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Mehmet Ferda Kolatan
Visiting AssistAnt Professor
M.S. Advanced Architectural Design, Columbia
University; Arch. Dipl. (with distinction), RWTH
Aachen; founded SU11 architecture+design with Erich
Schoenenberger as an experimental architecture
practice in New York City; firm has since received
national and international acclaim and has been
published widely; awards include Lucille Smyser
Lowenfish Memorial Prize and the Honor Award for
Excellence in Design, Columbia University.
Sulan Kolatan
Adjunct Professor
Diploma, Technische Hochschule Aachen Universitat;
M.S., Architecture and Building Design, Columbia
University; founded KOL/MAC Studio along with
William MacDonald, in New York City in 1988. Kolatan
and MacDonald have taught architecture as visiting
professors at Barnard College, Ohio State University,
the University of Pennsylvania, Parsons School of
Design, University of Virginia, The Institute of Advanced
Architectural Studies in Basel, Switzerland, and Venice,
Italy, and Columbia University. The Kolatan/Mac Donald
Studio primarily works with strangely shaped structures,
of housing and apartment blocks. Dubbed “Vertical
Urbanism,” the apartment structures are divided into
pods that structurally conform to the addition and
removal of other pods.
Carla Leitao
Adjunct AssistAnt Professor
M.S. Advanced Architectural Design, Columbia
University; Architecture School of Lisbon; architect
(licensed in Europe), designer, and writer; co-founder,
AUM Studio (architecture and multimedia) and
Umasideia (architecture and engineering) in Lisbon;
projects include “Visibility” (UIA Celebration of
Cities competition, 2003, Lisbon, Portugal);”Suture,”
a multimedia installation; MAK Vertical Garden
(competition by invitation, 2006); awards include the
Akademie Schloss Solitude Fellowship, 2005.
William Mac Donald
chAir of grAduAte Architecture
And urbAn design
M.Sc. Architecture and Urban Design, Columbia
University; B. Arch., Syracuse University; attended the
Architectural Association in London; director, KOL/
MAC, LLC, Architecture + Design, co-founded with Sulan
Kolatan; has taught as professor, distinguished visiting
professor, or visiting chair at the University of Virginia
(as acting chair); Columbia University; the University
of Pennsylvania; Southern California Institute for
Architecture; The Ohio State University; City Univer-
sity of New York; University of California, Berkley; and
Pratt Institute; academic and professional honors and
awards include the “40 under 40” award, Progressive
Architecture awards, AIA design awards; represented the
U.S. in the U.S. national pavilion and for the international
segment of the International Architecture Bienniale
in Venice; via KOL/MAC, has collaborated with various
leading companies, including DuPont, AI Implant of
Biotech Industries, Alias, Merck Chemicals, Autodesk,
C-TEK, ARUP AGU, DitlevFilms, Inc.; exhibited at MoMA,
SFMoMA, Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum,
Centre Georges Pompidou, Barbican Art Gallery, Archi-
tekturmuseum, Mori Contemporary Art Museum, 1st
International Architecture Biennial in Beijing, VITRA, Yale
University, and the FRAC; publications include The New
York Times; The Washington Post, CNN, Phaidon Press,
Rizzoli, GA Houses, AD Magazine, Architectural Digest,
ACTAR, Domus, Lotus International, Architectural Record;
co-author, Lubricuous Architectures with Kari Andersen;
a comprehensive monograph titled KOL/MAC WORK
BOOK is currently in preparation for publication.Elliott Maltby
Adjunct AssociAte Professor
B.A., Philosophy, Kenyon College; Master of Landscape
Architecture, University of California-Berkeley;
interests include how art and design contribute to the
success of the urban experiment; current
research focuses on temporal and situational spatiality;
partner, thread collective, a multidisciplinary design
firm that explores the seams between building, art, and
landscape; a broadly defined notion of sustainability,
existing site characteristics, and sensory experience
further inform the firm’s design process; has worked for
five years with Mary Miss, one of the most influential
artists in the public realm.Signe Nielsen
Adjunct Professor
B.A., Smith College; B.S.L.A., City College School of
Architecture; B.S., Pratt Institute; fellow, American
Society of Landscape Architects; principal, Mathews
Nielsen Landscape Architects PC since 1979; vice
president, N.Y.C. Public Design Commission; recipient
of more than two dozen national design awards;
co-author of three books—High Performance
Infrastructure Guidelines; Cool and Green Roof; and
Sustainable Site Design—and author of Sky Gardens.Philip Parker
AssistAnt chAir of grAduAte
Architecture And urbAn design,
Adjunct AssociAte Professor
B. Design in Architecture, University of Florida; M. Arch.,
Yale University; principal, Phillip Parker Architects, a
practice that spans scales from furniture and building
components to urban parks; his projects on program,
matter, city, and texts have been exhibited, published,
and reside in the permanent collection of the San
Francisco Museum of Modern Art; he has lectured on
architecture and media and taught design studios and
media theory practice at a number of schools, including
Columbia University GSAPP, AS COORDINATOR OF
CORE VISUAL STUDIES; Princeton University; The Ohio
State University; and RISD.David Ruy
AssociAte Professor
B.A., St. John’s College; M. Arch., Columbia University;
director, Ruy Klein, an award-winning design office
in New York City; firm’s work has been extensively
published and exhibited and the firm is recognized
as one of the leading speculative practices in
architecture today; Ruy has previously held positions at
Columbia, Princeton, and was the director of research
of The Nonlinear Systems Organization (NSO), a
transdisciplinary research organization, at the University
of Pennsylvania; his research examines design topics at
the intersection of architecture, nature, and technology;
the work of his practice has recently been exhibited at
The Museum of Modern Art, the Rhode Island School of
Design, and at Artists Space.