Education

Master of Science in Architecture, Digital Design + Fabrication, Georgia Institute of Technology
Bachelor of Architecture (Professional Degree), Auburn University
Bachelor of Interior Architecture, Auburn University

Biography

Katherine Wright is a designer, educator, and researcher working at the intersection of architecture and interiors. Her work explores design as advocacy and centers on agency of materials, making, and the role of design shaping equitable, inclusive, and resilient environments. Her teaching and research focus on material culture, digital design methodologies, interdisciplinary collaboration, and community engaged design-build practice

Since 2011, Wright has taught architecture design studios on a range of topics – from textiles, light, and cold climates to safe spaces in education, intergenerational housing, mixed-use development and museum design. During her appointment as Visiting Assistant Professor at Georgia Institute of Technology she developed new courses in architectural physical model making and portfolio design. She previously co-developed the Design Develop Build Program South Africa design-build study abroad program and has held visiting positions at Auburn University, Kennesaw State University, and Georgia State University.

Wright actively contributes to academic governance as a member of the Academic Faculty Senate and the Institute Undergraduate Curriculum Committee at Georgia Institute of Technology. She is an Associate member of the American Institute of Architects (AIA) and an Allied Member of the American Society of Interior Designers (ASID). Wright is also a Founding Member of the Druid Hills Fine Arts Alliance (DHFAA) for the Druid Hills High School (Atlanta, GA) supporting their performance, visual and fine arts programs.

Her scholarship has been published in the Journal of Architectural Education, Journal of International Architectural Computing, and Journal of Behavioral Science, as well as the proceedings of the Architectural Research Centers Consortium (ARCC), Architecture Colleges and Schools Association (ACSA), SiGraDi, and CAADRIA, and in the International Space Syntax Symposium (including Best in Theme Paper Award).

Her most recent research and teaching include local collaborations with The Pride School Atlanta and the Mudfire Studio and Art Gallery as part of her Curating Safe Space studio initiative, as well as an international partnership with the Kyiv School of Economics focused on post-conflict recovery in Ukraine. Earlier collaborations include the international Design.Develop.Build partnership with professors from PBSA (Dusseldorf), RWTH (Aachen), and UCT (Cape Town); and leading students in design-build with an emphasis on material re-use and exploration, social impact, the context of material culture, and topics of sustainability. Projects from this collaboration include the Guga S'Thebe Children’s Theater in the Langa Community (Cape Town, South Africa) and the Midwives Quarters Have (with NGO Meeting Bismark) in Have (Ghana) received numerous national and international awards from: Design that Educates Awards, DesignBuildXchange Network, DAM (German Architecture Museum), Architecture Interior Technical Solutions (AIT), Spiegel, Architizer, and Fast Company. These projects are published in venues such as Architecture Interior Technical Solutions (AIT) magazine, DETAIL Edition, Earthworks magazine, ACSA, and the Journal of Architectural Education, as well as exhibited at the Venice Biennale.

Wright founded Beautiful Day Design Studio after working for DSNWRK on community focused projects and partnerships with the Housing Authority of the City of Winder for the Wimberly Center for Community Development, School of Rock, and The Globe Academy. Other professional exhibition and competition awards include Boulevard Crossing Park Design Services and Art on the Beltline with Atlanta Beltline Inc, and Flux Projects. She previously worked at Gensler (San Ramon, CA & Atlanta, GA) in the hospitality, retail, and workplace studios covering all phases of design and construction; and contributed to custom residential design projects with McALPINE (Montgomery, Alabama) and Architect Gaines Blackwell (Auburn, Alabama).

Wright holds a Bachelor of Architecture and a Bachelor of Interior Architecture from Auburn University and a post-professional Maters of Science in Architecture with a concentration in Digital Design + Fabrication from the Georgia Institute of Technology.

Statement of Teaching Interest

(1) Foregrounding architecture as civic imagination in action—where design skill, technical knowledge, and ethical responsibility work together to expand what space “can” do. Studios and lectures position students to practice architecture as advocacy: advocating for radical change in space and place as formed through architectural practice—envisioning new architectures of equality, inclusion, dignity, safety, and livelihood—as a device to engage in the creation of safe spaces and brave spaces in the built environment.
(2) Inventing a culture of alternative thinking cultivated through interdisciplinary inquiry, rigorous experimentation, non-traditional design methods, and learning to nurture and trust design intuition. Students become makers and visualizers by testing assumptions, prototyping possibilities, and learning to move between imagination, speculation, and constraints (site, climate, building systems, and stakeholder realities) without letting compliance flatten ambition. Plan logic, adjacency, thresholds, and material systems are treated as creative instruments: tools for building new forms of belonging, new kinds of collective life, and new spatial narratives.
(3) Designing community-engaged learning experiences at both local and international levels, deeply rooted in advocacy, material experimentation, and challenging representational norms.
(4) Developing opportunities for both undergraduate and graduate students to develop compelling portfolios to support a competitive entry into the profession. 
 

