Blaine Brownell

Blaine Brownell is an architect, sustainable building advisor, and researcher of innovative materials for architecture. He is the founder and director of the design/research firm Transstudio, and has taught at the University of Michigan and the University of Minnesota. Blaine is the author of Transmaterial Series of books, published by Princeton Architectural Press.

In Material Strategies: Innovative Applications in Architecture, Brownell shows architects how creative applications of the materials can achieve great environmental transformation.

Blaine has practiced architecture in Tokyo, Nagoya, Houston, Seattle, and Minneapolis. His work has been published in A+U, Architectural Record, Architecture, BusinessWeek, Discover, Dwell, Fast Company, Forward, The Journal of Architectural Education, Materia, New Scientist, The New York Times, Popular Science, Sustainable Industries Journal, and the Seattle and Portland Daily Journals of Commerce, and he was featured as the cover story for an issue of Architect magazine. His work has been exhibited at the Seattle Architectural Foundation, Center on Contemporary Art, and Consolidated Works in Seattle, as well as at DiverseWorks in Houston, the Taubman College of Architecture + Urban Planning at the University of Michigan, and the Centre Universitaire Méditerranéen in Nice.

Blaine was selected for a 2006 “40 Under 40” award by Building Design & Construction magazine, and was the recipient of a Fulbright fellowship to Japan, during which time he researched contemporary Japanese material innovations at the Tokyo University of Science.