Their careers have taken them around the globe, from the Pacific Northwest to Estonia and Cambridge, England, and eventually to Philadelphia before bringing them to Knoxville. For Shelton, the move to the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, was a return to his alma mater, where he received the university’s highest student honor, the Torchbearer Award, in 1993.

Rocky Top offered something special they had been looking for: a place where practice, teaching, and research could coexist, with ideas moving freely between them. For Shelton and Stuth, design informs teaching. Teaching generates research. Research can shape public policy. And ideas explored in the classroom can contribute to change in the communities beyond it.

They signed a two-year contract to join the School of Architecture and hoped for the best. That was twenty-two years ago.

“We approached our move with some trepidation,” Stuth said. “But we’ve found not only a vibrant design culture but something much closer to a community of practice, people who want each other and good ideas to succeed.”

Designing With Purpose

Their shared approach to architecture expanded in 2005 when Shelton and Stuth co-founded , a firm built around thoughtful, resourceful design. The firm generally takes on just one major project at a time, in order to pursue work that aligned with issues they pursue in their teaching, research, and efforts to shape public policy.

“Those things are inseparable to us; we’ve never been able to choose between academia and practice,” Stuth said. “Each aspect of our career enriches the other and makes us much better architects and educators.”

Beginning in 2009, Stuth and Emeritus Professor Robert C. French led an interdisciplinary team of students and faculty in reimagining a piece of Tennessee history. Created in conjunction with the 75th anniversary of the Tennessee Valley Authority, the asked what a model home for the 21st century might look like.

The answer went beyond sustainable design. The team worked with local and state officials and Clayton Homes to address building codes and other barriers to sustainable construction while creating a home centered on environmental performance, affordability, and livability.

“What we managed to build at curb and pass along to students has happened because we were held up by a community that operates in service of something bigger,” Shelton said. “We’re very lucky to be able to do this work.”

In 2014, Shelton and Stuth, working with Professors Brian and Katherine Ambroziak, brought that same design approach to , a home on 80 acres of farmland in rural West Tennessee. The project was a homecoming for its owners, who returned to the county where they grew up after 25 years in Chicago and envisioned the house as an anchor for generations to come.

The landscape and the family’s stories shaped the design. The home responds to its active agricultural setting and the clients’ commitment to stewardship while incorporating water harvesting, solar strategies, and age-in-place features. Even its name came from a family memory. Old Briar was the affectionate name given to the client’s grandfather’s pickup truck and later passed along to generations of family vehicles.

For Shelton and Stuth, those personal connections are part of the architecture.

“Design is an act of care for a place and the people in it,” Shelton said.

Ideas Into Action

For Shelton and Stuth, teaching architecture is not just about what happens inside the classroom. Their Housing America studios, a joint series of courses focused on ethics in architecture, gives students the opportunity to explore housing through social, political, economic, and environmental lenses while working with architects, policymakers, advocates, and others in the field.

The Housing America collaboration has earned Shelton and Stuth two and led students to tackle professional architectural priorities like dense, diverse, and context-driven urban housing.

Single-stair housing is one example. Shelton, Stuth and their students have explored how allowing a single stairway in certain multistory residential buildings could make better use of small urban lots while still meeting important safety requirements.

“For a small apartment building, two sets of stairs take up a large percentage of space,” Shelton said. “We’re interested in making changes that allow small, local developers to build something that could become part of the fabric of that community.”

In 2024, Tennessee passed legislation allowing local governments to permit residential buildings of up to six stories with a single exit stairway, subject to safety requirements. Shelton and Stuth joined Tennessee AIA members advancing the initiative in the legislative processes. They then carried the issue into the classroom where students learning about these opportunities created designs for exhibitions that exposed professionals and the public to new opportunities. The following year, Shelton and Stuth served as jurors for a single-stair housing design competition, exploring what the change could mean for housing.

“The university keeps us curious,” Stuth said. “Our students and academic colleagues have no obligation to be polite about weak ideas. Practice offers the ultimate testing grounds, further honing those ideas and bringing them into the world of experience.”

A Shared Body of Work

In Chattanooga this summer at the AIA Tennessee Conference on Architecture, Shelton and Stuth stood together to accept the . It was the first time the award had been presented to two people.

“Many architects trip over the curb between teaching and practice, but Professors Stuth and Shelton have designed and inhabited that line over the course their ongoing careers,” said Carl Lostritto, director of the School of Architecture. “I’ve seen firsthand how they treat their students as collaborators. I think it might also be fair to further note that many of their clients and colleagues consider ourselves to be their students too. Their projects are as compelling as they are curious, beautiful and didactic. I’m proud to work with them and congratulate them for this well-deserved award.”

The honor felt like a recognition of the whole of their work: the design, teaching, research, and advocacy.

