Peter Yeadon (born 1965) is an American architect [1] and designer. He is a professor and head of the Department of Industrial Design at the Rhode Island School of Design, where he has taught since 2002. [2]
Yeadon was born in Truro, Nova Scotia, Canada. [3] After studying engineering at Dalhousie University, he graduated with a Master of Architecture degree from Dalhousie University in 1989. [2] Prior to teaching at Rhode Island School of Design, he was a faculty member at Cornell University [4] [5] and the University of Toronto. [4] [5]
Based in New York City, Yeadon is known for his research in advanced materials for architecture and industrial design. [6] At the start of the 21st Century, he was an early proponent of adapting emerging material technologies to architecture, producing projects, essays, and lectures on the potential of biotechnology and nanotechnology. [7] [8] [9] By 2005, Yeadon was recognized as a thought leader on nanotech in architecture, presenting “Year 2050: Cities in the Age of Nanotechnology” at the UIA XXII World Congress on Architecture in Istanbul, Turkey. [10]
Throughout the mid-2000s, Yeadon expanded his focus on nanotechnology and biotechnology in architecture and design, shifting his interest toward programmable matter and nanorobotics (molecular machines, including DNA-based devices). [11] His “nBots: Nanorobotic Environments” project was an early illustration of an architecture made of self-assembling nanomachines. [12] [13] [14] During the same period, Yeadon also involved his RISD students in exploring design applications for nanomaterials and nanomachines. [15]
By 2010, Yeadon was more fully focused on putting theory into practice. [16] He had been experimenting with nanomaterials and smart materials, and he began using carbon nanotubes (CNTs) to create new substances for architecture and design, at a lab at MEx in Brooklyn. [17] [18] At the same time, he was also developing applications that make use of synthetic biology. [19] [20] [21] Yeadon created buckypapers [22] and electrically-conductive CNT coatings for artificial muscles in that lab, [23] and was perhaps the first architect to experiment directly with carbon nanotubes, nanosheets, and nanoparticles. [24] By the end of that pivotal year, he returned to writing, targeting “Four Approaches to Nanotechnology in Design Innovation.” [25] That work evolved throughout the 2010s [26] and into his practice today, Yeadon Space Agency, which pursues materials-driven innovation, [27] [28] and his teaching. [29] [30]
He serves on the Advisory Council of the Climate Museum. [31]
Peter Yeadon - Prix de Rome project records, Canadian Centre for Architecture. [44]
Peter Yeadon - Kinetic Reconstructive System, Moholy-Nagy Foundation. [45]