# Neil Spiller

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{{Short description|English architect and theorist (born 1961)}}
{{distinguish|Neil Piller}}
{{Use British English|date=March 2025}}{{Use dmy dates|date=March 2026}}

{{Infobox academic
| name = Neil Spiller
| honorific_suffix = 
| image = Neil Spiller Lecturing in 2020.jpg
| caption = Spiller in 2020
| birth_name = Neil Alexander Spiller
| birth_date = {{Birth date and age|df=yes|1961|10|22}}
| occupation = {{hlist|Architect|university professor|artist|editor|writer}}
| known_for = {{Unbulleted list
|''Architects in Cyberspace''
|''Communicating Vessels''
}}
| spouse = {{marriage|[Melissa Jones](/source/Melissa_Jones_(writer))|1997|2012|end=div}}
| children = 2
| education = [The Geoffrey Chaucer School](/source/Chaucer_School%2C_Canterbury)
| alma_mater = [Thames Polytechnic](/source/Thames_Polytechnic)
| influences = {{hlist|[Surrealism](/source/Surrealism)|['Pataphysics](/source/'Pataphysics)|[second-order cybernetics](/source/second-order_cybernetics)|[alchemy](/source/alchemy)}}
| workplaces = {{plainlist|
* [The Bartlett](/source/The_Bartlett)
* [University of Greenwich](/source/University_of_Greenwich)
}}
}}

'''Neil Alexander Spiller''' (born 22 October 1961) is an English [visionary architect](/source/Visionary_architecture), artist, [professor emeritus](/source/Emeritus) and editor of ''[Architectural Design](/source/Architectural_Design)'' (''AD'').<ref name=":0">{{Cite web |title=Neil Spiller |url=https://thenewcentre.org/people/neil-spiller/ |access-date=2025-03-24 |website=The New Centre for Research & Practice |language=en-US}}</ref><ref name=":1">{{Cite web |title=An Interview with Neil Spiller, author of How to Thrive at Architecture School |url=https://www.architecture.com/knowledge-and-resources/knowledge-landing-page/an-interview-with-neil-spiller-author-of-how-to-thrive-at-architecture-school?srsltid=AfmBOorSfWcFgcC764jZU9UsbygSiOw60g1eeUt9riytrL83El4iXv_V |access-date=2025-03-24 |website=[Royal Institute of British Architects](/source/Royal_Institute_of_British_Architects)}}</ref> He is widely regarded as a 'paradigm-shifting' theorist in the architectural discourse.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Neil Spiller: The Island of Vessels |url=https://www.leedsbeckett.ac.uk/events/architecture-open-lectures/neil-spiller/ |website=[Leeds Beckett University](/source/Leeds_Beckett_University)}}</ref><ref name=":2">{{Cite journal |last=Castle |first=Helen |date=2013 |editor-last=Neil |editor-first=Spiller |title=About the Guest Editor: Neil Spiller |url=https://download.e-bookshelf.de/download/0004/0254/49/L-G-0004025449-0002565288.pdf |journal=[Architectural Design](/source/Architectural_Design) |volume=83 |issue=5 |pages=7 }}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |last=Acepcion |first=Stefen Augustine |date=28 January 2020 |title=Communicating Vessels An Exhibition of Architectural drawings by Neil Spiller At the Lightroom Gallery until Feb. 26 |url=https://architecture.carleton.ca/2020/communicating-vessels-an-exhibition-of-architectural-drawings-by-neil-spiller-at-the-lightroom-gallery-until-feb-26/ |access-date=2025-03-25 |website=Azrieli School of Architecture & Urbanism |language=en-US}}</ref> Spiller is known for being the founding director of the Advanced Virtual and Technological Architectural Research (AVATAR) Group, a [think tank](/source/think_tank) established at [The Bartlett](/source/The_Bartlett), [University College London](/source/University_College_London) (UCL), which pioneered the implementation of digital theory in architecture.<ref name=":2" /><ref name=":3">{{Cite web |last=Welch |first=Adrian |date=11 February 2008 |title=Neil Spiller London Architecture: Digital Theory |url=https://www.e-architect.com/architects/neil-spiller |access-date=2025-03-25 |website=e-architect |language=en-us}}</ref> Outside of academia, he is best known for his long project and [paracosm](/source/paracosm), ''Communicating Vessels'' (1998–).

Stylistically, Spiller produces what he terms 'interstitial drawings', created with reference to the conventions of [architectural drawing](/source/architectural_drawing) but often representing structures unable to be built outside of virtual space.<ref name=":4">{{Cite book |last=Spiller |first=Neil |url=https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/1527533/1/Drawing-Futures.pdf |title=Drawing Futures: Contemporary Drawing for Art and Architecture |date=2016 |publisher=[UCL Press](/source/UCL_Press) |isbn=978-1-911307-26-6 |editor-last=Pearson |editor-first=Luke Caspar |location=London |pages=142–153 |chapter=Future Fantasticals |editor-last2=Allen |editor-first2=Laura}}</ref><ref name=":15" /> He is a champion of the notion that architecture must not be bound to the tangible. As he writes: '[m]y preoccupation is to compositionally straddle the virtual and the actual, art and matter'.<ref name=":16" />

== Early life and education ==
Spiller was born in [Tankerton](/source/Tankerton), England, and raised in the village of [Sturry](/source/Sturry).<ref name=":17">{{Cite AV media |url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rBI1qVghPvM&t=1166s |title=Prof. Neil Spiller Lecture in Glasgow School of Art |date=27 March 2014 |last=GSA Friday Lectures |access-date=2025-04-10 |via=YouTube}}</ref> He was educated initially at Sturry Primary School before attending the [Geoffrey Chaucer School](/source/Chaucer_School%2C_Canterbury) in [Canterbury](/source/Canterbury) from age 11 to 18.<ref name=":18">{{Cite news |date=4 December 1987 |title=Neil's Diploma |url=https://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/viewer/bl/0007528/19871204/130/0019 |access-date=2 April 2026 |work=Herne Bay Gazette |pages=19}}</ref> His parents were Arthur George Spiller, an [electrician](/source/electrician) and [petty officer](/source/petty_officer) in the [Royal Navy](/source/Royal_Navy), and Betty Ella Spiller ([née](/source/Birth_name) Everett). His maternal grandfather was Walter Oliver Everett, a building contractor who constructed the [Marlowe Theatre](/source/Marlowe_Theatre) in Canterbury. His paternal grandfather, Sidney Spiller, was [apprenticed](/source/Apprenticeship) at [Windsor Castle](/source/Windsor_Castle) as a gardener during the latter part of [Queen Victoria](/source/Queen_Victoria)'s reign. 

