Cary Siress writes on global architecture and urbanization. His current research is primarily focused on the cultural maturing of the Western “project” of design, and on the mediating role of infrastructure in the construction and maintenance of artificial environments.

He is co-author of Constructing Sustainability: An Evolving Mission (Holcim Foundation, 2021) – illustrating the “target issues” for sustainable construction developed by the Holcim Foundation; “The Matter of Construction: Systemic Overhaul or Tweaking the Status Quo?”, the introductory chapter of The Materials Book: Re-materializing Construction – 6th Holcim Forum (Ruby Press, 2021); “Infrastructure Takes Command” the introductory chapter of Infrastructure Space – 5th Holcim Forum 2016 (Ruby Press, 2017), and “Five easy pieces” the introduction to Holcim Awards in First Holcim Awards for Sustainable Construction 2005/2006 (Holcim Foundation, 2006).

Cary Siress was previously a Senior Researcher in Territorial Organization at the Singapore-ETH Centre (SEC) Future Cities Laboratory, based in Singapore, and Guest Professor at the Technical University of Munich (2011-12) where he taught an Urban Design Studio “Hard Plan – Soft City” that investigated discrepancies between the ‘city as designed’ and the ‘city as used’. He was also Professor of Architecture & Theory, School of Arts, Culture, & Environment, University of Edinburgh, United Kingdom (2006-11).

Following graduate studies at Columbia University in New York, he was involved in teaching at research at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETH Zurich), where he completed his PhD, and as a visiting scholar at Tongji University in Shanghai.

His PhD The Urban Unconscious: Mediating the Psyche and the City in the Twentieth Century examined the impact of psychoanalytic theory on the urban discourses of Aldo Rossi, Peter Eisenman, and Rem Koolhaas. He is co-author of Mirroring Effects: Tales of Territory (Ruby Press, 2018), which analyses prevalent political and economic practices concerning environment-making in the contemporary world and Mirroring Effects: On the Political Economy of Territory (Ruby Press, 2014), which examines how urban territory is produced in different cities of the world according to the entanglement of political and economic policies at various scales.