Neal Robinson

Neal Robinson is an assistant professor of practice in architecture at the University of Michigan’s Taubman College of Architecture and Urban Design. He teaches design and construction logics in both the graduate-level design sequence and the undergraduate core curriculum. He is the former coordinator of the Summer 3G Design Fundamentals course as well as Design Fundamentals 1 for undergraduates. Recently taught classes include the Institutions graduate design studio, Wallenberg thesis studio for undergraduate seniors, and Devils, Details, and Do-Overs, a graduate-level experimental seminar. Robinson directed Taubman College’s former study abroad program at Villa Corsi-Salviati in Sesto Fiorentino, Florence, Italy, and continues to lead students in study-abroad opportunities. Most recently, in May 2017, he traveled with students to Australia, New Zealand, and New Caledonia.

A licensed architect, Robinson has worked with Skidmore, Owings, and Merrill in San Francisco and the Atlanta office of Cooper Carry and Associates. In 1998, Robinson established SKYLAB Architectures, a community-based design practice in Atlanta that teamed with artisans, entrepreneurs, and curious trades to realize both domestic and institutional urban interiors, civic artifacts, political stagings, and strategies of reclamation for a “post-apocOlympic” city. In 2000, Robinson traded latitudes and co-founded WETSU, a design+build practice in Ann Arbor that attempted to intensify the spatial relationship between cultural dizziness and the labor of labor. It worked. WETSU received recognition for design excellence from ID, Contract, and Wallpaper* magazines, as well as earned honor awards from the Michigan Chapter of the American Institute of Architects. In 2007, Robinson accelerated his interest in neurotoxicity with the instigation of “N_SPACE,” a spirited architectural practice that champions the “exuberant and synthetic condensation of spatial optimism.” To date, “N_SPACE” has been awarded multiple design awards and continues to take up curious causes with small business, slow foods, and deep thinkers.

Robinson received his Master of Architecture from Rice University and his Bachelor of Science in architecture from the Georgia Institute of Technology.