Before Building Laboratory
University of Virginia beforebuilding@virginia.edu





The Before Building Laboratory pioneers new material assemblies, with the aim of creating building material systems that sequester carbon and reduce construction’s contribution to the environmental crisis. Current projects focus on rapidly renewable biomaterials, including wood, bamboo, grass, various invasive plant species, and hemp.

We engage emerging technologies to work with natural materials and processes in new ways, reframing the relationship between biology, technology, and authorship. We seek to advance the accessibility of computation and robotic construction, leveraging democratized and consumer-grade technologies as well as inventing and building low-cost ground-up construction systems.





RECENT PROJECT ACCOLADES
☆ Fast Company World Changing Ideas Awards, Honorable Mention in Experimental Category, 2023
☆ Architect Magazine R+D Award, 2022
☆ The Architect’s Newspaper Best in Digital Fabrication Award, 2022
☆ AIA Central Virginia Bi-Annual Design Awards, Honor Award in Architecture, 2022
☆ Society of American Registered Architects National Design Merit Awards, 2022
☆ The Architect’s Newspaper Best of Design Award in Research, 2021
☆ Fast Company Innovation by Design Awards, Honorable Mention in Materials Category, 2021
☆ Dezeen Awards, Longlisted in Installation Design,  2021

UPCOMING LECTURES
🎙 Public by Design: Activations in Space - The 2023 University Design Research Fellowship Colloquium, November 2–3, 2023, Columbus, Indiana

LECTURE & PODCAST RECORDINGS
🎙 League Prize 2023 Night 3: Katie MacDonald & Kyle Schumann, Joseph Altshuler & Zack Morrison, June 29, 2023, 6:30 pm EST
🎙 “Lush: From Field to Fabrication”@ the University of Tennessee Knoxville, September 20, 2021
🎙 “This is America: Design Practices Memorializing Difficult Histories”, @ Brown University, April 13, 2021
🎙 “Growing, Buliding” @ the University of Virginia, February 23, 2021
🎙 “Growing Buildings” @ Public Bldg, August 27, 2020
🎙 “After Specification” @ the University of Virginia, July 31, 2020
🎙 “How After Architecture Balances Practice with Materials Research” @ Architect Magazine Podcast
🎙 “After Specification” @ Pecha Kucha Knoxville, November 16, 2019

RECENT LECTURES
🎙 League Prize 2023 Night 3: Katie MacDonald & Kyle Schumann, Joseph Altshuler & Zack Morrison, June 29, 2023, 6:30 pm EST
🎙 2023 Exhibit Columbus Design Presentations @ Columbus, Indiana City Hall, February 25, 2023
🎙 Social, Environmental, and Economic Sustainability Pecha Kucha, Georgia Tech School of Architecture, December 1, 2022
🎙 Curated Urbanisms in a Drawdown Lecture Series, Univeristy of North Carolina Charlotte, November 16, 2022
🎙 “Tangential Timber: Non-linear Wood Masonry Construction” at Association for Computer-Aided Design in Architecture, October 28, 2022
🎙 “(re)Building through Disruption: Biomaterials” @ AIA Virginia Conference, November 3, 2022
🎙 2022 Exhibit Columbus Symposium @ Columbus, Indiana City Hall, October 22, 2022
🎙 Natural Building Materials Panel @ Carnegie Mellon School of Architecture, October 10, 2022

RECENT PRESS & REVIEWS
☞ Architectural Record “The 2023 Architectural League Prize Winners Aren't Afraid to Get 'Uncomfortable'”
☞ The Architect’s Newspaper “Winners of the 2023 Architectural League Prize respond to discomforts within our environments”
☞ Arch Daily “The 2023 Architectural League Prize for Young Architects + Designers Announces the Winners”
☞ Architect Magazine “The 2023 Architectural League Prize Winners Explore the Uncomfortable”
☞ Archinect “Nine architects and designers named 2023 Architectural League Prize winners”
☞ The Architect’s Newspaper “Exhibit Columbus’s 2023 Winter Presentations offered the public a chance to comment on the upcoming round of installations”
☞ The Republic “Irwin Block bricks to be in exhibition installation”
☞ Journal of Architectural Education “Biomaterial Building Exposition”


KATIE MACDONALD

DIRECTOR
AIA NCARB
KMACDONALD@VIRGINIA.EDU
 

Katie MacDonald is Assistant Professor of Architecture at the University of Virginia, Cofounder of After Architecture, and a  licensed architect in Virginia.  

MacDonald is Director of the Before Building Laboratory at UVA, where she leads material research and development. MacDonald pioneers new biomaterial assemblies, with the aim of creating building material systems that sequester carbon and reduce construction’s contribution to the environmental crisis. Current projects focus on rapidly renewable biomaterials, including wood, bamboo, grass, various invasive plant species, and hemp. 

In 2022, she co-curated the Biomaterial Building Exposition.


