Catie Newell

Architect

Moderator, 10:30 am, Thursday, April 7th –
Alt Development : Feral & Virtual Spaces to Fuel Creativity

Catie Newell is a founding partner of Alibi Studio, a firm committed to design through research and making on scales ranging from furniture and installations to residential, buildings, and site developments. Her work captures new spaces and material effects, focusing on the development of new atmospheres through the exploration of textures, volumes, and the effects of light, or lack thereof. Trained as an architect, her work remains spatial, sensitive, and experimental to our surroundings. Newell’s most recent work and research is reflected in the installations completed in 2010: Weatherizing, and Salvaged Landscape. This work has afforded Alibi Studio the opportunity to test material and assembly logic research within the potent context of Detroit. Both works involved unique and powerful alterations to homes in Detroit with a keen eye towards material and spatial innovation.

Newell is currently also a lecturer at the University of Michigan’s Taubman College of Architecture and Urban Planning. She joined Michigan’s faculty in 2009 as the Oberdick Fellow. She received her Masters of Architecture from Rice University and a Bachelor of Science in architecture from Georgia Tech. In 2006 she was awarded the SOM Prize for Architecture, Design and Urban Design with her project proposal entitled Weather Permitting. This extensive research and travel grant supported a year of study and design centered around the charged atmospheres of Norway, Faroe Islands, Iceland, and Greenland. Prior to joining the University of Michigan as the Oberdick Fellow, Newell worked as a project designer and coordinator at Office dA in Boston leading the design and completion of four awarding winning spaces.