Wesley McGee

Wes McGee works at the intersection of design, engineering, and robotics to challenge how architecture is constructed. He innovates across the spaces of design and fabrication within a range of material processes, specifically in the application of CNC and industrial robotic tools to architectural production, developing software and hardware technologies which streamline design-driven workflows to produce high-performance building components. McGee is Professor at the Taubman College of Architecture and Urban Planning, Associate Professor in Civil and Environmental Engineering, and Director of the Fabrication and Robotics Lab at the University of Michigan. McGee is Co-founder and Partner of Matter Design, a research and design lab based at MIT, and leads the Matter Design Robotics group at U-M, a spin-off of Matter Design focused on fabrication and robotic research.

McGee’s work has been exhibited nationally and internationally and has received numerous awards, including the  Rob|Arch Community Contribution award (2024), multiple R+D awards from Architect Magazine (2022,2018,2016), an AIA National Small Project award (2022), multiple Boston Society of Architects awards (2021,2013), Finalist for the PS1 Young Architects Program (2019), the ACADIA Award for Innovative Research (2017), and the Architectural League of New York Young Architects Award (2013), among others. He holds four patents (awarded) and has published his work widely in leading journals such as Additive Manufacturing, Automation in Construction, and Cement and Concrete Research, as well as conferences including ACADIA, Fabricate, and Rob|Arch. His research has received extensive funding from national sources including the National Science Foundation (FW-HTF) and the AIA Upjohn Research Grant, as well as numerous industry collaborations including Guardian Industries, Skidmore Owens and Merrill, and the International Masonry Institute.

McGee received a Bachelor of Science in Mechanical Engineering and a Master of Industrial Design, both from Georgia Tech. He has taught workshops across the US, Europe, the Middle East and Australia. At Taubman College, he teaches design studios and technology seminars in the Master of Architecture and Master of Science in Digital and Material Technologies program, focused on computationally driven fabrication workflows, robotics, and additive manufacturing.