CACC/AIA Charleston Lecture Series: Jason Griffiths

Jason Griffiths - Associate Professor University of Nebraska Lincoln

PLAIN DESIGN * BUILD is an architectural collective that explores the intersection between architecture and forestry. Our work is derived from a biogenic material culture that regards buildings as a form of biomass determined by organic production. Our projects promote mass timber construction from location-based material flows and non-extractive timber harvesting. We adopt forestry practices for “undesirable” wood sources like insect borer infestations, non-saw logs and the by-products of forest fire fuel mitigation. All PLAIN DESIGN * BUILD projects result from a co-creational educational model with students at the University of Nebraska Lincoln.

Jason Griffiths is an associate professor at the University of Lincoln Nebraska, College of Architecture. He received his Masters in Architecture with distinction from the Bartlett School of Architecture, UK in 1994. Jason has held the Hyde Chair of Excellence, the Hawthorne Distinguished Professor and is currently the Cecil Steward Professor. From 2017-19, he was a professor of Summer Immersion at The School of Architecture at Taliesin, and in 2022, was named the Hannover Visiting Professor at Leibnitz University. Recent awards include ACSA Design-Build Award three times, the WoodWorks/ Wood Products Council Wood Design Award, and the 2023 Softwood Lumber Board Timber Education Prize. Grant recognition includes two USDA Forest Service Wood Innovations Grants and the Nebraska Environmental Trust Award. In 2012, Jason received the Deutsches Architekturmuseum Book Award for his book Manifest Destiny (AA Publication). Other publications include the AA Files, 30 60 90, LA Times and Volume. Jason has received prizes in eleven competitions including first prize in the AA FAB 2009, Temple of Laughter, Millennium Café competitions. Other competition prizes include Future Visions of Kyoto, Aomori Housing, Shinkenchiku Residential Design (three times) and the Oklahoma Memorial.

In 2017, he established the PLAIN Design-Build architectural collective to provide an experienced-based architectural education in the Master of Architecture program at UNL.

• Lunch at 12:00 pm
• Lecture at 12:30 pm - Please park in the remote lot - located between Cooper and Grace Bridge Streets
• CEUs will only be given to AIA members attending in person. There will be a sign-in sheet at the door to receive credit
• Please sign in at the front desk

Host or Publisher Clemson Design Center Charleston