UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — Katie McDonald and Kyle Schumann, co-founders of the award-winning After Architecture studio and assistant professors at the University of Virginia, will visit the College of Arts and Architecture’s Stuckeman School at Penn State to deliver a lecture titled “On Logs and Lumber” at 4 p.m. on April 9 in the Stuckeman Family Building Jury Space and via Zoom.
The event, which is free and open to the public, is co-sponsored by the Penn State Center for Biorenewables.
In their practice, McDonald and Schumann’s work responds to and confronts the environmental crisis by deploying analog tools and emerging technologies to collaborate with natural materials. They seek to make computational construction techniques low cost and accessible, using consumer-grade technologies and inventing their own low-cost ground-up systems. Their work proposes an expanded approach in which architects conceptualize and execute not just single projects, but the systems, methods and technologies that enable their production.
After Architecture has been recognized by The Architectural League of New York with the Architectural League Prize 2023, awarded the 2023 Exhibit Columbus University Design Research Fellowship and included on Cultured magazine’s Young Architects 2021 list. McDonald and Schumann have garnered accolades from the American Institute of Architects, the Society of American Registered Architects, The Architect’s Newspaper, Architect magazine and Fast Company for their work. The studio has completed projects for clients including Landmark Columbus Foundation, The Architectural League of New York, the Washington D.C. Department of General Services, Lycoming College, Cornell Botanic Gardens and Marriott International. Recent works include a memorial in Washington and installations for Exhibit Columbus, the Oslo Architecture Triennale and the Knoxville Museum of Art.
At the University of Virginia, McDonald and Schumann co-direct the Before Building Laboratory where McDonald pioneers new biomaterial assemblies with the aim of creating sustainable building material systems. Schumann, on the other hand, 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.
A licensed architect in the state of Virginia, McDonald was named the Educator of the Year in METROPOLIS magazine’s 2023 Planet Positive Awards while Schumann was named a winner of the 2023 Design-Build Award from the Association of Collegiate Schools of Architecture.