Professor Marc Aurel Schnabel is a renowned expert in digital design, digital transformation and extended reality environments, with a distinguished career in architecture and design education spanning over 25 years in Germany, China, Australia, New Zealand, and Japan. Now, as the Dean of the Design School at Xi’an Jiaotong-Liverpool University, he guides four departments – Architecture, Civil Engineering, Industrial Design, and Urban Planning and Design – and their research centres.
Previously, he was the Founding Director of the FORUM8 Research Lab, which is the market leader in Japan for virtual city/building simulation, at Cambridge Innovation Center in Tokyo. As Dean of the Faculty of Architecture and Design Innovation and Chair Professor of Architectural Technology at the Victoria University of Wellington in New Zealand, he significantly contributed to advancing higher education in the creative fields.
Trained as an Architect, Professor Schnabel has been the President of several professional organisations, including the Architectural Science Association (ANZAScA), the Association for Computer-Aided Architectural Design Research in Asia (CAADRIA), and the Autodesk Industry Advisory Board.
Professor Schnabel has also researched virtual reality, digital heritage, and intelligent cities as a Principal Investigator of New Zealand’s National Science Challenge, “Better Homes, Towns, and Cities”. He has received several significant honours, including being made a CAADRIA Fellow, joining the Austrian Science Fund’s PEEK Board as an expert in architecture and design, and becoming a partner of the European Union’s REACH (RE-designing Access to Cultural Heritage) project.
Throughout his career, Professor Schnabel has published extensively on digital architecture, urban design, and augmented/virtual realities and has curated several digital architectural exhibitions, including “Ars Electronica Aotearoa”. He has also established the Digital Architecture Research Alliance (DARA) and the online network Urban Digitalics, connecting professionals and researchers in innovative digital design. Professor Schnabel’s leadership and expertise in the field have made him a sought-after speaker and chair of leading international conferences.