Spiller began training as an architect in [London](/source/London), in the early 1980s. He submitted a sketch of a [great crested grebe](/source/great_crested_grebe) as part of his application to Thames Polytechnic (now the [University of Greenwich](/source/University_of_Greenwich)), which gained him admission.<ref name=":1" /><ref name=":5">{{Cite web |last=Spiller |first=Neil |title=Communication Vessels: An Architectural Paracosm {{!}} Neil Spiller {{!}} Pidgeon Digital |url=https://www.pidgeondigital.com/talks/communication-vessels-an-architectural-paracosm/ |access-date=2025-03-26 |website=Pigeon Digital |language=en-GB}}</ref> Spiller described the Polytechnic's sensibilities during his time as a student as adhering to the 'tasteful [Modernism](/source/Modern_architecture) of the [Cambridge School](/source/University_of_Cambridge)'.<ref name=":4" /><ref name=":6">{{Cite AV media |url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WWox0zncttg |title=Against Representation: Perry Kulper and Neil Spiller |date=22 January 2022 |last=Mindful Habitats |access-date=2025-03-26 |via=YouTube}}</ref> He describes architects of this movement, such as [Sir Leslie Martin](/source/Leslie_Martin), as '[Jesuit](/source/Jesuits) Modernists', bound by design principles such as [form follows function](/source/form_follows_function) and the [prohibition of ornament](/source/Ornament_and_Crime) which Spiller regards as emblematic of 'architectural guilt'.<ref name=":15">{{Cite AV media |url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZDMrcrAi8as&list=WL&index=7 |title=Neil Spiller {{!}} Confluence Studio Lectures |date=7 February 2021 |last=Confluence Institute |access-date=2025-04-07 |via=[YouTube](/source/YouTube)}}</ref> Instead, he became enamoured of more disruptive, [post-structuralist](/source/Post-structuralism) approaches which were gaining traction at this time through the work of architects such as [Lebbeus Woods](/source/Lebbeus_Woods), [Daniel Libeskind](/source/Daniel_Libeskind) and [Michael Webb](/source/Michael_Webb_(architect)).<ref name=":4" /><ref name=":7">{{Cite journal |last=Spiller |first=Neil |date=2005 |title=Deformography: The Poetics of Cybridised Architecture |url=https://www.yumpu.com/en/document/read/7836166/deformography-the-poetics-of-cybridised-architecture-research- |journal=Papers of Surrealism |issue=4 |pages=91–110 |via=[Yumpu](/source/Yumpu)}}</ref> Spiller took great inspiration from these architects' aesthetic philosophies, attending many of their exhibitions at the [Architectural Association](/source/Architectural_Association_School_of_Architecture) (AA).<ref name=":4" /> At this time, Spiller formed a connexion with [Cedric Price](/source/Cedric_Price), on whom he wrote his third-year dissertation, 'Right Price, Wrong Time'.<ref name=":5" />

He also took an interest in traditional British architectural movements, such as the [Gothic Revival](/source/Gothic_Revival_architecture), particularly the work of [William Burges](/source/William_Burges), [Harry Stuart Goodhart-Rendel](/source/Harry_Stuart_Goodhart-Rendel) and [Augustus Pugin](/source/Augustus_Pugin),<ref name=":4" /> and writing his [diploma](/source/Bachelor_of_Architecture) thesis on [Harrow School](/source/Harrow_School), [ecclesiology](/source/ecclesiology) and the revival of [Queen Anne style architecture](/source/Queen_Anne_style_architecture). He graduated from Thames Polytechnic in 1987 as an [RIBA Silver Medal](/source/RIBA_President's_Medals_Students_Award) finalist.<ref name=":18" />

== Career ==

=== Spiller Farmer Architects ===
[[File:Neil Spiller in Bratislava (c. 1990).jpg|thumb|284x284px|Spiller in [Piešťany](/source/Pie%C5%A1%C5%A5any) (c. 1990)|left]]After graduating, Spiller moved to [Blackheath](/source/Blackheath%2C_London) and formed the practice Spiller Farmer Architects with fellow Thames Polytechnic [alumnus](/source/Alumni) Laurie Farmer in 1987. The two would collaborate on architectural drawings, dividing card-stock between themselves to produce what Spiller terms 'schizophrenic drawings'.<ref name=":4" /><ref name=":6" /> These early works largely focused on objects isolated from their spaces rather than drawing spaces themselves, contextualised by objects. An early example of this is their ''Vitriolic Column'' (1986),<ref name=":5" /> with Spiller citing [Charles Jencks](/source/Charles_Jencks) as an early influence.<ref name=":6" /> Spiller Farmer also produced plans for [Milwaukee](/source/Milwaukee) and [Genoa](/source/Genoa) made anew, with reference to [Le Corbusier](/source/Le_Corbusier)'s ambition to redesign [Paris](/source/Paris).<ref name=":4" /> Much of this early work was published contemporarily in the magazine ''[Building Design](/source/Building_Design)''.

The Spiller Farmer practice was based in London and opened offices in [Bratislava](/source/Bratislava) in 1990.<ref name=":6" /> The same year they published their early drawings in a collection titled ''Burning Whiteness, Plump Black Lines'', with [Cedric Price](/source/Cedric_Price) introducing the volume. Spiller incorporated much of Price's philosophy of architecture around this time, chiefly his ideas regarding architecture as an enabling and liberating technology. Due to the [economic recession](/source/Early_1990s_recession), Spiller Farmer Architects was dissolved in 1995.<ref name=":4" /><ref name=":5" /> Farmer however remained in [Slovakia](/source/Slovakia) and continued to work under the practice's name. His company eventually diversified into real estate consultancy, being re-founded in [Zagreb](/source/Zagreb) in 2003.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Nicholson |first=Tom |date=19 March 2001 |title=Laurie Farmer: Bratislava decision-making - The Slovak Spectator |url=https://spectator.sme.sk/business/c/laurie-farmer-bratislava-decision-making |access-date=2025-04-02 |website=SME |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=About us |url=https://spillerfarmer.hr/en/about-us/ |access-date=2025-04-02 |website=Spiller Farmer |language=en-US}}</ref>

=== The Bartlett, UCL ===
left|thumb|285x285px|Neil Spiller, ''Hot Desk'' or ''Nano Desk'' ({{Circa|1993}})
''Burning Whiteness, Plumb Black Lines'' gained Spiller recognition as an emerging talent. In the early 1990s, he was approached in a bar by [Sir Peter Cook](/source/Peter_Cook_(architect)) who recruited him to The Bartlett.<ref name=":0" /><ref name=":4" /> In lieu of Farmer, Spiller began working with Philip 'Mad Phil' Watson who was recruited to The Bartlett's faculty around the same time and the two continued to teach together until 2018.<ref name=":17" /> In 1991, the two travelled to [New York City](/source/New_York_City) with the staff of Watson's previous institution, Birmingham Polytechnic (now [Birmingham City University](/source/Birmingham_City_University)). There Spiller purchased the book ''Cyberspace: the First Steps'' (1991), edited by [Michael Benedik](/source/Michael_Benedikt_(urbanist)), which inspired a new preoccupation with [cyberspace](/source/cyberspace) and [nanotechnology](/source/nanotechnology).<ref name=":17" /> On this subject, he wrote ''Digital Dreams – Architecture and the Alchemic Technologies'' from 1993–95, publishing it in 1998.<ref name=":4" />

In 1992, Spiller was invited to include his work in ''AD''<nowiki/>'s ''Theory and Experimentation'' exhibitions at the [Royal Institute of British Architects](/source/Royal_Institute_of_British_Architects) (RIBA) and the [Royal Academy of Arts](/source/Royal_Academy_of_Arts) (RA) alongside those who had inspired him, such as Cook, [Lebbeus Woods](/source/Lebbeus_Woods), [Daniel Libeskind](/source/Daniel_Libeskind), [Bernard Tschumi](/source/Bernard_Tschumi) and the [Coop Himmelb(l)au](/source/Coop_Himmelb(l)au) firm.<ref name=":2" /><ref name=":4" /> Woods in particular championed Spiller's work and two years after the exhibition, Spiller was asked to guest edit an issue of ''AD.''<ref name=":4" /> Working alongside Martin Pearce, he produced the seminal ''Architects in Cyberspace'' (1995), the first journal publication to explore the intersections between cyberspace and architecture.<ref name=":0" /><ref name=":4" /><ref name=":5" /> The issue included contributions from architects such as Tschumi and [William Mitchell](/source/William_Mitchell_(sculptor)); artists like [Ian Hunter](/source/Ian_Hunter_(curator)), [Roy Ascott](/source/Roy_Ascott), [Madeline Gins](/source/Madeline_Gins) and [Stelarc](/source/Stelarc); as well as theorists such as [Sadie Plant](/source/Sadie_Plant) and [Nick Land](/source/Nick_Land),<ref>{{Cite journal |date=1998 |editor-last=Spiller |editor-first=Neil |editor2-last=Pearce |editor2-first=Martin |title=Architects in Cyberspace |url=https://monoskop.org/images/2/2d/AD_118_Architects_in_Cyberspace_1996.pdf |journal=[Architectural Design](/source/Architectural_Design) |issue=118 |issn=0003-8504 |via=[Monoskop](/source/Monoskop)}}</ref> who together would found the [Cybernetic Culture Research Unit](/source/Cybernetic_Culture_Research_Unit) (CCRU) later that year.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Reynolds |first=Simon |date=3 November 2009 |title=Energy Flash |url=https://energyflashbysimonreynolds.blogspot.com/2009/11/ |access-date=2025-04-02 |website=[Blogspot](/source/Blogspot) |language=en}}</ref>thumb|350x350px|Neil Spiller, ''Trashed Triptych'' (1996): ''Genesis to Genocide'' (left), ''The Martyrdom of Saint Sebastian'' (centre), ''Nativity in Black'' (right).