EDUCATION
︎ M.Arch. Harvard University
︎ B.Arch. Cornell University

PRIOR EXPERIENCE
︎ Morphosis Architects
︎ Lorcan O’Herlihy Architects
︎ Clive Wilkinson Architects
︎ Stayner Architects
︎ MALL

AWARDS
☆ The Architectural League Prize for Young Architects + Designers, 2023
☆ Educator of the Year, Metropolis Magazine Planet Positive Awards, 2023
☆ Exhibit Columbus University Design Research Fellow, 2022-23
☆ University of Virginia Outstanding Researcher Award, Research Achievement Awards, 2022
☆ Cultured Magazine Young Architects List, 2021
☆ Architect Magazine Next Progressives, 2019
☆ Tennessee Architecture Fellowship, 2019-20
☆ Emerging Designer, Virginia by Design Awards, 2018
☆ Housing Design Education Award, American Institute of Architects and Association of Collegiate Schools of Architecture, 2020
☆ Paul M. Heffernan Travel Grant, 2015
☆ Curbed Young Guns, 2014

PRESS
☞ UVA Today
☞ Madame Architect Profile


KYLE SCHUMANN

DIRECTOR
SCHUMANN@VIRGINIA.EDU



Kyle Schumann is Cofounder of After Architecture and Assistant Professor of Architecture at the University of Virginia.

Schumann is Director of the Before Building Laboratory at UVA , where he leads robotic fabrication research and development. Schumann seeks to advance the accessibility of digital fabrication, leveraging democratized technologies as well as inventing and building low-cost ground-up fabrication and imaging systems. His work spans analog processes in woodworking, metalworking, casting, ceramics, and textile production, to advanced and novel digital fabrication technologies, robotics, and machine visioning systems.

In 2022, he co-curated the Biomaterial Building Exposition.


EDUCATION
︎ M.Arch. Princeton University
︎ B.Arch. Cornell University

PRIOR EXPERIENCE
︎ Tod Williams Billie Tsien Architects
︎ Anmahian Winton Architects

AWARDS
☆ The Architectural League Prize for Young Architects + Designers, 2023
☆ Exhibit Columbus University Design Research Fellow, 2022-23
☆ Design Build Award, Association of Collegiate Schools of Architecture, 2023
☆ University of Virginia Outstanding Researcher Award, Research Achievement Awards, 2022
☆ Cultured Magazine Young Architects List, 2021
☆ Architect Magazine Next Progressives, 2019
☆ Tennessee Architecture Fellowship, 2019-20
☆ Robert A.M. Stern Architects Travel Fellowship, 2017
☆ Princeton University Fellowship, 2016-8
☆ William S. Downing Prize for Architectural Design, 2012
☆ Curbed Young Guns, 2014

PRESS
☞ Madame Architect Profile


RESEARCHERS

︎ Shiza Chaudhary


︎ Ammon Embleton


︎ Isaac Goodin


︎ Emily Ploppert


︎ Margaret Saunders



PAST RESEARCHERS

2023
︎ Collette Block
︎ Ross Brown
︎ Charlotte Devine
︎ Cecily Farrell
︎ Cara Hu
︎ Fah Keerasuntonpong
︎ Jaeger Lajewski
︎ Dillon Mcdowell
︎ Branon Meinders
︎ Abbey Partika
︎ Russell Petro
︎ Charlotte Pitts
︎ Valerie Speirs
︎ Jolie Talha
︎ Julia West
︎ Natalie Zuppas

2022
︎ Collette Block
︎ Ross Brown
︎ Chris Chao
︎ Brandon Dennis
︎ Cecily Farrell
︎ Sophie Depret-Guillaume
︎ Leila Ehtesham
︎ Alex Hall
︎ Abby Hassell
︎ Caleb Hassell
︎ Mia Hsu
︎ Kristopher Kollias
︎ Jaeger Lajewski
︎ Rachel Lee
︎ Chujun Dina Luo
︎ Meredith Magness
︎ Reagan McCullough
︎ Dillon Mcdowell
︎ Liv Orlando
︎ Chris Osterlund
︎ Russell Petro
︎ Charlotte Pitts
︎ Emily Ploppert
︎ Timothy Victorio
︎ Andrew Spears
︎ Jonathan (Yianni) Spears
︎ Valerie Speirs
︎ Cecilia Yiyue Su
︎ Jolie Talha
︎ Haoran Zhang
︎ Natalie Zuppas

2021
︎ Collette Block
︎ Brandon Dennis
︎ Youfang Duan
︎ Leila Ehtesham
︎ Ephrata Johannes
︎ Kristopher Kollias
︎ Audrey Lewis
︎ Chujun Dina Luo
︎ Meredith Magness
︎ Jacob McLaughlin
︎ Lizzie Needham
︎ Kate Nguyen
︎ Chris Osterlund
︎ Andrew Spears
︎ Elizabeth Tatham
︎ Timothy Victorio

2020
︎ Sarina Hermanto
︎ Mason Millner
︎ Lisa Rowland
︎ Kevin Saslawsky

2019
︎ Connor Brown
︎ Tim Cox
︎ Ellie Cuthrell
︎ Brian Gore
︎ Aria Hill
︎ Mason Millner
︎ Alex Munro
︎ Jack Wasielewski

2018
︎ Brian Gore
︎ Brianna Morales

2017
︎ Brianna Morales

︎ HOMEPAGE    NEXT PAGE ︎