People
MAP Studio is led by two principals:
Katherine Lambert, AIA and Christiane Robbins
MAP Studio seeks out projects that demand innovative and refreshing solutions to complex issues and the conditions in which we all find ourselves.
Whether realized in built form, commercial/residential, product design, virtual or time-based projects and designs, our goal is to materialize a dynamic and evocative response. These realizations are wholly in alignment with the pragmatic lens of production and technical factors.
Katherine Lambert, AIA
Katherine Lambert, AIA, is an Architect, Professor, and founder of MAP (Metropolitan Architectural Practice), established in 2005. Her work integrates material rigor, ecological intelligence, and design research across residential, institutional, and cultural projects.
Lambert directs MAP’s practice-driven ethos, approaching architecture as a responsive system shaped by environmental, technological, and spatial forces. Since 2015, through MAP Studio—the practice’s research lab — she translates epistemic investigations in synthetic vision, neo-ecologies, and recursive imaging into grounded architectural processes tied to construction and spatial environments. Her leadership bridges conceptual research and built practice, advancing MAP’s evolving architectural intelligence.
Her award winning projects have been widely published in architectural journals and periodicals such as Architecture, Progressive Architecture, Architectural Digest, Architectural Record, Dwell, i-D, Metropolis, New York Times, Artsy, and Interior Design. An exhibition at the 2016 Venice Architectural Biennial entitled ‘This Future Has a Past’ was selected as the inaugural Anyspace Exhibition at the Center for Architecture in NYC the following year.
Lambert is Professor of Architecture at California College of the Arts and she chaired the Interior Architecture program from 2005-2012. She was a founding partner of FACE Architecture and Senior Designer at Deschamps Architecture.
christiane robbins
Christiane is a founding partner of Metropolitan Architectural Practice and MAP Studio. As a Director/Producer she has worked with digital media, moving/still images, design and video installations. Her work delves into the potentialities of morphing architecture and design with digital & time-based media.
Her projects have been exhibited across the USA, Europe, and Asia, ranging from venues such as MOMA, the Whitney Museum, to the Sao Paolo Biennal, the Venice Biennale, the Gwangju Biennale, the Rotterdam Film Festival, the Vigo International Film Festival, the Berlin Film Festival, the Banff Center for the Arts, SFMoMA, and the Other Cinema. She was a recipient of a SFMoMA SECA Award Video Commission, a Banff Co-Production Fellowship, a City of Los Angeles Award (COLA) Fellowship, as well as numerous other international awards, fellowships and grants, including a first-place Women in Design International award.
Her work is found in numerous museum and public collections and she has received appointments at various universities, most recently holding the position of Professor at the University of Southern California, Los Angeles where she was the Director of USC Matrix Program for Digital Inter-Media and a selected member of the USC's Norman Lear Center.She was a recipient of fellowships from i.e. Stanford University and Director of the NEA’s Regional Arts Grant Funding. Her work has been the subject of international review in publications including ARTFORUM, NY Times, Wall Street Journal, Dwell, L.A Times, i-D Magazine, and Domus.
"Designers
are
always
understood
as
solving
a
problem.
Artists,
intellectuals,
and
writers
are
expected
to
ask
questions,
to
make
us
hesitate,
to
see
our
world
and
ourselves
differently
for
a
moment,
and
therefore
to
think.
Why
not
design
as
a
way
of
asking
questions?
Why
not
design
that
produces
thought
provoking
hesitations
in
the
routines
of
everyday
life
rather
than
simply
servicing
those
routines?
Why
not
design
that
encourages
us
to
think?
Design
as
an
urgent
call
to
reflect
on
what
we
and
our
companion
species
have
become?"
Beatriz
Colomina
/
Mark
Wigley
"Designers are always understood as solving a problem. Artists, intellectuals, and writers are expected to ask questions, to make us hesitate, to see our world and ourselves differently for a moment, and therefore to think. Why not design as a way of asking questions? Why not design that produces thought provoking hesitations in the routines of everyday life rather than simply servicing those routines? Why not design that encourages us to think? Design as an urgent call to reflect on what we and our companion species have become?" Beatriz Colomina / Mark Wigley
TEAM / CoLLABORATORS
Architects & Designers:
Joe Bailey
Lee Bloom
Shelley Davis
Troy Hughes
Mark Kessler
Shinya Kobayashi
Anna Korkobcova
Jan Longfellow
Briggs MacDonald
Julianna Malnick
Claudia Middendorf
Chip Minnick
Hoang Thong Nguyễn
Lizzy Spicuzza
Cathryn Springer
Shuzhen Yao
Media + Cross-disciplinary Projects
Collaborator: Jetztzeit Studios
Director: Christiane Robbins
Scriptwriters: Christiane Robbins, Katherine Lambert
Digital On-line Programing: Crystal Noonan
Cinematographers: Vivian Rivas (New York), Paul Gibson (New York),
John Kiffe (Los Angeles), Ron Freidman (Los Angeles), Scott Mahoy (Palm Springs)
Editor: Christiane Robbins
Assoc.Editors: Anna Belle Peevy (1000 Sq. Ft.), Rosemary Comella (NPLU)
Production Manager: Magali Capi (New York)
Assistant Camera/Sound: Niko David (New York)
Creative Director: Christiane Robbins
Technical Director: J.D. Zamfirescu-Pereira (Venice, 2016)
Visual effects: Jetztzeit Studio
Music: Various, David Byrne, YoYoMa, Tangerine Dream (Venice, 2023)
Song: "Along the Canal" (Installation, 2023)
Still Images/Photography: Jetztzeit Studios, Christiane Robbins
Project Research Consultation: Katherine Lambert, Richard Corsini, Anthony Denzer, Pierluigi Serriano, Julius Shulman
Installation Graphic Design (Venice, 2023)
Design: Ophelia Studios (Portugal)
Design Director: Cristiana Couceiro
Design Executive: Anna Franco
Printer: Davide Brusatin (Imaging Pro, Venice, Italy)
Web
Creative Director: MAP Studio
Web Designer and Consultant: Crystal Noonan
Catalogues
Editor/Curator: Cynthia Davidson, Ex. Director, Anyspace
Commissioning Editor: AnySpace
Graphic Design: Mieke Gerritzen (New York)
Design Executives: ECC-Venice (Italy), Center for Architecture (New York)
Copy Editors: Carly Richmond (English)
Sam ShepHerd
Our guiding light.