Around 1993, Spiller was commissioned by his girlfriend, a [psychologist](/source/psychologist), to design a desk. Spiller did so, representing in its sculptural elements vats of swirling nanotechnological material.<ref name=":17" /> The piece was built by sixteen*(makers).<ref>{{Cite web |title=sixteen*(makers): architecture + research |url=http://www.sixteenmakers.org/publications.htm |access-date=2025-04-11 |website=Sixteen Makers}}</ref> After Spiller and the client's relationship ended, she returned the desk to him, worrying that it would pose a danger to her infant.<ref name=":17" />

As Diploma and [MArch](/source/Master_of_Architecture) Director between 1993 and 2010, Spiller revolutionised the teaching at The Bartlett, the reputation of their degree programmes coming to be regarded as some of the best in the world at that time. During this time, he also occupied a visiting professorship as a John and Magda McHale Research Fellow, [State University of New York](/source/State_University_of_New_York) in 2002.<ref>{{Cite web |last= |title=Neil Spiller (UK): A Matter of Feeling |url=https://metamorf.no/2012/index1b6c.html?job-listing=neil-spiller-uk |access-date=2025-12-11 |website=Meta.Morf |language=en}}</ref> By 2011, The Bartlett's students had won the [RIBA President's Silver Medal](/source/RIBA_President's_Medals_Students_Award) an unprecedented six times, winning more often than any other institution over a period of 18 years.<ref name=":3" /> Spiller would rise to become Vice-Dean under [Christine Hawley](/source/Christine_Hawley) before leaving The Bartlett in 2010.<ref name=":5" />

=== The University of Greenwich ===
In 2010, Spiller was approached by [Baroness Blackstone](/source/Tessa_Blackstone%2C_Baroness_Blackstone) and asked to head and reinvigorate the [University of Greenwich](/source/University_of_Greenwich)'s School of Architecture, as he and Cook had done at The Bartlett.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Fielden |first=Tom |date=22 August 2010 |title='Visionary' Bartlett prof takes over Greenwich |url=https://www.architectsjournal.co.uk/archive/visionary-bartlett-prof-takes-over-greenwich |access-date=2025-04-02 |website=[Architects' Journal](/source/Architects'_Journal) |language=en}}</ref> At the time, the university was planning to erect a new building for the School, designed by [Heneghan Peng Architects](/source/Heneghan_Peng_Architects) and situated opposite [Nicholas Hawksmoor](/source/Nicholas_Hawksmoor)'s [St Alfege Church](/source/St_Alfege_Church%2C_Greenwich). Spiller accepted and brought several of the more radical and experimental members of The Bartlett's faculty with him to Greenwich.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Waite |first=Richard |date=18 July 2018 |title=Neil Spiller to leave Greenwich University |url=https://www.architectsjournal.co.uk/news/neil-spiller-to-leave-greenwich-university#:~:text=However%20in%20a%20statement%20released,m%20looking%20for%20new%20challenges. |access-date=2025-04-02 |website=The Architects’ Journal |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |last=Paddock |first=Darren |date=5 September 2011 |title=More big names to join Spiller at Greenwich |url=https://www.architectsjournal.co.uk/archive/more-big-names-to-join-spiller-at-greenwich |access-date=2025-04-02 |website=The Architects’ Journal |language=en}}</ref><ref name=":8">{{Cite AV media |url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=siXGVAu0Vno |title=Neil Spiller, Deputy Pro Vice-Chancellor, University of Greenwich, London |date=8 July 2015 |last=UCLA Architecture and Urban Design |access-date=2025-04-02 |via=YouTube}}</ref> By 2013, Spiller had been named Hawksmoor Chair of Architecture and Landscape and Deputy [Pro-Vice-Chancelor](/source/Pro-vice-chancellor). In 2018, Spiller left the university.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Waite |first=Richard |date=18 July 2018 |title=Neil Spiller to leave Greenwich University |url=https://www.architectsjournal.co.uk/news/neil-spiller-to-leave-greenwich-university |access-date=2025-04-10 |website=The Architects’ Journal |language=en}}</ref> Subsequently, Spiller occupied a visiting professorship and the position of Visiting Azrieli Critic at [Carlton University](/source/Carleton_University), from 2020–22;<ref name=":0" /> as well as a visiting professorship at [Università Iuav di Venezia](/source/Universit%C3%A0_Iuav_di_Venezia), [Italy](/source/Italy), in 2021.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Architectural Design, 95: 3. |url=https://oroeditions.com/product/architectural-design-95-3 |access-date=2025-12-11 |website=Oro Editions - Publishers of Architecture, Art, and Design |language=en-US}}</ref>

=== ''Architectural Design'' (''AD'') ===
Due to the success of ''Architects in Cyberspace'', ''AD'' asked Spiller to edit another in 1998, this time a [monograph](/source/monograph) on his work up until that point, titled ''Maverick Deviations''.<ref name=":4" /> He would go on to guest edit several more editions of ''AD'' including the influential ''Protocell Architecture'' with his former PhD student, Rachel Armstrong.

From 2008 to 2010, Spiller authored a regular column for ''AD'' titled 'Spiller's Bits';<ref name=":14">{{Cite journal |last=Spiller |first=Neil |date=2013 |title=Fictional influences |url=https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/epdf/10.1080/14626268.2013.771372?needAccess=true& |journal=Digital Creativity |volume=24 |issue=1 |pages=88–92 |doi=10.1080/14626268.2013.771372 |issn=1462-6268 |via=Taylor and Francis|url-access=subscription }}</ref> in 2018, he became the publication's editor.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Architectural Design – AD Journal |url=https://archdesignjournal.com/ |access-date=2025-04-02 |website=Architectural Design Journal}}</ref> Prior to this, Spiller had been the editor of ''Building Design Interactive'' magazine and sat on the board of both ''AD'' and ''Technoetic Arts Journal.''<ref name=":14" /> He had also previously contributed to the ''[Architects' Journal](/source/Architects'_Journal)'' (''AJ''),<ref>{{Cite web |title=Neil Spiller |url=https://www.architectsjournal.co.uk/author/neil-spiller |access-date=2025-04-02 |website=Architects’ Journal |language=en}}</ref> [BBC Future](/source/BBC_News),<ref>{{Cite web |title=Neil Spiller |url=https://www.bbc.com/future/author/neil-spiller |access-date=2025-04-02 |website=BBC |language=en}}</ref> ''[The Architectural Review](/source/The_Architectural_Review)'',<ref>{{Cite web |title=Neil Spiller, Author at The Architectural Review |url=https://www.architectural-review.com/author/neil-spiller |access-date=2025-04-02 |website=The Architectural Review |language=en}}</ref> and ''[Architectural Record](/source/Architectural_Record)''.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Murdock |first=James |date=2009 |title=Thinking and Digitising: Recession's Modus Operandi |journal=[Architectural Record](/source/Architectural_Record) |pages=37–38}}</ref>

