User:The Fikipedia/sandbox

Firas is a spatial design practitioner whose work spans architecture, urbanism, design, art, and neurotechnology.

He coined “Electrical Ecologies” and aims at designing the first ‘architecture brain implant’.

He is the author of Metaverse Urbanism - Notes on the future of cities, the internet, and life as we live it.

Early Life and Education
Firas grew up in Lebanon and moved to Barcelona in 2015 to pursue his Masters studies, with a focus on Neurotechnology and Architecture.

In 2016 he prototyped the Brain-Space wearable, a research tool that gathers spatial and human metrics simultaneously. The device was used to study the impact of the built environment on the human experience using advanced correlation analysis techniques.

Firas holds a bachelor's degree in Architecture from the University of Balamand through the Académie Libanaise des Beaux-Arts - Alba, a post-professional master's degree from Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya through the Institute for Advanced Architecture of Catalonia - IaaC, and certifications from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology - MIT, on Smart Mobility and Emerging Design and Technologies beyond Smart Cities.

Career
Firas joined Vicente Guallart's practice in 2017 with a large focus on urban design, taking part in over 25 international urban design projects spanning Europe, Africa, and China.

In 2018 he launched the Barcelona chapter of NeuroTechX, a chapter he leads since then. In 2022, started the NTX Global Hackathon, an annual 48-hour event that brings together enthusiasts to hackers from all over world.

In 2021, he joined BAD - Built by Associative data as a creative director, where he helped setup the Barcelona office.

In 2022, he founded Spatial Forces, a next-gen spatial design agency operating across scales and media. The practice hosts six units engaged through research, urbanism, architecture, new media arts, immersive experiences, and product design.

Throughout his career, he has collaborated with Red Bull

Firas is has been publishing as an author at urbanNext

He has lectured in prestigious thought hubs including the Pontifical Academy of Sciences in the Vatican.

Urbanitarian, the world's largest curated online urban-design archive, providing a long list of projects from masterplans to cityscapes.

Awards and Recognitions
Firas won his first recognition as a national winner, representing Lebanon in the Red Bull global competition in Cape Town, where he exhibited a sculpture at the De Waal Park.

He was recognized as winner twice for the AI Artathon ( 2020 and 2022 ) with stage appearance at the Global AI Summit, the largest AI and Art hackathon of its kind.

He exhibited his work, Emergent Topographies of Vienna at Ars Electronica in Linz in 2019.

In 2022, he shared the stage with Ali Basbous and Vicente Guallart receiving the WAFX prize for the project "Tower of Life".