Background and experience
Thomas McQuillan holds a degree in architecture from The Cooper Union (1991) and a PhD from AHO (2006), where his research examined Le Corbusier’s Technological Agenda. He was appointed Professor of Architecture in 2020 and previously served as Head of the Institute of Architecture (2013–2020). He is a practicing architect.
Teaching
Architectural Project 2 is the Master Studio led by Thomas McQuillan and Helle Bendixen Trier and part of the Provenance Projected project. The studio approaches architectural design as a process through which ideas are tested, developed, and realized under real material and constructive conditions. Teaching encompasses a broad range of architectural tasks, from transformation to new construction, and emphasizes the development of clear architectural ideas, critical judgment, and representation as a tool for both inquiry and communication. Work is developed through the discipline’s fundamental tools—the sketch, the drawing, and the model—and through continuous dialogue among peers. The studio is organized as an open studio, in which collective discussion constitutes the primary pedagogical format.
Research
McQuillan’s research focuses on modernism and its discontents, materials and the landscapes from which they emerge, and buildings and the stories they carry with them. His work examines how architecture is shaped through the interplay of culture, technology, resource extraction, and narrative, and how material and spatial practices produce meaning over time.