Alumni News:

JOSEPH CHOMA_

Dr. Joseph Choma, who graduated from Rensselaer School of Architecture in 2009, has been announced as the next Director of the School of Architecture at Florida Atlantic University.

Joseph Choma is the Founder and Director of the Design Topology Lab, an interdisciplinary practice which conducts design research and provides consultation relating to material innovation, unconventional means and methods of construction, and the role of geometry in the built environment. Current topics of exploration include: foldable structures and materials, lightweight deployable shelters, ultra-thin formwork for concrete casting, stay-in-place formwork for shell structures and concrete slabs, and advancements in natural fiber textiles. As a researcher, he uses mathematics, folding, structure and materials as generative design devices to imagine new ways to design and build more sustainably.

He is the author of Morphing: A Guide to Mathematical Transformations for Architects and Designers (Laurence King Publishing, 2015), Études for Architects (Routledge, 2018) and The Philosophy of Dumbness (ORO Editions, 2020). His books have received reviews in Architectural Record, Architecture NZ Magazine, Art Libraries Society of North America, RIBA Journal, and the Journal of Mathematics and the Arts, among others.

He has received awards from both the American Institute of Architects and the American Composites Manufacturers Association. His recent material explorations have been noted by CompositesWorld Magazine as “spearheading research into the use of foldable composites.” He is the inventor of Foldable Composite Structures — U.S. Patent Number 10,994,468. In short, he invented a technique that allows fiberglass to fold by hand — similar to folding a sheet of paper.

In addition to earning his Bachelor of Architecture at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, he completed graduate studies in design and computation at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and completed his PhD in Architecture at the University of Cambridge, UK where he was a Cambridge International Scholar.

Recently, Joseph Choma was a Visiting Associate Professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Previously, he was also the 2019-20 NCCR Digital Fabrication Researcher in Residence at the ETH Zurich. Currently, Joseph teaches at The Cooper Union and is an Associate Professor of Architecture at Clemson University, where he directs the Master of Science in Architecture program.