Faculty Directory

Craig Borum established Ply Architecture in Ann Arbor, MI in 1999. His professional practice and design research have garnered considerable accolades for digital fabrication, material practice and, most recently, research that engages climate and atmosphere related to glass construction practices. Borum has focused his research and creative work at the scale of construction practices and material logics as they challenge predominant modes of architectural practice. His work has, and continues to explore the intersection of geometry and materiality with the scope of grant funded research, international competitions and commissioned projects. His specific contribution to the discipline of architecture stems from the integration of technical advancements in the description and materialization of building geometries – made possible by computational processes – into built work.

His research is lodged in both investigative and traditional logics of materials, construction techniques, and systems of architectural enclosure (walls, doors, and window systems). His creative practice has substantially contributed to a broader understanding of implications of sustainable thinking on architectural design by offering an alternative to the discursive monoculture of LEED Certification and other formulaic top-down approaches. His approach builds upon recent theoretical speculation on atmospheric effects in a manner that goes beyond their phenomenological and technical implications of material assemblies through an understanding and positioning of the iconography and ideology of materials and tectonics within the architectural discipline.

His work at Ply has received numerous AIA Honor Awards as well as an Architect Magazine R+D Award and an American Architecture Award and most recently a citation from Architect Magazine 59th Annual P/A Awards Program. In 2007, Ply was named one of "101 of the World's most exciting new architects" by Wallpaper* Magazine. Borum was a recipient of the Architectural League of New York Young Architects Forum Award in 2006. His work has been published in numerous journals and monographs including Architecture Magazine, Architectural Record, Metropolis, l'Architecture d'Aujourd'hui, Ottagono, A+T, Damdi Press, Azure, Urban Spaces - Squares and Plazas, 1000x Architects of the Americas, Young Americans, Advanced Interior Design, Conceptual Diagrams, and Advanced Public Design.

Mr. Borum is from Portsmouth, Virginia and received his architectural training from the University of Virginia. He is a Professor at the University of Michigan where he served as Director of the Master of Architecture Program from 2010- 2012.

He has also taught visiting studios at the Southern California Institute of Architecture and the University of Cincinnati. He has served on design juries and lectured at a number of institutions including SCI-Arc, the University of Virginia, MIT, Yale, Tulane, University of Minnesota, the University of Cincinnati, the University of Illinois Urbana-Champagne, University of Colorado, University of Detroit Mercy, the University of Illinois Chicago as well as internationally in Italy, the Netherlands and Argentina.

Registered Architect: Michigan, NCARB Certified