“It’s so gratifying to be honored for them collectively because many times we had been told we should choose between academia and practice, but for us that was unthinkable,” Stuth said.

The moment carried historical significance as well. Stuth was the first woman to receive the honor, a distinction Shelton said was especially meaningful after a career in which she was often the only woman in the room.

“She has never once had a female boss. She has spent her entire career in a profession that did not always make room for her. Instead of that making her guarded, it made her generous. She has spent years helping emerging architects navigate the profession. She shows up for them, advises them, and encourages them. She is a lifelong mentor.”

Together, their decades-long partnership has earned dozens of AIA honors at the local, state and national levels, while their teaching has earned national awards from the AIA and the Association of Collegiate Schools of Architecture. Their research and scholarship have appeared in leading academic journals as well.

And the work continues. Shelton recently completed his Ph.D. in practice research, while Stuth is on track to complete hers in 2027. More than two decades into their partnership, they have built a practice, a family, and a life around architecture.

They have taught, researched, and challenged each other to see what might be possible next. They share many of the same interests but don’t always approach things the same way. Those different perspectives have become part of what makes their partnership work.

“We respect each other so much that our differences ultimately complement one another,” Shelton said. “They make us stronger.”

That may be the simplest way to understand what they have built, both in their work and in their lives.

Together.

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This summer, Dean Jason Young recognized 6 faculty members with one of the three college awards.��

The James Johnson Dudley Faculty Scholar supports the research development of tenured or tenure-track faculty. Established in 2011 by Libba Wall in honor of her son and alumnus of the program, the award celebrates the faculty who believed in Dudley when he was a student.��

This year’s Dudley Scholar is Assistant Professor Hojung Kim for his project,��Material Ecologies of Craft, Heritage and Industrialization. This project examines how craft, heritage and material practices in Vietnam can inform more environmentally responsive and culturally grounded approaches to contemporary architecture and interior design. Through fieldwork, archival research, material experimentation and prototyping, the research seeks to connect local knowledge with regenerative design while addressing the environmental and social impacts of industrialization.��

The��Alma and Hal Reagan Research Seed Award��was established to help kickstart shorter-term, high impact research projects or the beginning stages of potentially longer-term projects. These projects target categories that address the college’s strengths and strategic priorities. This year’s awards were presented to…��

Assistant Professor Sarah Bolivar was awarded for Multispecies Landscapes: Visualizing Co-Benefits in Appalachian Working Lands, a project which explores how working-land management strategies in South Central Appalachia can support both human communities and more-than-human life while improving biodiversity and landscape resilience. Through maps, diagrams, and other visual tools, the research translates conservation and land-management practices into accessible design strategies for landowners, conservation organizations, and designers.��

Professor Hansjörg Goeritz,��in collaboration with Director of the School of Architecture and Professor and designer Pablo Mandel, will author On Drafting On: Research through Drawing and Writing, a project which

reconsiders architectural drawing and drafting as forms of knowledge, craft, and disciplined practice in an era of rapidly accelerating image production. The book brings together drawings, writing, historical references, student work, and experimental approaches to printing and publishing. Rather than romanticizing traditional craft or simply opposing it to contemporary technologies such as AI, the project asks what drawing can still teach us about attention, labor, materiality, and architectural thought. The resulting publication will emphasize the depth, slowness, and tactile qualities of drawing as an alternative to the speed and superficiality of contemporary visual culture.��

Assistant Professor Aaron Neal will pursue research focused on trauma-informed design in a project titled Designing for Every Mind. Working in partnership with Dogwood Elementary School, Neal builds on a community-engaged design studio that investigated light, color, materiality, wayfinding, sensory regulation, safety, flexibility, and choice within classroom environments. The research will advance these investigations through material, color, and lighting studies and the development of a full-scale trauma-informed prototype. The project seeks to translate research into permanent design interventions while contributing to a broader conversation about the future of neurodiverse educational spaces.��

Assistant Professor Ryan Roark will investigate how biologically based materials can be used to adapt and retrofit historic buildings. Roark will develop and test architectural assemblies made from agricultural and seafood waste, including biopolymers derived from chitin and gelatin, exploring their potential in bricks, tiles, composites, and lightweight assemblies. The work will culminate in an exhibition at the Atlanta Preservation Center titled Biogenic Retrofits Buildings and Other Ecosystems, where full-scale prototypes will be placed in conversation with an existing historic structure. Through fabrication, exhibition, and documentation, the project positions material experimentation and adaptive reuse as complementary strategies for more environmentally responsive architectural renovation.����

The��James Musgraves Research Award��supports faculty with research projects in later development stages that would benefit from additional funding to complete them. This year’s awards supported…����

Assistant Professor Micah Rutenberg will hold an��International Exhibit, Lecture, and Book Launch of��The Mechanized Landscape: Statecraft and Environment in the Tennessee Valley in Tokyo. Rutenberg’s book, written in collaboration with Professor Avigail Sachs, examines how the Tennessee Valley Authority transformed the Tennessee Valley through infrastructure, environmental intervention, and regional planning.��

These faculty awards exemplify the �ֲ���ý’s deep commitment to advancing innovative, relevant, and impactful research.��

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This summer, thanks to the support of Jeanne Richardson, 19 students received scholarships to attend camp, removing financial barriers and opening the door to an immersive introduction to the allied fields of design.