== AVATAR Group ==
In the early 1990s, The Bartlett had adopted a hermetic 'unit' system where the faculty formed student groups of 15–17 members led by a distinguished tutor and separated by research area.<ref>{{Cite web |last=UCL |date=22 November 2017 |title=Design Units |url=https://www.ucl.ac.uk/bartlett/architecture/about-us/design-units |access-date=2025-04-02 |website=The Bartlett School of Architecture |language=en}}</ref> Under Spiller's auspices, many of the School's faculty and students had become engaged in some form of digital theory. In 2004, Spiller founded a special inter-unit collective called 'Advanced Virtual and Technological Architectural Research', known as the AVATAR Group or Laboratory. AVATAR had its own dedicated [Master's](/source/Master's_degree) and [Doctorate](/source/Doctor_of_Philosophy) programmes.<ref name=":3" /><ref>{{Cite journal |last=Spiller |first=Neil |date=2013 |title=AVATAR: Nothing is Impossible |url=https://resource.tcdc.or.th/article/21020/30110100469636/30110100469636_6.pdf |journal=Architectural Design |volume=85 |issue=5 |pages=52–57 |doi=10.1002/ad.1653 |issn=0003-8504 |via=Thailand Creative & Design Center}}</ref> [Bruce Sterling](/source/Bruce_Sterling) described AVATAR as an 'interdisciplinary research agenda [that] explores all manner of digital and visceral terrain and considers the impact of advanced technology on architectural design, engaging with [cybernetics](/source/cybernetics), [aesthetics](/source/aesthetics) and philosophy to develop new ways of manipulating the built environment'.<ref>{{Cite magazine |last=Sterling |first=Bruce |author-link=Bruce Sterling |date=18 February 2010 |title=Unconventional Computing and Architecture |url=https://www.wired.com/2010/02/unconventional-computing-and-architecture/ |access-date=2025-04-23 |magazine=[Wired](/source/Wired_(Magazine)) |language=en-US |issn=1059-1028}}</ref>

AVATAR quickly grew into an international think tank and research centre, pioneering the discourse surrounding the impact of advanced technologies on architectural design.<ref name=":3" />

In 2008, AVATAR was described in the press as '[m]ore like an extraordinary megalomaniac art collective than a student seminar, AVATAR doesn't design buildings - it designs futures'.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Beauman |first=Ned |date=14 March 2008 |title=UCL in the News: Mind-blowing inventions from a mysterious architecture lab |url=https://www.ucl.ac.uk/news/2008/mar/ucl-news-mind-blowing-inventions-mysterious-architecture-lab |access-date=2025-04-02 |website=UCL News |language=en}}</ref> Two years later, Spiller and Rachel Armstrong's work on protocells, a key research area for AVATAR, was featured in ''[Nature](/source/Nature_(journal))''.<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Armstrong |first1=Rachel |last2=Spiller |first2=Neil |date=2010 |title=Synthetic biology: Living Quarters |url=https://www.nature.com/articles/467916a |journal=[Nature](/source/Nature_(journal)) |volume=467 |issue=7318 |pages=916–918 |bibcode=2010Natur.467..916A |doi=10.1038/467916a}}</ref>

== ''Communicating Vessels'' ==
left|thumb|375x375px|Neil Spiller, ''Analysis of Beauty (Part 1)'' (2010)

=== Background and Interpretation ===
In 1998, tiring of moving quickly from one project to the next, Spiller embarked upon his ongoing long project, ''Communicating Vessels'', an artistic and literary paracosm which Spiller has variously described as '[[autobiography|autobiograph[ical]]]',<ref name=":5" />  '[psychogeographical](/source/Psychogeography)',<ref name=":17" /> and, with reference to the work of [Dame Frances Yates](/source/Frances_Yates), 'memory theatre'.<ref name=":9">{{Cite book |last=Spiller |first=Neil |url= |title=Expanding Fields in of Architectural Discourse and Practice: Curated Works of the P.E.A.R Journal |date=2020 |publisher=[UCL Press](/source/UCL_Press) |isbn=978-1-78735-637-5 |location=London |pages=117–122 |language=en |chapter=Dwelling in the twenty-first century: 'The Professor's Study' |chapter-url=https://g-city.sass.org.cn/_upload/article/files/1e/1d/79cc3f6e4aa2a0ad42891a629cb4/9df3b321-8dc9-470c-8970-66db22a1a02b.pdf |via=[Shanghai Academy of Social Sciences](/source/Shanghai_Academy_of_Social_Sciences)}}</ref> As of 2018, Spiller estimated that there are approximately 1000 drawings associated with the project.<ref name=":5" /><ref name=":10">{{Cite journal |last=Spiller |first=Neil |date=2018 |title=Drawing as Communicating Vessels: An Apologia (Or Not) |url=https://gala.gre.ac.uk/id/eprint/17563/7/17563%20SPILLER_Drawing_as_Communicating_Vessels_2017.pdf |journal=Scroope |issue=26 |pages=176–186 |via=[University of Greenwich](/source/University_of_Greenwich)}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal |last=Spiller |first=Neil |date=2018 |title=That was Then, this is Now and Next |url=https://gala.gre.ac.uk/id/eprint/19327/31/19327%20SPILLER_Introduction_2018.pdf |journal=Architectural Design |volume=88 |issue=2 |pages=6–18 |doi=10.1002/ad.2271 |issn=0003-8504 |via=University of Greenwich}}</ref> The name '''Communicating Vessels''<nowiki/>' is an allusion to [André Breton](/source/Andr%C3%A9_Breton)'s ''Les Vases Communicants'' (1931).<ref name=":8" /> Spiller has said that the ''Vessels'' project has 66 sub-titles including '[Rude Mechanicals](/source/Mechanical_(character))', 'Critical Paths' and 'Slam-houndian Surrealism',<ref name=":11">{{Cite AV media |url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cPCMRmzk2b4 |title=Neil Spiller (February 20, 2008) |date=20 September 2017 |last=SCI-Arc Media Archive |access-date=2025-04-02 |via=YouTube}}</ref> a reference to the opening sentence of [William Gibson](/source/William_Gibson)'s ''[Count Zero](/source/Count_Zero)'' (1986).

At the project's inception, Spiller drew inspiration from [Daniel Liberskind](/source/Daniel_Libeskind)'s ''Chamber Works'' (1983), [Michael Webb](/source/Michael_Webb_(architect))'s ''Temple Island'' (1987), Ben Nicholson's ''Appliance House'' (1990) as well as the prose of [Francesco Colonna](/source/Francesco_Colonna_(writer))'s ''[Hypnerotomachia Poliphili](/source/Hypnerotomachia_Poliphili)'' (1499), intending to design his project's spaces and objects to reflect motifs of [Surrealist](/source/Surrealism) art and theory.<ref name=":5" /><ref name=":9" /> Most notably, ''Communicating Vessels'' references [Alfred Jarry](/source/Alfred_Jarry)'s ['Pataphysics](/source/'Pataphysics) and its three declensions: anomaly, hybridity and [clinamen](/source/clinamen).<ref name=":9" />

