Tom Svilans is an architectural designer, design consultant, and researcher, focusing on digital fabrication, materiality, and emerging technologies. He is currently an Assistant Professor at CITA (Centre for IT and Architecture) at the Royal Danish Academy in Copenhagen, Denmark. His research focuses on digital design across the timber value chain – from forestry to construction – and methods of integrating new imaging and information-communication technologies in the design and fabrication of engineered timber elements. As a consultant, he specialises in the computational modelling, design development, and fabrication coordination of complex timber structures. Tom holds a PhD from the Royal Danish Academy, as part of the EU-funded InnoChain research network. The PhD develops a digitally-augmented material practice for the design and manufacture of large-scale free-form timber structures. It was supported by close collaborations with leading Swiss timber contractor Blumer Lehmann AG and multi-disciplinary Scandinavian architecture practice White Arkitekter. He has presented and published his work internationally.

Tom has taught at a number of academic institutions, among them the Bartlett School of Architecture, UCL; the Architectural Association (AA); the Institute for Advanced Architecture of Catalonia (IAAC); and the Royal Danish Academy.