“I can’t leave anyone out,” she said.

Jeanne and her late husband, Neal Richardson (’70), spent decades investing in educational opportunities at the University of Tennessee. For Jeanne, supporting Summer Design Camp continues that legacy by helping students discover possibilities they may not have otherwise imagined.

“Education is very important, but access is not the same for everyone,” she said.

Jeanne met Neal inside a design studio in Estabrook Hall while he was studying architecture. Although she stepped away from her own graphic design education to raise their family, design remained constant throughout their lives.

Jeanne’s support was joined by contributions from AIA East Tennessee, AIA Chattanooga, and George A. Ewart (’88), whose scholarship funding helped even more students attend camp. Together, these investments ensured that dozens of aspiring designers could participate regardless of financial circumstances.

“Summer Design Camp can be a young person’s first opportunity to discover the expanse of design,” said Dean Jason Young. “This record enrollment represents the tremendous interest students have in creative problem-solving and designing a better future. We’re especially grateful to have donors whose generosity allows more students to explore these career paths.”

Throughout the week, campers worked alongside alumni, staff, and student mentors in studio and fabrication spaces, tackling projects that explored the city, typography, and everyday items. They engaged in hands-on activities and developed creative problem-solving skills while gaining exposure to the many disciplines that shape the built environment and everyday experiences.

The camp offers more than a week of creative exploration, it also provides campers with a glimpse into campus life. By immersing students in the creative environment of the �ֲ���ý, Summer Design Camp helps them envision themselves as future designers while building the confidence to pursue their passions long after the week concludes.

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Drawing from the French laisse and the Latin laxus, the theme reframes the leash not simply as a tool of restraint, but as a loose, permissive, and sometimes contradictory bond—one that can tether ideas, disciplines, people, and practices while still allowing space for movement and discovery.

Throughout the academic year, UT faculty and visiting lecturers will examine how design can challenge conventions, forge unexpected relationships, and expand the “loose territory” between control and possibility.

Lindsey Wikstrom, August 24

Wikstrom is an award-winning architect, known for advancing regenerative approaches to design, with a focus on material innovation, biodiversity, and wellbeing. As the Founding Principal of Mattaforma, and through both her studio and her scholarship, Wikstrom advances the idea that architecture can be a choreography of care: designing not only for buildings, but for the interconnected flourishing of communities, landscapes, and planetary systems.

Wikstrom is the recipient of the 2026 National Design Award for Emerging Designer from Cooper Hewitt Smithsonian Design Museum.

She is the author of Designing the Forest and Other Mass Timber Futures (Routledge, 2023), a book that situates architecture within living forest systems and argues for more just and ecological building practices. She has contributed essays to Domus, Architect’s Newspaper and other publications, and joins conversations with other global leaders in design and ecology, including Prada’s Possible Conversations and MoMA’s Emilio Ambasz Institute.

Kimberly Mitchell, August 31

is a graphic designer and assistant professor in UT’s �ֲ���ý. Her work centers on the intersection of design, aging, and health. Her work centers on “design for our future selves,” an approach that challenges designers to consider the evolving needs of people across the lifespan. By integrating universal and age-inclusive design principles, she explores how thoughtful design can create more equitable, joyful, and sustainable experiences for current and future generations.

Her award-winning interdisciplinary work bridges design and gerontology through research-informed practice. Mitchell has presented at national and international conferences, published in scholarly journals, collaborated on inclusive design initiatives, and developed educational resources that encourage designers to rethink their role in shaping the future. As an educator, she emphasizes co-design and community-driven approaches, preparing students to create meaningful, inclusive solutions for people of all ages and abilities.

Felicia Francine Dean, September 14

Dean is an assistant professor in UT’s School of Interior Architecture. Her creative scholarship investigates the spatial identity of materials and interior artifacts, researching layered connections among culture, the history of interiors, hand and digital craft practices, space, and place.