Spiller imagines the project as designing a space, both real and virtual, centred on an island in the [River Stour](/source/River_Stour%2C_Kent), near Sturry, where he grew up.<ref name=":4" /><ref name=":5" /><ref name=":7" /><ref name=":10" /> This space consists of architectural elements familiar to Spiller's youth and the parochial English house and garden that have undergone [deconstruction](/source/deconstruction): in Spiller's words, '[birdbath](/source/Bird_bath), entrance gates, [...] [topiary](/source/topiary)' are 'redesigned [...] in the wake' of 'the surreal protocols of contemporary architectural design'.<ref name=":4" /><ref name=":10" /> As a project focused on Spiller's own memory and imagination, psychosexual [hermeneutics](/source/hermeneutics) such [Salvador Dalí](/source/Salvador_Dal%C3%AD)'s [paranoiac-critical method](/source/paranoiac-critical_method) form as major a part of the project as its literal designs. In a lecture delivered virtually to [Odile Decq](/source/Odile_Decq)'s Confluence Institute in 2020, Spiller remarked that the project is as much about '[[Semiotics|semiotic[s]]]' as it is about the 'embroidering of space'.<ref name=":15" /> In 2011, [Lebbeus Woods](/source/Lebbeus_Woods) wrote of the ''Vessels'' project:<blockquote>Spiller's world includes much of the familiar—boundaries, edges, limits, creating forms we half or fully recognize. Then there are the mysterious forms, the ones we don't recognize at all. Bringing them all together to form a continuous landscape suggests above all else a transformation—the familiar past will become the unfamiliar future. [...] Spiller's drawings are unsettling, even frightening. He presents us with a world we must work at to navigate. Rationality and emotion are needed in equal measure and will meet in our imaginations. The sheer beauty—or ugliness—of the drawings seduces us to try, to match his creative efforts with our own. This brings the drawings firmly into the domain of architecture and far from that of art. The architect has designed spaces for us to inhabit, rather than objects for us to appreciate from outside.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Woods |first=Lebbeus |date=19 March 2011 |title=SPILLER'S WORLD |url=https://lebbeuswoods.wordpress.com/2011/03/19/spillers-world/ |access-date=2025-04-02 |website=LEBBEUS WOODS |language=en |via=[Wordpress](/source/Wordpress)}}</ref></blockquote>

=== The Boy and the Professor ===
As well as being a vast series of drawings, the ''Vessels'' project is also a literary one: Spiller interpolates sections of creative prose into his academic writing when discussing his work. Many of the characters of 'The Island of Vessels' are inspired by [Greek mythology](/source/Greek_mythology), or are themselves Greek mythological figures such as [Hermes](/source/Hermes), [Hectate](/source/Hecate) and the [Minotaur](/source/Minotaur) (also a reference to Breton's journal ''[Minotaure](/source/Minotaure)'').<ref name=":12">{{Cite journal |last=Spiller |first=Neil |date=2018 |title=Transcending Geometry: The Longhosue |url=https://gala.gre.ac.uk/id/eprint/19327/34/19327%20SPILLER_Transcending_Geometry_2018.pdf |journal=Architectural Design |volume=88 |issue=2 |pages=106–113 |doi=10.1002/ad.2271 |issn=0003-8504 |via=The University of Greenwich}}</ref>

Central, however, is 'the Boy' and his dealings with 'the Professor', a creator figure that Spiller has likened to the 'Juggler' or 'Handler of Gravity' in [Marcel Duchamp](/source/Marcel_Duchamp)'s writings on ''[The Bride Stripped Bare by Her Bachelors, Even](/source/The_Bride_Stripped_Bare_by_Her_Bachelors%2C_Even)'' (1915–23).<ref name=":4" /><ref name=":12" /><ref>{{Cite journal |last=Spiller |first=Neil |date=2013 |title=The Poetics of the Island of Vessels |url=https://download.e-bookshelf.de/download/0004/0254/49/L-G-0004025449-0002565288.pdf |journal=Architectural Design |issue=225 |pages=112–119 |doi=10.1002/ad.1653 |issn=0003-8504}}</ref> Spiller has likened both the Boy and the Professor to himself and this is suggested in his prose. For example, the Professor is written as wearing [cowboy boot](/source/cowboy_boot)s and Spiller has mentioned that the Boy is [asthmatic](/source/asthmatic), with both being features of Spiller's own character.<ref name=":6" /><ref name=":11" /> He describes the Professor as mad and '[idiot savant](/source/Savant_syndrome)', a representation of himself in the present. The Boy is Spiller as a child and is described as an '[unreliable narrator](/source/unreliable_narrator)' who does not understanding the surreal landscape in which he trespasses.<ref name=":15" />

=== The Professor's Study ===
The design of the Professor's Study reflects one of the core functions of the ''Communicating Vessels'' project, that of [mnemonic](/source/mnemonic)s. All the Island, but especially the Study, are examples of the [method of loci](/source/method_of_loci): allowing Spiller to contain within his project a catalogue of his creative influences. He has named [Vittore Carpaccio](/source/Vittore_Carpaccio)'s [''Saint Augustine in his Study''](/source/St._Augustine_in_His_Study_(Carpaccio)) (1502), Dalí's ''[Dalí Seen from the Back Painting Gala from the Back Eternalised by Six Virtual Corneas Provisionally Reflected by Six Real Mirrors](/source/Dal%C3%AD_Seen_from_the_Back_Painting_Gala_from_the_Back_Eternalised_by_Six_Virtual_Corneas_Provisionally_Reflected_by_Six_Real_Mirrors)'' (1972–73), Cornelius Meyer's ''Dwelling for a Gentleman'' (1689) and [Frederick Kiesler](/source/Frederick_John_Kiesler)'s triptych ''Les Larves d'Imagie d'Henri Robert Marcel'' ''Duchamp'' (1972–73) as the primary inspirations for this aspect of his project.<ref name=":9" />

=== The Velázquez Machine ===
One of the earliest designs associated with ''Communicating Vessels'' is the Velázquez Mechine, named for the painter [Diego Velázquez](/source/Diego_Vel%C3%A1zquez) whose ''[Las Meninas](/source/Las_Meninas)'' (1657) greatly inspired Spiller to depict his own creative process with the project. The Machine is unique as it is not situated on the Island of Vessels; instead, it hangs in the [Musée de l'Orangerie](/source/Mus%C3%A9e_de_l'Orangerie), in the [Tuileries Garden](/source/Tuileries_Garden), Paris. Spiller describes the Machine as oscillating to create a series of vectors which inform the trajectories of sculptures and the planting of vista on the Island.<ref name=":15" /><ref name=":16" /> The drawing includes a fried egg hanging from a [plumb line](/source/Plumb_bob)—an allusion to [Salvador Dalí](/source/Salvador_Dal%C3%AD)'s ''Œufs sur le Plat sans le Plat'' (1932)—and references Spanish vernacular painting more generally.<ref name=":15" />

=== The Wheelbarrow with Expanding Bread ===
One such sculpture on the Island remotely controlled by the Velázquez Machine is the Wheelbarrow with Expanding Bread. The design of the sculpture is inspired by [Hector Guimard](/source/Hector_Guimard)'s [Art Nouveau](/source/Art_Nouveau) metro stations in Paris and Dalí's paranoiac-critical reading of them as evoking [praying mantes](/source/Mantis). The Wheelbarrow also references Dalí's painting ''The Wheelbarrow'' (1951), which Spiller regards as being inspired by [Ferdinand Cheval](/source/Ferdinand_Cheval)'s Palais Idéal—a key piece of Surrealist architecture, discussed at length in Spiller's book ''Architecture and Surrealism'' (2016).<ref name=":15" />

