Marya Kanakis Marya Kanakis

Marya Demetra Kanakis is a Greek-American architectural designer, writer, and founder of Ekphrasis Design Lab, a Chicago-based practice exploring the entanglements of nature, medicine, and technology in contemporary architecture.

Her professional experience bridges research and practice: urban design work for SOM, collaborations on landscape and geological architecture for Kanye West, various publication designs, and nearly a decade designing in Chicago’s healthcare and biotech sector. As an emerging voice in architectural criticism, she contributes to Metropolis Magazine and Classics of the Future. At IIT she contributed to research and curriculum development for the Master of Science in Architecture program, teaching studio and advising thesis students. She is currently an Artist in Residence at the International Museum of Surgical Sciences, where she is advancing research on clinical and botanical grafting as a lens for reexamining modernism’s relationship between the body and design. Marya has a Master of Design Studies in Ecology from Harvard University Graduate School of Design and a Bachelor of Architecture from IIT.