e-flux Architecture—Nick Axel and Nikolaus Hirsch
Part of the MIT Fall 2026 Architecture Lecture Series
Presented with the Architecture and Urbanism Group
Nikolaus Hirsch
Nikolaus Hirsch is co-founder and co-editor of e-flux Architecture, as well as the director of the museum Kanal Architecture (formerly CIVA) in Brussels. He was the Dean of Städelschule and Director of the Portikus in Frankfurt and taught at the Architectural Association in London. His architectural work includes the award-winning Dresden Synagogue, Hinzert Document Center, Bockenheimer Depot Theater (with William Forsythe), Cybermohalla Hub in New-Delhi, “Do We Dream Under The Same Sky“ (with Rirkrit Tiravanija at Art Basel / LUMA Arles) and “Becoming Monument” in Fukushima. Hirsch has curated numerous exhibitions such “Wohnungsfrage / Housing Question” at the HKW in Berlin and the German Pavilion at the Architecture Biennale in Venice (“2038”). He is the editor of the Critical Spatial Practice series at Sternberg Press.
Nick Axel
Nick Axel is an architect, editor, educator, and curator. As Deputy Editor of e-flux Architecture, he has led the development of the platform since its founding in 2016 and undertaken more than 60 editorial projects and publications in collaboration with biennials, museums, universities, and other cultural and research institutions around the world. Nick is also Head of the Architectural Design department at the Gerrit Rietveld Academie in Amsterdam, a three-year educational program at the intersection of architecture, research, theory, and art. He was recently Editor of the 19th International Architecture Exhibition of La Biennale di Venezia, curated by Carlo Ratti, and from 2020–2022, was Curator of Architecture and Chair of the Architectural Advisory Board at the Babyn Yar Holocaust Memorial Center, Kyiv. He has edited numerous books, including most recently: Sick Architecture (MIT Press, 2025), with Beatriz Colomina, Guillermo S. Arsuaga, and e-flux Architecture; Intelligens. Natural. Artificial. Collective. (La Biennale di Venezia, 2025); Chronograms of Architecture (Spector Books, 2025), with Silvia Franceschini, Lily Jencks, Nikolaus Hirsch, and Eszter Steierhoffer; and Concéntrico: Urban Innovation Laboratory (Park Books, 2025), with Javier Peña Ibáñez.
This lecture will be held in person in the Sidara Auditorium (W41- 1216) and streamed online on YouTube.
Lectures are free and open to the public. Registration is required.
