Billie Faircloth is the Research Director at KieranTimberlake, an internationally recognized architecture firm noted for its commitment to research, innovation and invention. She leads a trans-disciplinary research team which conspires to advance building design practices through material, system, process, and environment driven questions. She fosters collaboration between disciplines, trades and industries and their disparate bodies of knowledge. In her professional and academic research Billie pursues an answer to the question: “Why do we build the way that we do?” Prior to joining KieranTimberlake, she was an assistant professor at the University of Texas at Austin School of Architecture where she instructed design research studios at the graduate and undergraduate level exploring applications for conventional and emerging material technologies, and conducted seminars on emerging construction and fabrication technologies. Billie received a Bachelor of Architecture from North Carolina State University and a Master of Architecture with Distinction from Harvard University.

Jonathan Mallie is one of six principals at SHoP. He currently serves as the Managing Director of SHoP Construction, established in 2007. Together with his partners, Mallie has developed integrated design and construction platforms that have instituted transparent working environments and enabled seamless exchanges of information to take place amongst project stakeholders. Jonathan has also taught at multiple universities including Columbia University’s Graduate School of Architecture Planning and Preservation, the University of Florida’s Graduate School of Architecture’s Global Lab, Miami University of Ohio, and the New Jersey Institute of Technology. Mr. Mallie received a Bachelor of Science in Design from University of Florida (1996) and was recently named the recipient of the School of Architecture’s Architects Award (2011). He received a Master of Architecture from Columbia University (1999) where he graduated with Honors for Excellence in Design. He is a registered architect in the State of New York.

Jason Oliver Vollen is a Registered Architect and researcher focused on emerging material technologies, specifically, the integration of energy per-formative structural ceramics, dynamic and environmental simulation, and digital fabrication. Prior to joining RPI, Vollen was an Assistant Professor at the University of Arizona working in the Emerging Material Technologies Research Group focusing on next generation design strategies based on the integration of emerging technical systems. Vollen is a principal with Binary design, a collaborative practice focusing on energy effective architecture and emerging material processes. He has worked with Matter Architecture Practice in New York and as a project manager, designer, and fabricator with the Cranbrook Architecture Office. Vollen received his Bachelors (B.Arch) from The Cooper Union Institute for the Advancement of Science and Art and his Masters (M.Arch II) from Cranbrook Academy of Art.