Frano Violich

Frano Violich is a founding principal at KVA Matx, an interdisciplinary design practice which engages material fabrication, digital technology and the conservation of natural resources to expand the public life of buildings and cities. He has collaborated with his partner, Sheila Kennedy, on numerous projects most recently a five-and-a-half mile redevelopment of the Minneapolis Riverfront, an intermodal Ferry Terminal in New York City, and a net-zero housing project for the Internationale Bauaustellung’s (IBA) in Hamburg, Germany. KVA’s work has been exhibited at the New York City’s Cooper Hewitt, the Rotterdam Biennale, Vitra in Germany, and SF MoMA.

Violich studied studio art at the University of California-Irvine before completing his undergraduate studies in architecture at the University of California-Berkeley. He received his M.Arch. from Harvard University. Violich’s early independent public art work is in the permanent collection of the Museo de Arte Contemporanea in Merida, Yucatan, and has been shown at MASS MoCA in North Adams, Massachusetts.

Classes (Selected)

• ARCH 4101/4102/5101, ARCH 5116, ARCH 8913 Option Studio: Fish Stories: Scales of Convergence in the Adriatic SeaAdvanced programs in architectural design, with options in, but not limited to, urban design, architectural technology, computational design, ecology, culture, and representation.

Awards, Grants, and Fellowships (Selected)

• NYAIA Design Excellence Award, E. 34th Street Ferry Terminal, New York City (2014)
• BSA/AIA Award, IBA, Smart Materials Housing Program, Hamburg, Germany (2014)
• Brick in Architecture Award, Best in Class, Educational, University of Pennsylvania Law School, Philadelphia (2013)

Exhibitions and Presentations (Selected)

• BSA Inaugural Design Exhibit INFORM, Interim Bridges Project exhibitioned in Boston Urban History Retrospective; Michael Kubo, Chris Grimley, curators (2012)
• IBA Hamburg Exhibition, Soft House exhibited as one of six smart building projects selected for construction in Hamburg, Germany (2011)
• Design and Elastic Mind, MoMA, New York City (2008)

Publications (Selected)

• "Arketipo: International Building Exhibition 2013," (Milano, Italy), report on Hamburg featuring Soft House (2013)
• Phaidon Atlas, 34th Street East River Ferry Landing, New York City (2013)
• Architectural Record, "Special Report: Education, Golkin Hall, University of Pennsylvania Law School" (March 2013)