The College of Architecture and Design at the University of Tennessee – Knoxville has appointed RISD Associate Professor Carl Lostritto as its new Director.
Lostritto joins UT after ten years in Providence, where he has taught in both the B.Arch and M.Arch professional programs, in addition to serving as the graduate program director since 2017.
Lostritto, who previously held positions at the University of Maryland, Catholic University of America, Boston Architectural College, and MIT, joins the faculty with a specialization in theories about drawing and computational design. He was instrumental in the implementation of the new Computation, Technology, and Culture concentration at RISD, and has authored several essays in addition to his 2019 title Computational Drawing: From Foundational Exercises to Theories of Representation, and the forthcoming Impossible and Hyper-Real Elements of Architecture, which is due out next year.
“I know the school is committed to the impact that both the discipline and profession of architecture can have on the world, and I look forward to doing the work of advancing and critiquing the important contributions,” Lostritto said in a statement. “This is hard, necessary work that involves what we do best: drawing, modeling, writing, fabricating, building, diagramming, theorizing, speculating, analyzing and projecting. It’s an exciting moment to be teaching and studying architecture.”
A graduate of the University of Maryland and MIT, Lostritto succeeds Scott Wall, who has been serving as the school’s interim director since July of last year. Wall replaced current dean Jason Young and will return in the fall for what will be his 20th year teaching at his alma mater.
“[Carl] is an accomplished leader, effective teacher, talented maker and insightful researcher,” Young said about the new Director. “He leads with empathy, accessibility and collaboration, and has significant administrative experience where leadership and sound management have prevailed. Carl’s creative work is timely in a maturing field of computational design work and cultivates important reflection on the interplay of digital technologies and more traditional architectural methods. I am confident his energy and vision will help the School of Architecture continue to make an impact in our state, the region, and the world.”