Katie MacDonald is Assistant Professor of Architecture at the University of Virginia School of Architecture and Cofounder of After Architecture. Her research critiques standardized building materials, which face new lifecycle questions and overextended supply chains amid the current environmental crisis. Such work explores how technology can help reconcile the intentions of the designer with the irregularity of natural materials and processes, leveraging data and feedback to reframe authorship. Research focuses on rapidly renewable materials such as invasive plant species and bamboo and have been supported by the AIA Upjohn Research Initiative, the Arnold W. Brunner Grant, the Robert James Eidlitiz Fellowship, and the Paul M. Heffernan Award, among others. 

MacDonald’s practice, After Architecture, is named to convey the built environment's impact on cultures and ecologies. With a focus on material cultures and public space, After Architecture has completed projects in New York, Pennsylvania, Massachusetts, Vermont, Washington D.C., California, and Europe including a memorial in Washington D.C. and an installation at the Oslo Architecture Triennale 2019 “Enough: The Architecture of Degrowth.” Prior to joining UVA, MacDonald was the 2019-2020 Tennessee Architecture Fellow at the University of Tennessee where she co-organized the “Authorship and the Anthropocene” Symposium. She has been recognized as “Next Progressive” by Architect Magazine, “Emerging Designer” in the Virginia By Design Awards, and “Curbed Young Gun” by Curbed National. Her work has been profiled in The New York Times, Architect Magazine, Metropolis Magazine, Archinect, Madame Architect, Azure, and others.