Open Building Workshop – Planning for Change

Stephen Kendall, PhD (Mit’900 is Emeritus Professor of Architecture at Ball State University and has taught in the U.S., Japan, China, Taiwan, and South Africa. He is co-founder of the Council on Open Building. His work focuses on the Open Building approach to the planning and design of neighborhoods and buildings for incremental adaptation and renewal and for diverse and evolving uses. He has written more than 45 papers and book chapters and co-authored Residential Open Building (2000); edited Healthcare Architecture as Infrastructure: Open Building in Practice (Routledge, 2018) and Residential Architecture as Infrastructure: Open Building in Practice in 2022. He co-edited The Short Works of John Habraken: Ways of Seeing/Ways of Doing, 2023, and Open Building for Architects: Professional Knowledge for a Architecture of Everyday Environment (in collaboration with John Habraken), 2024.

John R. Dale, FAIA, LEED AP, a graduate of the University of Toronto and MIT, is Co-Founder and President of The Council on Open Building, a North America Based network of professionals advocating for the creation of a resilient, adaptable built environment that supports continuous transformation. In 2023, John joined Synchronis Architecture as Principal, Architecture and Planning for educational and community facilities reflecting strategic planning; integrated design and long-life building. John is a member of the Innovation Council of the Urban Land Institute and sits on the Board of the Architecture + Design Museum, Los Angeles.

Joshua D. Lee, PhD is an Associate Teaching Professor at Carnegie Mellon Architecture and serves as the Track Chair for the Master of Science and PhD in Architecture– Engineering– Construction Management (AECM) programs. His research interests include sustainable design, adaptable architecture, open building, systems-based architecture, circular construction, public interest design, and educational facilities. His books include Sustainable Design for Uncertain Futures: Dialogues on Time-based Architecture (2025) and Learning from the School Construction Systems Development (SCSD) Project (2019). Joshua is a licensed architect and currently heads the Protean Design Collaborative. He completed his MArch, MSSD, and PhD at the University of Texas at Austin.

Jia Beisi is managing director, partner and design principle in the Hong Kong office of Baumschlager Eberle Architects. He has led and/or participated in eight major projects including competition winning projects since 2012, including housing, shopping malls, institutional buildings, urban design and hotels. From 1996 to 2025, he was a faculty member of the University of Hong Kong in Architecture, Open Building, Housing and Architectural History. He is a joint coordinator of the CIB W104 Open Building Implementation commission. He has published four books and more than 25 papers in international and/or national journals including Open House International, Landscape Research, Sustainability, and Habitat International. He has been a guest editor for issues of Open House International and acted as a juror, reviewer and/or organizer of competitions, professional journals and conferences in China.