School of Architecture Announces New Director

The College of Arts + Architecture is pleased to announce that Blaine Brownell, FAIA LEED AP, will become the new director of the School of Architecture (SoA), effective July 1. Brownell will come to UNC Charlotte from the University of Minnesota School of Architecture, where he is professor and interim head and has served as director of graduate studies and interim director of the Master of Science in Architecture–Sustainable Design Program.

Brownell is an architect, educator, and researcher of emergent materials and applications. A former Fulbright scholar to Japan, he has authored eight books on advanced and sustainable materials for architecture and design, including the Princeton Architectural Press titles Matter in the Floating World, Material Strategies, Hypernatural (co-authored with Marc Swackhamer), and the Transmaterial series. He has written the “Mind & Matter” column for Architect magazine since 2009, and his work has been published in more than 70 architecture, design, science, and news journals, including The New York Times, The London Times, The Wall Street Journal, and Nature. Brownell holds a Bachelor of Arts in Architecture and a Certificate in East Asian Studies from Princeton University and a Master of Architecture from Rice University. He was elevated to the American Institute of Architects’ College of Fellows in February 2020.

“We enthusiastically welcome Blaine Brownell as next director of the School of Architecture,” said Brook Muller, dean of the College of Arts + Architecture. “Professor Brownell is a nationally recognized leader in sustainable design research and education, having published extensively on advances in building materials that will have revolutionary impacts on the profession and industry. He brings significant experience with consensus-based curriculum redesign and a deep understanding of the social and cultural context of sustainable design imperatives.”