
Office location and address
Education
B.S., Clemson University
Biography
Seth McDowell works in the field of design research as a practitioner-researcher exploring the relationship between materiality, visualization and construction. As an experimental architect, his work bridges the speculative and the real—focusing on material and construction procedures as the genesis for the design of buildings, objects and cities. His work concentrates on three interrelated areas of study:
1—Design strategies for waste, excess, and ubiquity
2—Material speculations as cultural critique
3—Designing with Building Information Modeling (BIM)
McDowell’s teaching is focused on materiality, construction systems and digital visualization/simulation. Core teaching assignments include courses in Building Information Modeling (BIM) ARCH 7270/ARCH 3271/ARCH 5500, Building Matters ARCH 3260, and undergraduate and graduate level design studios. McDowell has over eight years of experience teaching design studios and technical courses at three US institutions: University of Virginia (UVA), Columbia University, and Louisiana State University. He has taught at UVA School of Architecture since 2012.
Publications
Courses
Honors
- The Architect’s Newspaper Best of Design, Young Architect of the Year, 2017.
- Second Place - Structure of Freedom International Competition for the Sziget Festival Pavilion, 2017.
- Honorable Mention - “Adaptive Platform: Affordable Housing above the City” NY Build’s Affordable Housing Challenge, 2017.
- Winner of AIA|DC Unbuilt Awards in 2015 and 2017.
- Winner - “Layered Intelligence” CHIDesign Competition, The Chicago Architecture Foundation, 2015.
- The Architectural League of New York Prize, 2015.
- Finalist - MoMA PS1 Young Architects Program, 2012.
- First Place - 3rd Advanced Architecture Contest: The Self-Sufficient City, Institute for Advanced Architecture of Catalonia, 2009.