William Mac Donald

Director, KOL/MAC LLC

Lecture Title: Naturalization of Architecture: KOL/MAC Work

Monday, April 4, 2011
5:30 P.M. - Lawrence J. Plym Auditorium
Temple Hoyne Buell Hall

Max Abramovitz sponsored lecture

William Mac Donald, a full professor and Chair of the Graduate Architecture and Urban Design Programs. Director of KOL/MAC LLC, Architecture + Design co-founded with Sulan Kolatan. Holds a MSc in Architecture and Urban Design from Columbia University and a BArch from Syracuse University. Attended the Architectural Association in London, England. Taught at the GSAPP at Columbia University from 1985-2005 holding various director and coordinator positions, first and post-professional graduate degree programs. In 1984, appointed acting chair of the undergraduate architecture program at the University of Virginia. William Mac Donald lives and works in New York. He has taught at many of the prominent schools of architecture as a distinguished Visiting Professor or Visiting Chair, among them, the University of Pennsylvannia, Southern California Institute for Architecture, the University of Virginia, the Ohio State University, City College City University of New York, University of California, Berkley and Pratt Institute. His collaborative work with Sulan Kolatan has received numerous academic and professional honors and awards, including the “40 under 40” award given every decade to the 40 best architects under 40 years old, Progressive Architecture awards, AIA design awards etc,. In 2004, KOL/MAC was doubly honored by representing the United States in the US national pavilion and, simultaneously, being invited to the international segment of the International Architecture Biennale in Venice, Italy. In 2009, KOL/MAC was a finalist with the work “Design to Improve Life”for the Index Awards, a Danish award, which is the largest international monetary design award in the world. He frequently lectures and speaks at academic and professional conferences nationally and internationally. KOL/MAC LLC has collaborated with and/or received support their design research from many leaders in their respective fields including DuPont (USA), AI Implant of Biotech Industries (Toronto), Alias (USA), Merck Chemicals (Germany), Autodesk (USA), C-TEK (USA), ARUP [AGU] Advanced Geometry Unit (UK), DitlevFilms, Inc. [USA] and others. KOL/MAC LLC is exhibited and published worldwide, notably, at MoMA New York, USA (multiply); the Cooper-Hewitt Smithsonian Museum New York, USA [multiply];the Centre Georges Pompidou Paris, France (multiply); the Barbican Art Gallery London, UK; the Architekturmuseum Frankfurt, Germany(multiple); the Mori Contemporary Art Museum Tokyo, Japan; the 1st International Architecture Biennial Beijing, China; VITRA, Germany; Yale University, USA; the FRAC, Orleans, France; the New York Times, The Washington Post, CNN, Phaidon Press, Rizzoli, GA Houses, AD Magazine, Architectural Digest, ACTAR, Domus, Lotus International, Architectural Record, and other similar venues. KOL/MAC LLC projects are also represented in the permanent collections of cultural institutions including the MoMA New York, the Centre Georges Pompidou Paris, the SFMOMA San Francisco and the Architekturmuseum Frankfurt, Germany. Mr. Mac Donald is co-author of Lubricuous Architectures with Kari Andersen published by CBA. A comprehensive monograph titled the KOL/MAC WORK BOOK is currently in preparation for publication. The Graduate Architecture and Urban Design (GAUD) program at Pratt Institute’s School of Architecture is a progressive design environment for advanced architectural research located in New York City. The program proposes speculative debate and experimental architectural production based on a relational construct among theoretical inquiry, computational research, digital design, and technological investigation. To this end, Pratt Institute’s GAUD seeks to formulate a contemporary approach to architecture that is “ecological” in the sense that it provides collective exchanges which are both trans-disciplinary and trans-categorical. This ecological approach encourages feedback relationships among architecture, landscape, urbanism, technology, software programming, industry, manufacturing, political agencies, theoretical studies, and other categories and disciplines that are newly emerging in contemporary culture. This approach seeks to productively intensify heterogeneous interests and agencies. In addition, the program sees architectural innovations in both the theory and practice of architecture and the interconnected phenomena out of which it emerges. Recent courses at Pratt Institute’s GAUD have investigated such topics as iterative processes, fluid systems, emergent phenomena, logics of organization, complex urbanisms, globalization and politics, computational logics, material performance, and speculative fabrication.