Clemson University’s Joseph Choma has been announced as the next Director of the School of Architecture at Florida Atlantic University (FAU).

Choma is currently the Director of the Design Topology Lab and has been the Director of Clemson’s Master of Science in Architecture program since July. Choma will take office effective July 1st and replaces Associate Professor Francis E. Lyn, who has been serving as Interim Director. 

His work centers on material innovation, experimental construction methods, and the impact of complex geometries on the built environment. Noteworthy projects have included a recent studio exploring the application of his patented foldable fiberglass structures as shelter in the wake of natural disasters, an installation for the AIA’s Atlanta Emerging Voices competition in 2013, and the solo exhibition Object to Atmosphere for the Barbara Archer Gallery, also in Atlanta.

The MIT and University of Cambridge graduate is the author of several leading design texts, including The Philosophy of Dumbness, Études for Architects, and the 2015 guidebook MORPHING: A Guide to Mathematical Transformations for Architects and Designers.

Recently, Choma served as a Visiting Associate Professor at MIT and was also the 2019–20 NCCR Digital Fabrication Researcher in Residence at the ETH Zurich. 

Choma shared his desire to create a program that can help students adapt adequately to the ascendant challenges in design using the same award-winning research methods that have propelled him to national prominence over the past ten years.

"I want to foster a school that is critical of the growing complexities associated with the cultural and technological project of architecture,” he said in a statement provided to Archinect. “Let’s embrace constraints as opportunities and tackle the most challenging problems of our time.”