After Architecture LLC
Charlottesville, Virginia
After Architecture LLC is an award-winning architecture studio named to convey the built environment's impact on cultures and ecologies. Led by Katie MacDonald and Kyle Schumann, our work responds to and confronts the environmental crisis.
We have completed projects for a wide range of clients, from civic institutions and arts organizations to universities, corporations, and private clients including Landmark Columbus Foundation, The Architectural League of New York, the Washington D.C. Department of General Services, Lycoming College, Cornell Botanic Gardens, and Marriott. Recent works include a memorial in Washington D.C. and installations for Exhibit Columbus, the Oslo Architecture Triennale, and the Knoxville Museum of Art.
After Architecture has been recognized with The Architectural League Prize for Young Architects + Designers in 2023, awarded the University Design Research Fellowship for the 2023 cycle of Exhibit Columbus, included on Cultured Magazine Young Architects List in 2021, featured as Next Progressives in Architect Magazine in 2019, and named Curbed Young Guns in 2014. The studio has garnered accolades from the American Institute of Architects across national, state, and local levels, the Society of American Registered Architects, The Architect’s Newspaper, Architect Magazine, and Fast Company.
Contact
info@after-architecture.comKatie MacDonald, AIA
COFOUNDER
Katie MacDonald is a licensed architect in Virginia, Cofounder of After Architecture, and Assistant Professor of Architecture at the University of Virginia.
MacDonald is Director of the Before Building Laboratory at UVA, where she leads material research and development. MacDonald pioneers new biomaterial assemblies, with the aim of creating building material systems that sequester carbon and reduce construction’s contribution to the environmental crisis. Current projects focus on rapidly renewable biomaterials, including wood, bamboo, grass, various invasive plant species, and hemp.
MacDonald was named Educator of the Year in Metropolis Magazine's Planet Positive Awards in 2023 and Emerging Designer in the Virginia by Design Awards in 2018. She is a member of the Association for Computer-Aided Design in Architecture's Board of Directors.In 2022, she co-curated the Biomaterial Building Exposition.
EDUCATION
︎ M.Arch. Harvard University
︎ B.Arch. Cornell University
AWARDS
☆ The Architectural League Prize for Young Architects + Designers 2023
☆ Educator of the Year, Metropolis Magazine Planet Positive Awards 2023
☆ Cultured Magazine Young Architects List 2021
☆ Architect Magazine Next Progressives 2019
☆ Emerging Designer, Virginia by Design Awards 2018
☆ Curbed Young Guns 2014
☆ University of Virginia Outstanding Researcher Award 2022
☆ Housing Design Education Award, American Institute of Architects and Association of Collegiate Schools of Architecture 2020
FELLOWSHIPS
☆ Exhibit Columbus University Design Research Fellowship, 2022-23
☆ Tennessee Architecture Fellowship, 2019-20
☆ Robert James Eidlitz Fellowship, 2017
☆ Paul M. Heffernan Travel Award, 2015
Kyle Schumann
KYLE@AFTER-ARCHITECTURE.COM
Kyle Schumann is Cofounder of After Architecture and Assistant Professor of Architecture at the University of Virginia.
Schumann is Director of the Before Building Laboratory at UVA, where he leads robotic fabrication research and development. Schumann seeks to advance the accessibility of digital fabrication, leveraging democratized technologies as well as inventing and building low-cost ground-up fabrication and imaging systems. His work spans analog processes in woodworking, metalworking, casting, ceramics, and textile production, to advanced and novel digital fabrication technologies, robotics, and machine visioning systems.
Schumann was awarded the Timber Education Prize in 2024 and the Design Build Award from the Association of Collegiate Schools of Architecture in 2023.
In 2022, Schumann co-curated the Biomaterial Building Exposition.
EDUCATION
︎ M.Arch. Princeton University
︎ B.Arch. Cornell University
AWARDS
☆ The Architectural League Prize for Young Architects + Designers 2023
☆ Emerging Designer, Virginia by Design Awards 2024
☆ Design Build Award, Association of Collegiate Schools of Architecture 2023
☆ Cultured Magazine Young Architects List 2021
☆ Architect Magazine Next Progressives 2019
☆ Curbed Young Guns 2014
☆ University of Virginia Outstanding Researcher Award 2022
☆ William S. Downing Prize for Architectural Design 2012
FELLOWSHIPS
☆ Exhibit Columbus University Design Research Fellowship 2022-23
☆ Tennessee Architecture Fellowship 2019-20
☆ Robert A.M. Stern Architects Travel Fellowship 2017
☆ Robert James Eidlitz Fellowship 2017
☆ Princeton University Fellowship 2016-8
Recent Highlights
APRIL 9, 2025
MacDonald and Schumann lecture at Penn State University.
MARCH 20, 2025
The College of Distinguished Professors and the Association of Collegiate Schools of Architecture award Schumann Best Paper at the ACSA Annual Meeting for paper, “Bias in the Machine: Standardized Tools and Irregular Materials.”
JANUARY 23, 2025
Sylvan Scrapple awarded 2025 ACSA Faculty Design Award.
DECEMBER 5, 2024
Crinkle Cuts named Digital Fabrication Editor’s Pick in The Architect’s Newspaper Best of Design Awards.