=== The Genetic Gazebo ===
The Genetic Gazebo was conceived by Spiller with reference to the [second-order cyberneticist](/source/Second-order_cybernetics) [Gordon Pask](/source/Gordon_Pask), who taught at the AA in the 1970s and 1980s. Spiller became inspired by the [dendritic](/source/Wiktionary%3Adendritic) architecture of a self-wiring ear Pask engineered in 1951. Another inspiration was the notion of harvesting [DNA](/source/DNA) from prehistoric insects suspended in amber, coming to think of this as a possible input to the Gazebo. Another such input was conceived of as being the DNA of Spiller's childhood pet, a [gerbil](/source/Mongolian_gerbil) called Micky who died in 1976. Part of the Gazebo is a birdbath which functions as another input. These inputs inform the creation of what Spiller terms 'psycho-atmospheric objects', with reference to Dalí. The Gazebo is characterised by a 4 x 4, 16-point electrical array which is conditioned by switching between these various inputs.<ref name=":7" /> thumb|422x422px|Neil Spiller, ''Virtual Objects and their Virtual Shadows'': ''Walled Garden for Lebbeus (Garden Removed)'' (2013)

=== The Walled Garden for Lebbeus ===
Woods, a paradigmatic figure to Spiller, and later his friend, died in 2012, triggering a major phase in ''Communicating Vessels''.<ref name=":13">{{Cite journal |last=Spiller |first=Neil |date=2014 |title=Detailing the Walled Garden for Lebbeus |url=https://resource.tcdc.or.th/article/21020/30110100500247/30110100500247_13.pdf |journal=Architectural Design |volume=92 |issue=4 |pages=118–127 |doi=10.1002/ad.1773 |issn=0003-8504 |via=[Thailand Creative & Design Center](/source/Thailand_Creative_%26_Design_Center)}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news |last=Wainwright |first=Oliver |date=31 October 2012 |title=Lebbeus Woods, visionary architect of imaginary worlds, dies in New York |url=https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/architecture-design-blog/2012/oct/31/lebbeus-woods |access-date=2025-04-02 |work=The Guardian |language=en-GB |issn=0261-3077}}</ref> Spiller produced many works based on his memories of Woods at this time, such as a series of approximately 25 drawings titled '''Walled Garden for Lebbeus''<nowiki/>' (2013). The design of the Garden partially references [Aldo Rossi](/source/Aldo_Rossi)'s Cataldo Cemetery.<ref name=":15" /><ref name=":13" />

The Garden is presided over by a statue of [Electra](/source/Electra): the back of the statue's head is missing, within it, a storm can be seen and heard. In one sense, this detail is given in reference to [Hurricane Sandy](/source/Hurricane_Sandy) that raged in [New York City](/source/New_York_City) the day of Woods's death; in another, the storm is an example of [augmented reality](/source/augmented_reality), a key research area of Spiller's during his career at The Bartlett.<ref name=":15" /><ref name=":13" /> For Spiller, augmented and virtual reality presented a revolutionary prospect for architecture, that of a blank canvas where the laws of physics are more easily circumvented.<ref name=":13" />

Another key feature of the Garden on the Island of Vessels is a conical [frustum](/source/frustum), divided into two chambers: one upper, the other lower. The design of the upper chamber is an homage to [Giovanni Battista Pirenesi](/source/Giovanni_Battista_Piranesi)'s plate IX, ''[Carceri d'invenzione](/source/Carceri_d'invenzione)'' (c. 1745–50) and [Arnold Böcklin](/source/Arnold_B%C3%B6cklin)'s [''Isle of the Dead''](/source/Isle_of_the_Dead_(painting)) (1883). The lower chamber is linked to the upper, and the movements of components in its upper half create a corresponding image in the lower, that of an evocation of the myth of [Leda and the Swan](/source/Leda_and_the_Swan).<ref name=":13" /> Often the frustum is shown to be casting two shadows.

The final drawing in the series, ''Walled Garden for Lebbeus (Gold)'' (2013), was shown as part of the RA's [Summer Exhibition](/source/Royal_Academy_Summer_Exhibition) in 2015.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Hudson |first=Phil |date=21 September 2015 |title=Greenwich at the Royal Academy – School of Design: Architecture |url=https://blogs.gre.ac.uk/architecture/2015/09/21/greenwich-at-the-royal-academy/ |access-date=2025-04-09 |website=University of Greenwich |language=en-GB}}</ref>

=== The Longhouse ===
In 2015, Spiller began to design the Professor's house, called the Longhouse. Spiller visualises the space as a ''[prytaneion](/source/prytaneion)'' on the Island of Vessels, where the internal logics of Spiller's world are at their most schizophrenic.<ref name=":4" /><ref name=":12" /> Spiller writes that the Longhouse began as simply the designs for a set of cast bronze doors, embossed with Surreal symbols, drawn with reference to [Auguste Rodin](/source/Auguste_Rodin)'s ''[The Gates of Hell](/source/The_Gates_of_Hell)'' and [Lorenzo Ghiberti](/source/Lorenzo_Ghiberti)'s ''Porta Nord del Battistero'' (1403–24).<ref name=":15" /><ref name=":12" />

The Longhouse's form is ever-changing, it is reflexive in relationship to its site, its versions programmed by a [chunking](/source/Chunking_(computing)) engine called the Chicken Computer, a mechanical instrument that senses and adapts to its physical and virtual environment. A core organisational feature of the Longhouse's ever-changing design is that it is centred on a horizontal axis, dividing it in half. In reference to the Surrealist preoccupation with [mannequin](/source/mannequin)s, the Longhouse contains a Hall of Dummies.<ref name=":12" />

When, in 2019, Spiller's close friend and frequent collaborator [Vaughan Oliver](/source/Vaughan_Oliver) died, Spiller set about memorialising him in an augmented reality roof garden for the Longhouse, as he had done for Woods elsewhere on the Island.<ref name=":6" /><ref>{{Cite journal |last=Smith |first=Chris L |date=2022 |title=Thick Fields and Aberrant Transmutations |url=https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/ad.2839 |journal=Architectural Design |language=en |volume=92 |issue=4 |pages=86–93 |doi=10.1002/ad.2839 |issn=1554-2769 |via=[Wiley](/source/Wiley_(publisher))|url-access=subscription }}</ref>thumb|362x362px|Neil Spiller, ''Dee Stool (Miniature Pataphysical Laboratory)'' (2003).|left

=== The Dee Stools ===
The Dee Stools (or Trunks) are Spiller's response to the [Elizabethan](/source/Elizabethan_era) court alchemist [John Dee](/source/John_Dee) and the fact that he is reported to have hidden his texts in a chest. The Stools are likely surreal redesigns of the fishing stools along the River Stour that Spiller remembers from his youth. They are six in number and covered by a '[Futurist](/source/Futurism) cloak', in reference to [F. T. Marinetti](/source/Filippo_Tommaso_Marinetti)'s ''Sudan–Parigi'' (1921).<ref name=":7" />

Within the Stools are miniature Pataphysical laboratories. In his writings and lectures, Spiller often mentions they are 'three buttocks' in width.<ref name=":15" /><ref name=":16">{{Cite book |last=Spiller |first=Neil |title=Architectural Inventions: Visionary Drawing |date=2012 |publisher=[Laurence King Publishing](/source/Laurence_King_Publishing) |isbn=9781780670058 |editor-last=Bua |editor-first=Matt |location=London |pages=48–49 |language=en |editor-last2=Goldfarb |editor-first2=Maximilian}}</ref><ref name=":7" /> The Stools contain a painting machine in reference to Jarry's depiction of a clinamen as a painting machine in ''[Exploits and Opinions of Dr. Faustroll, Pataphysician](/source/Exploits_and_Opinions_of_Dr._Faustroll%2C_Pataphysician)'' (published posthumously, 1911).<ref name=":11" /> According to Spiller, other allusions are made to [Georgio de Chirico](/source/Giorgio_de_Chirico)'s ''The Disturbing Muses'' (1925), as well as the teeth paver and artificial lips from [Raymond Roussel](/source/Raymond_Roussel)'s novel ''[Locus Solus](/source/Locus_Solus)'' (1914). Most visible are the allusions to Duchamp's ''[Bicycle Wheel](/source/Bicycle_Wheel)'' (1951), ''[Étant donnés](/source/%C3%89tant_donn%C3%A9s)'' (1966) as well as the 'draught pistons' from ''The Large Glass.''<ref name=":15" />

