Marc Swackhamer

Principal Marc Swackhamer is a Professor of Architecture at the University of Minnesota where he serves as the Head of the School of Architecture. Marc is also a cofounding principal (with Blair Satterfield) of the award-winning and internationally published architecture and design collaborative HouMinn Practice. HouMinn’s work has been published and exhibited internationally and their prototype research won national awards from ID Magazine and Architect Magazine. In his research, Swackhamer studies the relationship between performance and ornament through the lenses of digital production and fabrication technologies. Marc has also developed significant research in the area of biomimetics and its relationship to design. He is currently co-authoring a book on innovations in mimetics with Blaine Brownell.  Swackhamer was a chair of the 2008 National ACADIA (Assoc. for Computer Aided Design in Architecture) Conference and now serves on ACADIA’s Board of Directors. As an Associate Member of the University of Minnesota’s Digital Design Consortium he conducts research in the area of digitally produced modular wall systems. Through this effort, he and Blair Satterfield have collaborated with numerous faculty members and researchers from multiple disciplines across the university. He received degrees from the University of Cincinnati and Rice University.