NOVEMBER 23, 2024
MacDonald presented in Sourcing panel at Material Acts: A Symposium at the University of Southern California.
NOVEMBER 22, 2024
MacDonald and Schumann’s Non-Dimensional Lumber published in Material Acts.
NOVEMBER 2-4, 2024
MacDonald and Schumann lead workshop at Syracuse University School of Architecture.
NOVEMBER 1, 2024
MacDonald and Schumann lecture at Syracuse University School of Architecture.
OCTOBER 1, 2024
MacDonald and Schumann’s "Imaging Nature" published in Drawing Codes: Experimental Protocols of Architectural Representation, edited by Andrew Kudless and Adam Marcus.
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SEPTEMBER 28, 2024 -
JANUARY 5, 2025
Tangential Timber on view in Material Acts: Experimentation in Architecture and Design at the Craft Contemporary, Los Angeles, California as part of the Getty’s PST: Art & Science Collide.
SEPTEMBER 14, 2024
MacDonald lectured at Bethel Woods Art & Architecture Festival at the Bethel Wood Center for the Arts, Bethel, New York.
JUNE 7, 2024
Sylvan Scrapple awarded AIA National Small Project Award.
MAY 31 - JUNE 1, 2024
MacDonald & Schumann lectured and installed Crinkle Cuts at Future View: Vernacular Typologies symposium at the New Jersey Institute of Technology in Newark, New Jersey.
MAY 1, 2024
Sheets & Slabs installed at Gilmer Hall at the University of Virginia in Charlottesville, Virginia.
MARCH 1, 2024
Scraps & Scrapple: Shared Lessons from Material Practices in Cooking & Construction opens at the University of Virginia School of Architecture.
JANUARY 16, 2024
MacDonald and Schumann’s “Materializing Memory: The Camp Barker Memorial, Washington, D.C.” published in Empathic Design: Perspectives on Creating Inclusive Spaces, edited by Elgin Cleckley.
SEPTEMBER 2023
Sylvan Scrapple featured on the cover of Oculus Magazine for article “Trust the Process: When it comes to today’s new building products, some of the most compelling innovation is happening through startup and academic organizations working outside traditional approaches” by Rita Catinella Orrell.
AUGUST 25, 2023
Sylvan Scrapple opens at the 4th cycle of Exhibit Columbus: Public by Design, in Columbus, Indiana.
JUNE 13, 2023
Living Rooms & Parlor Tricks exhibited in The Architectural League Prize for Young Architects + Designers Exhibition: Uncomfortable.
MAY 3, 2023
After Architecture awarded The Architectural League Prize for Young Architects + Designers from the Architectural League of New York.
Recognition
FIRM ACCOLADES
☆ The Architectural League Prize for Young Architects + Designers 2023
☆ Exhibit Columbus University Design Research Fellowship 2022-23
☆ Cultured Magazine Young Architects List 2021
☆ Architect Magazine Next Progressives 2019
☆ Curbed Young Guns 2014
PROJECT ACCOLADES
International
☆ Architect Magazine R+D Award 2022
☆ ACSA Faculty Design Award 2025
☆ The Architect’s Newspaper Best of Design Award (Research 2021, Digital Fabrication 2022, Digital Fabrication Honorable Mention 2023, Digital Fabrication Editor’s Pick 2024)
☆ Dezeen Awards (Longlist in Installation Design 2020, 2021 & 2024)
☆ Fast Company Innovation by Design Awards (Honorable Mention in Materials 2021)
☆ Fast Company World Changing Ideas Award (Honorable Mention in Experimental 2023, Honorable Mention in Spaces, Places, and Cities 2020)
National
☆ AIA National Small Project Award 2024
☆ SARA National Design Awards (Honor 2019, 2023 & 2024 (2), Merit 2022 (2) & 2023, Related Arts Category Winner 2024, Material Sciences Category Winner 2023 & 2024)
State
☆ AIA Indiana Design Awards Citation in Non-Traditional Projects 2024
☆ AIA Virginia Design Awards (Honor in Small Projects 2024, Honorable Mention in Small Projects 2023, Merit in Small Projects 2021)
Regional
☆ AIA Los Angeles Next LA Honor Award, 2014
☆ AIA Central Virginia Bi-Annual Design Awards (Excellence in Architecture 2024, Honor in Architecture 2022, Merit in 2020)
Recordings
🎙 League Prize 2023 Night 3: Katie MacDonald & Kyle Schumann, Joseph Altshuler & Zack Morrison, June 29, 2023, 6:30 pm EST
🎙 Natural Building Materials Panel @ Carnegie Mellon School of Architecture, October 10, 2022
🎙 “Lush: From Field to Fabrication”@ the University of Tennessee Knoxville, September 20, 2021
🎙 “This is America: Design Practices Memorializing Difficult Histories”, @ Brown University, April 13, 2021
🎙 “Growing, Buliding” @ the University of Virginia, February 23, 2021
🎙 “Growing Buildings” @ Public Bldg, August 27, 2020
🎙 “After Specification” @ the University of Virginia, July 31, 2020
🎙 “How After Architecture Balances Practice with Materials Research” @ Architect Magazine Podcast
🎙 “After Specification” @ Pecha Kucha Knoxville, November 16, 2019