Among Dean’s published works are the book chapters “Dug by the Devil: Space, Culture, + Material Identity,” in Public Interiority: Politics and Programs, and “Mixed Not Stirred: Diverging Outside the Confines of Racial and Disciplinary Boxes of Identification,” in UpKeep, Repair, and Maintenance in Adaptive Interiors. She was awarded a research and development grant from the Graham Foundation for Advanced Studies in the Fine Arts (2021) for her project Perceptions of Misconceptions. Her work has recently been exhibited at Brew House Arts and Contemporary Craft’s International Fiber Exhibition (2025), the American Association of Woodturners Gallery of Wood Art (2025), and the Sandra J. Blain Gallery at Arrowmont School of Arts and Crafts (2024).

Miguel Rivera, FAIA, LEED AP, September 22

Rivera was born in San Juan, Puerto Rico and obtained his Bachelor’s degree from the University of Puerto Rico School of Architecture. He earned his Master of Architecture from Columbia University, in New York.

Miguel was elevated to the AIA College of Fellows in 2014, and in 2005 he received the AIA National Young Architect Award. Miguel is an active member of the American Institute of Architects and the Texas Society of Architects. He has served as chair for the AIA New York City design awards committee, a juror for AIA design awards in Colorado, Chicago and Alabama and as a juror for the Bi-Annual design awards for the Colegio de Arquitectos of Puerto Rico. Miguel is licensed in Texas, New York, Puerto Rico, and Utah.

Rivera’s lecture is hosted in collaboration with AIA East Tennessee. The lecture will be held at 11:40 a.m. at the Jackson Terminal. is required.

Charles L. Davis II, September 28

Davis is an associate professor of architectural history and criticism and director of the architecture PhD program at the University of Texas at Austin’s School of Architecture. He is also the faculty PI of The Black Space Project, a new interdisciplinary architectural history collective dedicated to recovering, documenting, and archiving the influence of African American space-making practices on the shape and meaning of the built environment. His academic research excavates the role of racial identity and race thinking in architectural history and contemporary design culture. Charles is currently working on a monograph entitled Black Architectural Modernity: A Spatial History of Racial Uplift in the U.S. Settler Colony. This research explores the historical role of spatial occupation and programmatic innovation in the development of a modern Black architectural tradition in the United States between 1865 and the 1990s.

Micropolitan America, an exhibition by ksestudio, October 13–November 13

Curated by Kyriakos Kyriakou, Micropolitan America is an architectural research project and exhibition that examines small towns within the vast networks of capitalist urbanization in the American countryside. While essential to large urban centers, these networks impose political, economic, and environmental pressures on rural communities, which in turn rely on them for their existence. The exhibition explores this question through a collection of drawings that document life in the small town and, without imposing solutions, reimagine the present, projecting onto the future of the countryside. Micropolitan America seeks to spark cross-regional discourse, lifting stereotypes and celebrating the small town as a cell of community action.

An exhibition opening lecture with Kyriakos Kyriakou will be held at 12:55 p.m. on Tuesday, October 13, in the Art and Architecture Atrium.

Jake Boswell, October 16

Boswell is an associate professor of landscape architecture at The Ohio State University’s Knowlton School. His work explores how civil infrastructure emerges at the intersection of social institutions, technological innovation, and natural systems, with particular emphasis on the evolving relationship between energy, infrastructure, and environment.

Trained in landscape architecture, city planning, and cultural anthropology, Boswell advances a hybrid practice that blends historical inquiry, active field investigation, and design speculation. His writing has been published nationally and internationally, and his speculative and applied design work has been recognized in numerous international design competitions. Much of his writing interrogates how societies imagine climate futures and how those imaginaries, in turn, shape the built environment. His recent design work focuses on altering climate change narratives by producing speculative projects that challenge deep-seated ways of thinking about energy and society. That work has been published in leading peer-reviewed journals, including the Journal of Architectural Education, Thresholds, and LA+ Interdisciplinary Journal of Landscape Architecture.

Boswell’s current research extends into questions of energy transition and community agency. As the 2026 Fulbright Scotland Distinguished Scholar, Boswell documented community-owned distributed energy resource (DER) projects across Scotland, examining how their physical forms emerge from specific social, environmental, and economic contexts.

The lecture will be held at 12:20 p.m. in 103A of the Art and Architecture Building.

Benjamin Aranda, October 19

Aranda is a teacher, practitioner, and researcher of experimental design and architecture. He was recently named the inaugural IDC Foundation Distinguished Professor at The Irwin S. Chanin School of Architecture at The Cooper Union, in recognition of his commitment to advancing interdisciplinary learning across the schools of Art, Architecture, and Engineering. At Cooper Union, he has taught undergraduate and graduate design studios as well as interdisciplinary seminars.

Since 2018, Benjamin has co-taught Generative Algorithms and Machine Learning for Art and Architecture—nicknamed “GenML”—alongside electrical engineering professor Sam Keene, the John and Mary Manuck Distinguished Professor of Design. The course explores the intersections of computation, creativity, and cross-disciplinary collaboration.

