Geoffrey Thün

Professor & Architect - RVTR Architects & University of Michigan

Panelist – 4:00pm, Wednesday, April 6th - Rethinking Sustainability: Artist and Designer-led approaches

Geoffrey Thün is an Associate Professor of Architecture at Taubman College at the University of Michigan and an Adjunct Professor at the University of Waterloo and Ryerson University in Canada. His research and creative work pursues the integration of complex systems theory in design practice and ranges across scales from the examination of regional ecologies and infrastructural systems to the development of high-performance building systems and intimate interactive responsive architectures. Across these pursuits, an emphasis is placed on design as a tool of problem-seeking rather than problem solving, where the integration of multiple and disparate agents, technologies, voices and perspectives is prioritized.

Thün is a founding partner with Kathy Velikov and Colin Ripley in RVTR Inc., a research-based practice with studios in both Toronto and Ann Arbor. Velikov and Thün were recipients of a 2008 Young Architects Forum Award for their portfolio of design from the Architecture League of New York, and a 2005 Canadian Architect Award of Excellence for SWAMP House, a prefabricated solar vacation home. RVTR was awarded the 2009 Canadian Professional Prix de Rome in Architecture for their work in the field of Mass-Customized housing for Northern climates. Thün was the faculty lead for North House, an inter-institutional trans-disciplinary project to develop a net-energy producing residential prototype for the near north, recognized with a 2010 OAA Award of Design Excellence, a 2010 R&D Award of Excellence from Architect Magazine, and a 2011 RAIC Innovation in Architecture Award of Excellence.