Marshall Prado Lecture

On Wednesday, October 11, 2023, the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, College of Architecture and Design welcomed Assistant Professor Marshall Prado in the Robert B Church III Memorial Lecture Series.

Digital technology is constantly evolving. Advancements in tools, materials and practices affect how we design and construct our built environment. Computational tools and digital fabrication processes offer innovative potential for architectural design applications. Using these technologies, we can consider states of equilibrium where the various, often conflicting design drivers, are negotiated to find balanced design and production solutions. These research methods push the boundaries of conventional design and construction towards discussions of performance, efficiency, sustainability, and adaptability. This research exists in the convergence of design, engineering, and various branches of formal, natural, and applied sciences. The work presented showcases this design methodology applied across scales and applications, from micro- scale material constructs to urban-scale spatial analysis.

This lecture highlights ideas of integrative computational design as an ethos and design methodology. Beyond the aesthetic or formal considerations, all explorations challenge norms of performance, resourcefulness, and industrialization. The research goal is to create informed design solutions that balance the complexity of interrelated systems across scales resulting in comprehensive and efficient outcomes that exhibit novel design expression.

Marshall Prado is an Assistant Professor of Design and Structural Technology at the University of Tennessee. He holds a Bachelor of Architecture and a Bachelor of Environmental Design from North Carolina State University and advanced degrees of a Master of Architecture and a Master of Design Studies in Technology from the Harvard University Graduate School of Design.

Marshall has previously taught at the University of Stuttgart, in the Institute for Computational Design and Construction, the University of Hawaii, and has been an invited studio critic at the University of Virginia, Carnegie Mellon University, and the University of Michigan. He has led several workshops on digital design and fabrication techniques. His current research interests include integrated computational design, robotic fabrication, additive manufacturing, and lightweight fiber composite systems for architectural applications.