The painting machine within the Stools is designed to splatter paint onto Surrealist poetry, creating new permutational verses determined by which lines are touched by the paint. This is a reference to the writing techniques associated with the [Oulipo](/source/Oulipo) sub-sect of Pataphysicians.<ref name=":15" />

=== The Baroness ===
The Baroness is an [id](/source/Id%2C_ego_and_superego)-like ruler the Island of Vessels and is an homage to the [Dada](/source/Dada)ist artist [Elsa von Freytag-Loringhoven](/source/Elsa_von_Freytag-Loringhoven),<ref name=":5" /> whose sculpture ''God'' (1917) is a major influence on Spiller, cited regularly in his lectures. The Baroness is also partially inspired by the Bride of Duchamp's ''The Large Glass'', both being characterised by [electromagnetic](/source/Electromagnetism) filaments.<ref name=":17" />

=== Holy gasoline ===
The Island of Vessels is characterised by reflexive technological elements, which cybernetically correspond. Spiller imagines this space as being powered by a nanotechnological grease, made up of [protocell](/source/protocell)s, which is also referred to as 'holy gasoline' in his writings.<ref name=":4" /><ref name=":9" /> 'Holy gasoline' is an allusion [Zodiac Mindwarp and the Love Reaction](/source/Zodiac_Mindwarp_and_the_Love_Reaction)'s 1988 song of the same name.<ref name=":11" /> The material is flammable and drawn to the Baroness.<ref name=":5" />

=== Prose Style ===
The prose associated with Spiller's ''Vessels'' project is as referential as his drawings but a smaller proportion of it is published.<ref name=":15" /> In a lecture delivered at the [Southern California Institute of Architecture](/source/Southern_California_Institute_of_Architecture) (SCI-Arc) in 2008, he read frequently from his writings on the Island of Vessels. In the below passage, Spiller alludes to Freytag-Loringhoven's sculpture ''God'', the [Vorticist](/source/Vorticism) movement and [Jacob Epstein](/source/Jacob_Epstein)'s ''[Rock Drill](/source/Rock_Drill_(Jacob_Epstein))'' (1916):<blockquote>The Professor stood before us in a quiet and considered way. He spoke of extraordinary things. He motioned behind him to what looked like a robotic [lynching](/source/lynching) hanging from a strange, otherworldly bower. He told us the sad story of Baroness and Pinky—the mutt-swine, the shittenhound. He lived nearly a hundred [Hogmanay](/source/Hogmanay)s ago in the city of collapsing towers. The Baroness blew holy gasoline and even at one point lived next to his non-retinal swiftness. She was known to light her tail with a [taillight](/source/Automotive_lighting) and smelled and put her tits into tomato cans and wrote of her cast iron lover.

He bayed us forward, asking us to be careful. Birds called in the hedgerows, it was such a fine day. We got closer to the Baroness, we admired her cathedral, her feather, her porcupine spine eyelashes and her circle of woman and marvelled at the U-bend of ''God''.

Then with a far off gaze, the Professor spoke of the ''Glass'' of two halves: one full of chocolate and cemeteries and the other with the cracked and cacked bride. He told us of masculine vibration and the baleful bachelors. He gathered himself up to his average height and, with all the theatricality he could muster, he said "ladies, gentlemen, [actuator](/source/actuator)s and surveillance paraphernalia, including [geostats](/source/Geostatistics), for your predilection I give to you a vertiginous Vorticist ''Rock Drill'', driven to teetering ecstasy by the Baroness's glandular gasoline and her weapons of mass distraction".<ref name=":11" /></blockquote>Spiller has mentioned his predilection for '[purple prose](/source/purple_prose)' in his both his academic and creative writing,<ref name=":15" /><ref name=":7" /> likely in response to Surrealist prose. Many of the titles of his works bare resemblance to the long titles of many Surreal art pieces, for example, ''The Baroness's Filaments Caressing the Bulb of the Wheelbarrow with Expanding Bread Under the Disapproving Composite Eye of a Wasp'' (2008).<ref name=":15" />

== Personal life ==
In 1997, Spiller married the novelist [Melissa Jones](/source/Melissa_Jones_(writer)),<ref>{{Cite web |last= |first= |date=12 February 1998 |title=Bookish Couple |url=https://www.architectsjournal.co.uk/archive/bookish-couple |access-date=2025-07-02 |website=[Architects' Journal](/source/Architects'_Journal) |language=en}}</ref> who at the time was working as Sir Peter Cook and Christine Hawley's personal assistant at The Bartlett. They have two children. Spiller and Jones divorced in 2012.

Spiller was close friends with the graphic designer Vaughan Oliver. The two first worked together on Spiller's monograph, ''Maverick Deviations''. In 2016, Spiller exhibited Oliver's [album cover](/source/album_cover)s commissioned for the [Pixies](/source/Pixies_(band)) at the University of Greenwich's Stephen Lawrence Gallary.<ref name=":6" /><ref>{{Cite web |last=Waterworth |first=David |date=9 January 2017 |title=Vaughan Oliver - Where Is My Mind? {{!}} Featured in Design Week {{!}} |url=https://www.greenwichunigalleries.co.uk/featured-in-design-week-vaughan-oliver-where-is-my-mind/ |access-date=2025-04-02 |website=University of Greenwich Galleries |language=en-GB}}</ref> In 2018, Spiller and Oliver intended to collaborate on a book which collected the drawings of the ''Communicating Vessels'' project.<ref>{{Cite web |date=2018-11-13 |title=Neil Spiller and Vaughan Oliver to collaborate on CIRCA Press book |url=https://thelandscape.org/2018/11/13/neil-spiller-and-vaughan-oliver-to-collaborate-on-circa-press-book/ |access-date=2025-04-02 |website=The Landscape |language=en}}</ref> Oliver died the following year and the project was cancelled.<ref>{{Cite news |last=Beaumont-Thomas |first=Ben |date=29 December 2019 |title=Vaughan Oliver, celebrated 4AD graphic designer, dies aged 62 |url=https://www.theguardian.com/music/2019/dec/29/vaughan-oliver-celebrated-4ad-graphic-designer-dies-aged-62 |access-date=2025-04-02 |work=The Guardian |language=en-GB |issn=0261-3077}}</ref> In 2023, Spiller provided the back cover art for the 2024 re-release of ''[Pixies at the BBC, 1988–91](/source/Pixies_at_the_BBC)'' (originally released in 1998).<ref>{{Citation |title=Pixies - At The BBC |date=2024-03-08 |url=https://www.discogs.com/release/30035395-Pixies-At-The-BBC?srsltid=AfmBOoqqY5VYr06dzhcHBf-YcQZvNP6TXcNjLUbmKCA6OJkdi2GNZLBP |access-date=2025-04-23 |language=en}}</ref>

