Chris Woebken (b. Hamburg, DE) is a speculative design practitioner, educator, and co-founder of the Extrapolation Factory, a participatory-futures studio. Chris lives and works in New York City and he is adjunct assistant professor at Columbia University’s Graduate School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation, Parsons School of Design, and Rhode Island School of Design. Chris earned a master's degree in design interactions from the Royal College of Art in London. His work has been exhibited widely including the MoMA in New York, NCCA National Center for Contemporary Art in Moscow, and the China National Museum in Beijing. He has created special commissions for Z33 in Leuven, Walker Art Center in Minneapolis and ZKM in Karlsruhe and his work is in museum and private collections.
While at MacDowell, Chris worked on developing an experiment in co-created futures called Metro Test Zones that explores the possibilities of green common spaces in an alternative, future New York City. This research will conclude in a series of events at The Shed, New York in August 2019. He also worked on the Intentional Estates Agency, an institution that adopts and modifies the logic of the real estate agency to engage with issues of degrowth at the 2019 Oslo Architecture Triennale in Norway. Another project developed during his residency is the What if Columbus…? installation for the 2019 Exhibit Columbus, Washington Street Civic Projects. The project invites residents to visualize ideas for modifications of the soft and hard infrastructure in Columbus and submit their visions to city hall.
