M.Arch, Bartlett School of Architecture, UK, 1994

Biography

Jason Griffiths is an Associate Professor in the College of Architecture at the University of Lincoln Nebraska. In 2015, he held the Hyde Chair of Excellence and currently holds the W. Cecil Steward Professorship. He received his Masters in Architecture with distinction from the Bartlett School of Architecture, UK in 1994.

Recent recognition includes the WoodWorks/ Wood Products Council Wood Design Award, the 2019 & 2020 ACSA Design-Build Awards and the 2023 Softwood Lumber Board Timber Education Prize. Significant grant awards include the 2017 USDA Forest Service Wood Innovations Grant and the 2019 Nebraska Environmental Trust Award.

In 2017, he established the PLAIN Design-Build architectural collective to provide an experienced-based architectural education in the Master of Architecture Program at UNL.

Built projects and research explore all types of timber construction, ranging from advanced forms of engineered lumber to small-scale forestry and local fabrication. His work features renewable resources including undesirable trees discarded by insect borer infestations or the by-product of forest fire fuel mitigation. Projects built through PLAIN support material flows that sequester carbon and reduce the embodied energy of construction. Buildings establish circular economies through the adaptation of vernacular forms of architecture and regional forestry ecosystems. His students are engaged through a co-creative educational model of experienced-based learning and hands-on construction.

Jason’s earlier research includes a written account the unheimlich nature of mass-produced houses. His book Manifest Destiny was published by the AA in 2011 and was the recipient of the Deutsches Architekturmuseum Book Award. Other publications include the AA Files, 30 60 90, LA Times and Volume.

Past teaching positions include The Bartlett School of Architecture, the University of Westminster and Oxford Brookes University. In 2003 he moved to North America and taught at the Tech de Monterrey, UT Austin, Iowa State and ASU. He has also held visiting positions at ESTAM in Madrid, the AA Visiting School in Chengdu, Sharda University in Delhi and Nirma University in Ahmedabad and from 2017-19 was a Professor of Summer Immersion at The School of Architecture at Taliesin in Wisconsin. Jason has lectured widely throughout Europe, Asia and North America.

Griffiths' teaching career is paralleled with architectural competition work, winning prizes in eleven competitions including first prize in both the AA FAB 2009, Temple of Laughter, Millennium Café competitions. Other competition prizes include Future Visions of Kyoto, Aomori Housing, Shinkenchiku Residential Design (three times) and the Oklahoma Memorial.

Work from his own practice, Jason Griffiths Architecture, includes award-winning architectural competitions, residential projects, public art and furniture.