Benjamin is also a principal at Aranda\Lasch, an architecture and design studio based in New York and Tucson. Their wide-ranging work—from generative software to physical architecture—reflects a critical engagement with making in an age of algorithmic tools, invoking long-standing histories and cultural traditions. Their work is part of the permanent collections of the Museum of Modern Art in New York, the Art Institute of Chicago, among others, and has been exhibited internationally across a range of institutions and galleries. Recognition includes the United States Artists Award, the Architectural League’s Emerging Voices Award, the Miller Prize, and support from the Graham Foundation.

Preston Scott Cohen, November 2

Cohen is the founding Principal of Preston Scott Cohen, Inc., an architecture firm in Cambridge, Massachusetts. He is the author of��Taiyuan Museum,Lightfall,��The Return Of Nature,��and��Contested Symmetries which is recognized for having established pedagogical strategies that combine typological analysis and studies in projective and other types of geometry. He has authored numerous theoretical and historical essays including “Toroidal Architecture”, “Elegance, Attenuation, Geometry”, “Dexterous Architecture”, “The Hidden Core of Architecture” and “Successive Architecture.”

His work has been widely published and exhibited internationally at The Museum of Modern Art, New York, The Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles and the Fogg Museum of Art, Harvard. His work is the subject of numerous theoretical assessments by renowned critics and historians including Michael Kimmelman, Nicolai Ouroussoff, Antoine Picon, Sylvia Lavin, Terry Riley, and Rafael Moneo.

Cohen is the Gerald McCue Professor at Harvard University Graduate �ֲ���ý where he was the chair of the Department of Architecture from 2008-13. Currently, he is the program director of the post-professional Master in Architecture Degree program.

Mario Carpo, November 11��

Carpo, a 2022–23 Guggenheim Fellow, is the Reyner Banham Professor of Architectural Theory and History at the University College London’s Bartlett School of Architecture. He was the head of the Study Centre at the Canadian Centre for Architecture in Montréal (2002–2006); Vincent Scully Visiting Professor of Architectural History at the Yale School of Architecture (2010–2014); Senior Scholar in Residence at the Getty Research Institute (2000-2001); Resident at the American Academy in Rome (2004), etc.

Mario Carpo’s research and publications focus on the history of early modern architecture and on the theory and criticism of contemporary design and technology. His award-winning Architecture in the Age of Printing (MIT Press, 2001) has been translated into several languages.�� His most recent books are The Alphabet and the Algorithm (2011); The Second Digital Turn: Design Beyond Intelligence (2017); and Beyond Digital. Design and Automation at the End of Modernity (2023), all published by the MIT Press.

Carpo’s lecture is supported by the Gensler Charitable Foundation.

Unless otherwise noted, lectures are held at 5:15 p.m. in McCarty Auditorium, room 109, in the Art + Architecture Building. All lectures are free and open to the public.

Support for the �ֲ���ý’s lecture series is championed by the Robert B. Church III Memorial Lecture Fund.

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Andrew Bako, Architecture, Assistant Professor

Andy Bako, OAA, is an architect, computational designer and founder of ABAD Co., a multidisciplinary design practice based in Toronto. Prior to joining UT, he was the 2024–26 Emerging Scholar in Design at the University of Texas at Austin, School of Architecture and the 2023–24 Schidlowski Emerging Faculty Fellow and Visiting Assistant Professor at Kent State University’s College of Architecture and Environmental Design. He has also held teaching positions at the University of Toronto and Carleton University.��

Bako’s research examines how architecture mediates exchanges between material reuse, computation, and authorship, positioning recycling as a generative framework in which materials operate as both matter and data. His work investigates how digital tools—including machine learning, photogrammetry, and mixed reality—enable materials, machines, and designers to shape the built environment through reciprocal influence.��

Bako holds a Master of Architecture with Distinction from the Harvard Graduate �ֲ���ý, where he received the 2019 Digital Design Prize. His writing has appeared in��The Plan Journal, UCLA��POOL,��Pidgin��(Princeton), and Yale��Paprika!, and his work has been presented at ACSA and ACADIA. His professional experience includes work with Adamson Associates Architects and OMA, as well as computational design collaborations with Volkan Alkanoglu Design LLC on large-scale public art installations.

Cameron Kursel, Architecture, Digital Futures Fellow

Cameron R. Kursel is a designer, maker, and educator. Drawing on professional experience in architecture and fabrication, he works across objects and installations to investigate how material practice, labor, and craft shape architectural thinking. Humor, misuse, and experimentation serve as methods for questioning conventions of architectural production and the expectations placed on architectural objects. Kursel holds a Bachelor of Science in Architectural Studies from the University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee, and a Master of Architecture from the University of California, Los Angeles.

