Aleksandr Mergold

After a prolific tenure as senior architect with Pentagram, Mergold cofounded Austin and Mergold LLC, an architecture, landscape, and design practice. Austin and Mergold is also a testing ground for Mergold's research agenda, focusing on a "design-and-adapt" modus operandi — the contemporary interpretation of spolia, the repurposing of all that is mundane, common, available, and disposable in today's construction, including infrastructure, technology, and resources.
 
Educated at Cornell (B.Arch. '00) and Princeton (M.Arch. '03), Mergold has also taught at Parsons the New School for Design, Listaháskóli Íslands in Reykjavik, and in the Department of Design and Environmental Analysis in the College of Human Ecology. At AAP, he teaches a series of design studios that focus on user-centered design and a wide range of technical and representation courses.
 
Mergold's work has been published in a variety of media, including Architectural Record, Thresholds, Domus, The Architect's Newspaper, the New York Times, the Philadelphia Inquirer, Residential Architect Magazine, and the Cornell Journal of Architecture.

Aleksandr Mergold is a registered architect in New York, Pennsylvania, Maryland, and New Jersey; a member of the American Institute of Architects, American Institute of Graphic Arts; and is a LEED Accredited Professional.

Related Links

• Pentagram Website
• Engaged Learning and Research Faculty Fellow 2015

Related News

• James Wines: Archi-Protest, the Role of Buildings in Social Change
• Flatiron Public Plaza Design Installation 2020

Classes (Selected)

• ARCH 2102 Integrative Design StudioIn this Integrative Design Studio, the requirements of building systems are seen to both support and inform architectural concepts and form. One of the key design experiences during this semester will be the interaction of these concepts and building systems. Questions of energy, thermal comfort, sustainability, structure, material, and life safety will be addressed.
• ARCH 4509/6509 Making Prints: Printmaking for ArchitectsThis course addresses pertinent issues relative to the subject of Visual Representation. The instructor(s) of the course are drawn from the permanent and visiting faculty who may either broadly or narrowly define the course's scope and content. For precise content, please see the Architecture Department webpage.
• ARCH 5511 Analog/Digital DrawingFocuses on bridging hand-drawing and sketching with digital representation as vehicles for design thinking and perception. Observational, analytical, and transformational exercises develop creative proficiency in freehand drawing and orthographic projection as well as computational thinking. Develops understanding of, and proficiency in, projective drawing, in both analog and digital forms. Students are introuced to a variety of digital representation applications, including modeling, rendering, animation, and scripting.
• DEA 3040 Professional Practice
• DEA 4402 Competitions Design Studio

Awards, Grants, and Fellowships (Selected)

• New York State Council for the Arts grant (2015)
• Philadelphia AIA Emergent Architect Prize (2012)
• Baer Art Fellowship, Hofsos, Iceland (2011)
• New York Architecture League Prize (2010)

Exhibitions and Presentations (Selected)

• What I did next, Princeton School of Architecture, Alternative Architectural Practices Lecture Series (2013)
• Conservation, Conservatism, Conservators and Conservatories, MARSH, Moscow Architecture School, Moscow, Russia (2012)
• Philly Works, Qualities of Life Exhibition, Art Alliance, the Philadelphia V.I.O.D.S. Project, Philadelphia (2012)

Publications (Selected)

• "House-in-a-Can," Architectural Inventions: Visionary Drawings, M. Bua, M. Goldfarb, Lawrence King (2012)
• "Contemplations of the Sural™ Landscape," ​​​​Le Journal Spéciale'Z, no. 3, Paris (2012)
• "Grand Resource HK," Instant Culture: Architecture and Urbanism as a Collective Process, Hong Kong (2012)