Faculty Profile

Dana Cupkova is a principal of EPIPHYTE Lab, an architectural research and design collaborative. Her current academic research is focused on ecologically adaptive component systems and their cultural and socio-political effects. This work, which focuses on embedding the methods of contemporary fabrication technology and discreet energy harvesting systems into architectural design through a better understanding of computationally-generated geometry and its responsiveness to particular climactic conditions has been supported by the Architectural Foundation's Arnold W. Brunner Grant and Cornell University Faculty Innovation in Teaching Grant.

Since 2001, Dana has directed an architectural design practice DCm-STUDIO. She received a Dipl. ING. ARCH. from the Faculty of Architecture and Urban design at the Slovak Technical University in Bratislava and  M.Arch.2 from the School of the Arts and Architecture at UCLA, where she was awarded the Unrestricted University Fellowship, the Mimi Perloff Award, and the Kate Neal Kinley Memorial Fellowship for outstanding design work.

• ARCH 4605 Adaptive Component Systems: From Prefabrication to Operative Sustainability
• ARCH 5101 / 5113 / 7912 Liquid Ground:  Graduate Core Design Studio
• ARCH 5101 / 5113 / 7912 Littoral Adaptation: Vertical Option Design Studio
• ARCH 5101 / 5113 / 7912 Leisure Ecologies: Vertical Option Design Studio
• ARCH 5101 / 5113 / 7912 Component Arcologies: Vertical Option Design Studio

• Work of DCm-STUDIO featured in exhibition catalog "Form Follows Risk," Prague, Czech Republic (2007)
• Work of DCm-STUDIO featured in Young European Architects, pp. 110-113, DAAB GmbH, Koln, Germany (2006)
• "Decoration Reframed," Architectural Magazine PROJEKT, Nb. 02, pages 32-39, Bratislava, Slovakia (2006)

• Faculty Innovation in Teaching Grant, Office of Provost, Cornell (2009)
• Arnold W. Brunner Grant, AIA NY Chapter and the Center for Architecture Foundation (2008)
• Cornell Center for Sustainable Future Academic Venture Fund (CCSF), Co-PI, (2008)
• Lifecycle Building Challenge Competition, honorable mention for student collaborative project (2007)
• New York 2005: So What's the Big Idea?, lecture series competition, Architectural League of New York (2005)

• Work of EPIPHYTE Lab featured in Wild Wild East, AIT Architektur Salon, Hamburg (2010)
• Component Systems, Hartell Gallery, Cornell (2009)
• Work of DCm-STUDIO, Wonderland, various locations in Europe (2004-06)

• Adaptive Component Systems blog