Leah Wulfman, Interior Architecture, Assistant Professor

Leah Wulfman is a Carrier Bag architect, educator, game designer, digital puppeteer, and occasional writer. Wulfman assembles hybrid virtual and physical spaces in order to prototype new relationships to technology and nature, as well as challenge normative ideologies so often reinforced by technology and architecture. In addition to mixed reality installations that play with and emphasize the physical, material basis of everything digital, their research focuses on gamified environments, interactions and materials.

Wulfman holds a Bachelor of Architecture from Carnegie Mellon University and a Master of Science in Fiction and Entertainment from SCI-Arc. They have taught at numerous institutions across the United States, including ArtCenter’s Media Design Practices Graduate Program, the IDEAS Program at UCLA Architecture and Urban Design, Multi-Disciplinary Design at the University of Utah, SCI-Arc, The School of Architecture at Taliesin, and the University of Michigan’s Taubman College of Architecture and Urban Planning, where they have developed youth programming, environmental storytelling, world building, game development, and mixed reality coursework.

Their research and design work has been supported through numerous residencies and publications and presented in exhibitions and festivals including the Buenos Aires Architecture Biennale,��After School,��The FiDi Arsenale, Space Saloon Design + Build Festival, Open Engagement, VIA Festival for Electronic Art and Music,��A Queer Query, /imagine: A Journey into the New Virtual, and The Wrong Biennale for New Digital Art.

Wulfman is the recipient of the 2024 Architectural League Prize for Young Architects and Designers, and the 2025 United States Artists (USA) Fellowship.

Tianwei Ye, Architecture, Assistant Professor of Practice

Tianwei Ye joins as an Assistant Professor of Practice after 10 years in the architecture industry. Most recently, he served as a Design Technology Leader at Gensler in New York, where he specialized in BIM, computational design, visualization, and digital workflows. At UT, he looks forward to helping students bridge design and technology while preparing them for the future of architectural practice.

Xiaoxiao Zhao, Interior Architecture, Fellow

Xiaoxiao Zhao is an artist and architect, founder of USEFULLESS Studio. Her practice ranges from architectural design to interactive installation and media art. She was a 2025-2026 fellow at the Harvard Radcliffe Institute, where she conducted research on the environmental impacts of data centers and developed a VR game exploring the subject. She holds a Diploma in Architecture from China Central Academy of Fine Arts and a Master in Architecture from Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art. She has worked as an architect at Rockwell Group in New York. Her artworks have been exhibited at the Venice Biennale, UCCA Center for Contemporary Art, Design Shanghai, UCCA Clay Museum, Shenzhen Sea World Culture and Arts Center, among others. Her papers have been published at the ACADIA conference.

The college welcomes Jordan Cleek (’26) and Emily Lavoll (’26) who join the School of Architecture as lecturers.

Their arrival reflects the college’s continued investment in academic excellence and its commitment to preparing students to address complex challenges through design.

Please join us in welcoming our newest faculty members to the �ֲ���ý.

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“I’ve always been drawn to the environment,” she said. “Nature is what inspires me.”

Drakakis brought that passion into Assistant Professor Hojung Kim’s Blurred Boundaries studio, where students were challenged in the spring 2026 course to transform a historic cantilever barn in Cades Cove into a contemporary space while preserving its original character and cultural significance.

“I wanted the space to feel rooted in its environment,” she said. “The goal was to open up the interior and bring the outdoors in, so you’re still connected to the landscape.”

Finding Inspiration

As Drakakis researched Appalachian architecture, the project became more than just redesigning a historic barn. She was fascinated by how generations of builders adapted these structures to the region’s landscape, climate, and available materials. Originally built to store crops and shelter livestock, the barns reflected a deep understanding of both community and place.

“So much knowledge is passed down through these buildings,” she said. “They evolved through generations of people responding to their surroundings and creating spaces that met the needs of their communities.”

Those ideas took shape in Rootbound Studios, Drakakis’s design proposal for a contemporary artist residency that reimagines the traditional Appalachian cantilever barn as four artist residences arranged around a shared courtyard. Each residence provides space for artists to work independently, while the shared courtyard encourages collaboration and community.

Over 12 weeks, the concept evolved from initial research and sketches into a complete set of construction documents. An elevated deck connects the residences, inspired by the barn’s iconic cantilevered form while drawing residents into the surrounding landscape.

Cedar shake roofing, hickory wood, and linen textiles draw from Appalachian craftsmanship, while a custom biodegradable insulation brick made from soil, reclaimed sawdust, oil, and moss reflects her commitment to sustainable, locally inspired design.

Drakakis credits Professor Kim with helping her recognize that sometimes less is more.