== Bibliography ==
{| class="wikitable sortable"
|+Books
!Year
!Title
!Publisher
!{{text|[ISBN](/source/ISBN)}}
!Pages
!Notes
|-
|1990
|''Burning Whiteness, Plump Black Lines: A Search for Architectural Language''
|Spiller Farmer Publications
|{{ISBNT|978-0-9516195-0-6}}
|20
| rowspan="2" |
|-
|1998
|''Digital Dreams – Architecture and the Alchemic Technologies''
|Ellipsis
|{{ISBNT|978-0-8230-1352-4}}
|156
|-
|1999
|''The Power of Contemporary Architecture''
| rowspan="2" |[Wiley](/source/Wiley_(publisher))
|{{ISBNT|978-0-471-98419-1}}
|125
|Co-authored with Peter Cook.
|-
|2001
|''The Paradox of Contemporary Architecture''
|{{ISBNT|978-0-471-49685-4}}
|128
|Co-authored with Peter Cook, Laura Allen and Peg Rawes.
|-
| rowspan="2" |2002
|''Cyberreader: Critical Writings of the Digital Era''
|[Phaidon Press](/source/Phaidon_Press)
|{{ISBNT|978-0-7148-4071-0}}
|320
| rowspan="3" |
|-
|''Lost Architectures'' 
|Wiley
|{{ISBNT|978-0-471-49535-2}}
|128
|-
|2006
|''Visionary Architecture: Blueprints of the Modern Imagination''
| rowspan="3" |[Thames & Hudson](/source/Thames_%26_Hudson)
|{{ISBNT|978-0-500-28655-5}}
|272
|-
|2007
|''Future City: Experiment and Utopia in Architecture''
|{{ISBNT|978-0-500-28651-7}}
|336
|Co-edited with Jane Alison, Marie-Ange Brayer and Frédéric Migayrou.
|-
|2008
|''Digital Architecture Now: A Global Survey of Emerging Talent''
|{{ISBNT|978-0-500-34247-3}}
|400
|
|-
|2009
|''Bartlett Designs: Speculating with Architecture''
|Wiley
|{{ISBNT|978-0-470-68283-8}}
|256
|Co-edited with Ian Borden and Laura Allen.
|-
|2014
|''Educating Architects: How Tomorrow's Practitioners Will Learn Today''
| rowspan="2" |Thames & Hudson
|{{ISBNT|978-0-500-34300-5}}
|352
|Co-authored with Nic Clear.
|-
|2016
|''Surrealism and Architecture: A Blistering Romance''
|{{ISBNT|978-0-500-34320-3}}
|256
| rowspan="2" |
|-
|2020
|''How to Thrive in Architecture School: A Student Guide''
|[RIBA Publishing](/source/Royal_Institute_of_British_Architects)
|{{ISBNT|978-1-85946-908-8}}
|178
|}

=== Journal issues as guest editor ===

* ''Architects in Cyberspace'', with Martin Pearce, ''Architectural Design'', profile no. 118 (1995)
* ''Integrating Architecture'', ''Architectural Design'', profile no. 123 (1996)
* ''Maverick Deviations: Architectural Works, Neil Spiller (1981–1998)'', ''Architectural Design'', profile no. 53 (1998)
* ''Architects in Cyberspace II'', ''Architectural Design'' (1998)
* ''Young Blood'', ''Architectural Design'' (2001)
* ''Reflexive Architecture'', ''Architectural Design'', vol. 81, no. 2 (2002)
* ''Growing a Hidden Architecture'', with Rachel Armstrong, ''Technoetic Arts Journal'' (2009)
* ''Plectic Architecture: Towards a Theory of Post Digital Architecture'', with Rachel Armstrong, ''Technoetic Arts Journal'', vol. 7, no. 2 (2009)
* ''Alternative Ecologies'', ''Organs Everywhere'', no. 2 (2011)
* ''Protocell Architecture'', with Rachel Armstrong, ''Architectural Design'', no. 2 (2011)
* ''Drawing Architecture'', ''Architectural Design'', vol. 83, no. 5 (2013)
* ''The Magical Architecture in Drawing Drawings'', ''[Journal of Architectural Education](/source/Journal_of_Architectural_Education)'', vol. 67, no. 2 (2017)
* ''Celebrating the Marvellous: Surrealism in Architecture'', ''Architectural Design'', vol. 88, no. 2 (2018)

== Awards ==

* [RIBA President's Silver Medal](/source/RIBA_President's_Medals_Students_Award) Nominee''',''' Royal Institute of British Architects (London: 1987)
* Green Book Award for Architectural Works, [University of Central England](/source/Birmingham_City_University) ([Manchester](/source/Manchester): 1992)
* [RIBAJ](/source/RIBA_Journal) Eye Line competition winner, Royal Institute of British Architects (London: 2016)
* RIBAJ Eye Line competition honourable mention, Royal Institute of British Architects (London: 2017)

== Exhibitions ==
* ''Schizophrenia: The Architecture of Column and Screen'' (London: Dryden Street Gallery, 1987)
* ''Theory and Experimentation'' (London: Royal Institute of British Architects, 1992; London: Royal Academy of Arts, 1992)
* ''Digital Architecture Now'' (London: [Barbican Centre](/source/Barbican_Centre), 2008)
* ''AVATAR'' (London: Lobby Gallery, University College London, 2009)
* ''[World Architecture Festival Exhibition](/source/World_Architecture_Festival)'' ([Barcelona](/source/Barcelona): Centre Convencions International Barcelona, 2009)
* ''[London Design Festival](/source/London_Design_Festival)'' (London: [Victoria and Albert Museum](/source/Victoria_and_Albert_Museum), 2010)
* ''Drawing by Drawing'' ([Copenhagen](/source/Copenhagen): [Danish Architecture Centre](/source/Danish_Architecture_Centre), 2012)
* ''Royal Academy'' ''Summer Exhibition'' (London: Royal Academy of Arts, 2015)
* ''Negative Equity'' (London: Project Space, University of Greenwich, 2016)
* ''Royal Academy Summer Exhibition'' (London: Royal Academy of Arts, 2016)
* ''Future Cities 6'' (London: Stephen Lawrence Gallery, University of Greenwich, 2017)
* ''Extreme Dreams'' ([Ithica](/source/Ithaca%2C_New_York): John Hartell Gallery, [Cornell University](/source/Cornell_University), 2017)
* ''Drawing Attention - Private View'' (London: Betts Project, 2019)
* ''Communicating Vessels'' ([Ottawa](/source/Ottawa): Lightroom Gallery, Carlton University, 2020)
* ''Drawing Conversations'' (New York City: a83, 2022; [Montreal](/source/Montreal): Design Centre, [Université du Québec à Montréal](/source/Universit%C3%A9_du_Qu%C3%A9bec_%C3%A0_Montr%C3%A9al), 2022)
* ''Impossible Drawings'' ([Los Angeles](/source/Los_Angeles): [A+D Museum](/source/A%2BD_Museum), 2024)
* ''The Sixth Somewhat Annual Meeting'' (New York City: a83, 2025)

== Visiting professorships ==
* 2002, John and Magda McHale Research Fellow, [State University of New York](/source/State_University_of_New_York), US
* 2019–20, Lubbock Lecturer, [Huckabee College of Architecture](/source/Huckabee_College_of_Architecture), [Texas Tech University](/source/Texas_Tech_University), US
* 2020–22, Visiting Professor of Architecture and Visiting Azrieli Critic, [Carlton University](/source/Carleton_University), [Canada](/source/Canada)
* 2021, Visiting Professor, [Università Iuav di Venezia](/source/Universit%C3%A0_Iuav_di_Venezia), [Italy](/source/Italy)

== References ==
{{Reflist}}

== External links ==

* [https://www.instagram.com/neilspiller0/?hl=en-gb Neil Spiller] on [Instagram](/source/Instagram)
{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Spiller, Neil}}
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Category:20th-century British architects
Category:20th-century English architects
Category:20th-century English male artists
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Category:21st-century English male writers
Category:21st-century English writers
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Category:Alumni of the University of Greenwich
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Category:Architectural historians
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Category:People from Sturry
Category:People from Whitstable

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Adapted from the Wikipedia article [Neil Spiller](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neil_Spiller) by Wikipedia contributors ([contributor history](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neil_Spiller?action=history)). Available under [Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/). Changes may have been made.