Urban Building Innovation Lab. Coupling digital construction methods with natural and non-standardized material, her research and teaching explore the intersection of technology, novel material methods, housing design, and urbanization to develop hybridized design and construction processes.

Lok is also a co-founder at HANNAH, an experimental design practice working across scales from furniture to urbanism. HANNAH’s work utilizes innovative forms of construction to advance building practices. The work aims to mine the tension between machine means and architectural ends.

Her critical practice, HANNAH, is the recipient of the 2020 Architectural League Prize, named Best New Practices 2021 by Archdaily, a recipient of the 2020 NYSCA Creative Project grant, and named Next Progressives by Architect Magazine in 2018. Lok also currently serves on the ACADIA’s board of directors. Her work has been published internationally at FABRICATE, Rob|Arch, and ACADIA, as well as featured in Architectural Record, the New York Times, Dwell, Digital Trends, and others. Her recent project, Ashen Cabin, which experimented with concrete 3D printing and robotic wood fabrication at the building scale, has been featured in various book publications, including the Environmental Design Sourcebook: Innovative Ideas for a Sustainable Built Environment and Ecological Buildings - New Strategies for Sustainable Architecture. Her contributions were exhibited internationally including the Total Museum of Contemporary Art in Seoul, South Korea, 2020 International Architecture Biennale Rotterdam, 2019 Bi-City Biennale of Urbanism/Architecture in Shenzhen, Art OMI, the Momentary, and the Canadian Centre for Architecture. Lok received her Master of Architecture at MIT.