“He challenged me to simplify the project and let the materials speak for themselves,” she said. “That guidance ultimately made the design stronger and more honest.”

The project stood out beyond the studio. Based on the strength of her work, Drakakis was nominated to submit Rootbound Studios for the prestigious Angelo Donghia Scholarship.

A National Honor

Drakakis was visiting family in the Philippines when she learned she had been awarded the Angelo Donghia Scholarship. Because of the 12-hour time difference, she missed the initial phone call but opened the email during a family brunch.

“It was one of the biggest accomplishments of my life,” she said.

Named in honor of renowned interior designer Angelo Donghia, the scholarship is awarded each year to a select group of undergraduate students whose work demonstrates exceptional creativity, technical skill, and innovation in interior architecture and design. Submissions are evaluated by a jury composed of prominent figures in the fields of interior architecture, architecture, and design media. This is the second consecutive year a UT student has received the scholarship.

“The Donghia Foundation’s ongoing support of the UT School of Interior Architecture highlights the exceptional quality of our student body and the dedication of our faculty,” said Liz Teston, interim director and professor of interior architecture. “Angelo Donghia’s design philosophy championed a holistic approach to interiors, and awarding Rena this significant prize reflects her creativity and her own holistic design approach.”

While the scholarship recognizes one project, Drakakis’s interest in design began years earlier.

Growing up in Maryland with two parents who are architects, she was surrounded by conversations about buildings and design. Still, she found her own path through art and competitive swimming before discovering interior architecture, where creativity, problem-solving, and purpose came together.

As she prepares for her senior year, Drakakis is already looking ahead. This fall, Rena will begin applying to graduate programs to pursue a Master of Architecture, with the long term goal of eventually starting her own practice.

Wherever that path leads, she hopes to keep learning from every place she visits and every person she meets along the way.

“One of the most important responsibilities about being a designer is understanding the people you’re designing for,” she said. “I am so grateful to the Angelo Donghia Foundation.”

“Thank you to my professors these past years and thank you to my department for the nomination.”

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In its first five years, the Tennessee RiverLine and a regional consortium of partners collaboratively laid the foundation for its success by creating the framework for the RiverTowns Program, which has since become the cornerstone of its operations since launching in 2021. This year, the RiverLine celebrates its fifth anniversary, reflecting on transformational milestones, the partnerships that have driven its success and the enduring legacy of the river’s cultural and natural heritage.

on the Tennessee RiverLine.

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The program received approval from the Tennessee Higher Education Commission on Thursday, July 23, after a two-year planning period. The addition builds upon the �ֲ���ý’s longstanding strengths in creative problem-solving, making, and interdisciplinary collaboration while supporting manufacturing, one of the state’s biggest industry sectors.

“Industrial design shapes nearly every product and experience we encounter and must remain nimble to address the demands of a rapidly changing world.” said Sarah Lowe, director of the �ֲ���ý. “The program at UT will integrate a shared foundation in design principles with a forward-looking focus on interaction design and emerging technologies, while staying rooted in the core goals of a traditional industrial design education.”

Industrial designers bridge creativity, technical knowledge, and human-centered problem-solving to shape the products and systems that define our daily lives. Students in the four-year Bachelor of Fine Arts program will build skills for addressing contemporary challenges with innovative solutions. Through a hands-on, studio-based curriculum, students will explore the intersection of traditional methods and emerging technologies, for developing innovative and sustainable solutions. This comprehensive approach prepares graduates to address the evolving needs of individuals, industries, and communities.

“As Tennessee’s industries continue to grow and evolve, the college is preparing graduates who are equipped to lead innovation, strengthen our workforce, and improve lives through thoughtful design,” said Jason Young, dean of the �ֲ���ý. “The launch of the Industrial Design BFA reflects the evolution of the �ֲ���ý and our commitment to preparing students for the future of the professions.”

The Bachelor of Fine Arts in Industrial Design complements the �ֲ���ý’s existing graphic design program and reflects the college’s broader commitment to educating designers through curiosity, empathy, and imagination.

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A registered interior designer, Fulbright Scholar and Specialist recipient, and nationally recognized academic, Teston joined the school in 2013. Her research and creative practice explore public interiority, atmospheric interiority, and the social and political dimensions of design. Through drawing, making, writing, and collaborative design partnerships, she examines how interiors can shape more equitable, engaging, and human-centered public experiences.��

“Liz has been an invaluable member of our faculty and a thoughtful leader within the school,” said Young. “Her commitment to academic excellence, student success, and the future of interior architecture makes her exceptionally well positioned to guide the school during this transition.”��

Teston is widely known for advancing the concept of public interiority, which challenges conventional definitions of interior space by exploring how interiors can exist beyond buildings through atmosphere, social interaction, and civic engagement. Her work has been exhibited internationally in cities including Bucharest, Stockholm, Toronto, Venice, Atlanta, Austin, Knoxville, and New York.��

She is the co-author and editor-in-chief of Public Interiority: Exploring Interiors in the Public Realm (Routledge, 2024), which received the 2025 Interior Design Educators Council Book Award. She also initiated and produced the Public Interiority Symposium + Exhibition at the University of Tennessee and is currently completing a forthcoming monograph, The Field Guide to Public Interiority, which documents case studies from cities around the world. Her scholarship has been supported by organizations including the Center for Architecture Foundation, the American Academy in Rome, and the Fulbright Specialist Program.��

Beyond her teaching and scholarship, Teston has demonstrated significant leadership within the profession. She has served as an advisor to student organizations, contributed to national Interior Design Educators Council initiatives, and was appointed to the International Interior Design Association Equity Council’s Education Committee. Her advocacy has helped strengthen connections between academic programs, professional practice, and local communities.��

As interim director, Teston will work closely with faculty, staff, students, alumni, and industry partners to build on the school’s strong foundation while supporting ongoing academic, research, and outreach initiatives.����

“I am honored to serve the School of Interior Architecture in this role,” said Teston. “Our faculty, staff, students, and alumni have created an extraordinary culture of creativity, inquiry, and engagement. I look forward to working alongside them to continue strengthening the school’s impact and preparing students to lead in a rapidly evolving profession.”��

Teston succeeds Milagros Zingoni, who is completing five years as director of the School of Interior Architecture and will return to the faculty. The college will conduct a national search during the coming academic year to identify the school’s next permanent director.

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Located on the third floor of the Art + Architecture Building, the DFL provides students and faculty with opportunities to engage with emerging technologies, immersive visualization, digital content creation, interactive media, and evolving forms of design. Designed as a flexible environment rather than a fixed technology center, the lab serves as a platform for experimentation across disciplines while adapting to the changing needs of the design professions.

“When the �ֲ���ý was established in the �ֲ���ý in 2019, it created an opportunity to think differently about shared resources and emerging forms of creative practice. The DFL grew from a former graphic design print room and was reimagined as a college-wide space where students can engage with the digital tools, ideas, and forms of practice shaping the future of our fields,” said Sarah Lowe, the school’s director.

In 2023, the college established the Digital Futures Fellowship, a two-year appointment which rotates among the college’s schools, to support researchers whose work explores the future of design through technology, experimentation, and interdisciplinary practice. In turn, fellows help expand opportunities for students by introducing new tools, research methods, and ways of thinking about design.

For Timothy Arment, the inaugural fellow and a lecturer in the �ֲ���ý, the fellowship provided an opportunity to build upon years of work exploring virtual reality (VR), digital environments, animation, and game design while creating new learning opportunities for students.

“Supporting this technology is really important,” Arment said. “One of the most valuable things you can bring into the job market as a new graduate is exposure to these cutting-edge tools and technologies.”

Before the fellowship was formally established, Arment had become known throughout the college for his work with immersive technologies. He’d begun developing virtual reality experiences and digital content creation resources that would eventually serve as the foundation for the Digital Futures Lab.

“There are lots of ways that VR can be used outside of video games,” Arment said. “In architecture and design, there are opportunities to experience spaces, interact with models, and explore ideas in completely different ways.”

Today, the Digital Futures Lab serves students and faculty across the college through a combination of physical and digital resources. The space includes virtual reality workstations, software platforms such as Rhino, Unity, and Unreal Engine, and a video production studio equipped for recording lectures, presentations, podcasts, and other digital content. Students can use the lab to visualize architectural and design models at full scale, experiment with immersive environments, develop interactive projects, and explore new approaches to digital storytelling and communication.

Just as importantly, the lab provides a framework for future growth. Each fellow inherits a foundation established by previous fellows while contributing new ideas, technologies, and areas of expertise. In this way, the fellowship serves not only as a faculty opportunity, but also as a mechanism for continually expanding the educational experiences available to students.

The fellowship’s rotating structure is intended to ensure that the lab evolves alongside the college’s disciplines. Future fellows may bring expertise in areas such as artificial intelligence, computational design, advanced visualization, hybrid realities, interactive media, or other emerging domains. Their work will help students understand how technological innovation intersects with architecture, landscape architecture, interior architecture, graphic design, and other fields represented across the college.

“We will look at ways the fellowship and lab can explore hybrid constructs, make connections with the college’s Fab Lab, and emphasize augmented and hybrid realities,” said Carl Lostritto, director of the School of Architecture.

As new fellows build upon the foundation established by Arment, the Digital Futures Fellowship will continue to support educators, researchers, and practitioners whose work expands opportunities for students while helping shape the future of design education.

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