Courses:

ARCH 3017 - Architectural Design V, Bolton Prize Studio
ARCH 6048 - Advanced Architectural Design II - Integrated Design, Portman Prize Studio
ARCH 2211/6229 - Construction Technology & Design Integration I
ARCH 3200 - Portfolio Design Workshop

Additional courses: 

Special Topics, Independent Study (supporting student-led research), & Design-Build Study Abroad.

Statement of Research Interest

Research interests investigate how spatial frameworks shape lived experience, agency, and spatial justice—particularly within housing and civic/educational environments where belonging, safety, and collective life become urgent. Attention is given to material systems, fabrication methodologies, and how adjacency and privacy gradients mediate care and autonomy, bringing dignity and beauty to the everyday. Safe space theory is framed as a spatial practice: produced through actions, relations, governance, and material choices.

In the Bolton Prize housing studios, research interests examine contemporary housing typologies and the cultural expectations embedded within them. Unit-centric, efficiency-driven layouts often spatialize isolation and constrain collective life; alternative models are developed that recalibrate the relationship between private interiors and shared commons—housing that is porous, relational, socially durable, and future positive.

Investigations into design pedagogy as research methodology situate the design studio as a local laboratory for local and global issues. Frameworks are tested through iterative prototypes, community engagement, and measurable outcomes—linking scholarship to usable tools that support advocacy-driven design and the creation of safe and brave spaces in the built environment.

Recent Scholarly Work

Journal Articles:

• Wright, K. B. (2014). Pass the Can. Journal of Architectural Education, 68(1), 47-49. Category: Design as Scholarship, Pre-Fabrications: Micro-Narratives on Architecture's Material Culture. 
• Baerlecken, D., & Wright, K. B. (2014). Nominalized Matter: Agency of Material. International Journal of Architectural Computing, 12(3), 339-356. Special Issue: Design Agency: Pluri-disciplinary Models in Design Research and Architecture. 
• Wright, K., & Bafna, S. (2014). Structure of Attention and the Logic of Visual Composition. Behavioral Sciences, 4(3), 226-242. Special Issue: Spatial Cognition and Behavior. MDPI AG: Basel, Switzerland. 

Conference Presentation with Proceedings (abbreviated):

• Wright, K. (2026). Curating Safe Space: Local Design Pedagogies for Global Spatial Justice. Local Solutions for Global Issues: Proceedings of the 2026 Architectural Research Centers Consortium (ARCC)/ European Association for Architectural Education (EAAE) International Conference.
• Khalifa, N. & Wright, K. (2026). Porous Housing: Reimagining Urban Domesticity Through Thresholds. Local Solutions for Global Issues: Proceedings of the 2026 Architectural Research Centers Consortium (ARCC)/ European Association for Architectural Education (EAAE) International Conference.
• Wright, K., Boutwell, A., Lassetter, A., Bassett, E., & Malesevic, M. (2025). Reimagining Ukraine – designing a new future in Zolochivka. Emerging Challenges: Technological, Environmental, Social: Proceedings of the 2025 Architectural Research Centers Consortium (ARCC) International Conference. Topic Area: Social Challenges.
• Baerlecken, D., Wright, K. & Reitz, J., (2019). Midwives Quarters, Have, Volta Region, Ghana. Project Proceedings of the 107th ACSA Annual Meeting | BLACK BOX: Articulating Architecture's Core in the Post-Digital Era.
• Baerlecken, D., Wright, K., Reitz, J., Mueller, N., & Heiermann, B. (2016). Performative Agency of Materials: Matter Agency of Vernacular African Pattern Systems. Living Systems and Micro-Utopias: Towards Continuous Designing: Proceedings of the 21st International Conference on Computer-Aided Architectural Design Research in Asia(CAADRIA).

Publication of Work - Authored by Others (abbreviated): 

• Bader, V., & Lepik, A. (Eds).(2020) Guga S’Thebe Theater. Experience in Action! DesignBuild in Architecture, DETAIL Edition, Architecturmuseum der TUM and DETAIL Business Information GmbH, Munich, Germany.
• Hempel, O. (2016, June). Guga S ‘Thebe Theatre. [Magazine]. Architecture Interior Technical Solutions (AIT), 2016(5).

Exhibitions (abbreviated):

• Baerlecken, D., Wright, K., Reitz, J., Heiermann, B., & Mueller, N. (2017). Guga S ‘Thebe Theatre. In Structures For Inclusion: Building on Common Ground. Exhibition at the Center for Public Interest Design, Portland State University, Portland, Oregon. 
• Baerlecken, D., Wright, K., Reitz, J., Heiermann, B., & Mueller, N. (2016). Responsive Architectures. [Symposium]. In P. Baratta (Chair) & A. Aravena (Curator), & La Biennale di Venezia (Organizer), Reporting from the Front. Exhibition at the 15th International Architecture Exhibition 2016, Artiglierie Arsenale, Venice, Italy. 
• Baerlecken, D., Heiermann, B., Mueller, N., Reitz, J., & Wright, K (2016). AIT-Award - Best in Interior and Architecture 2016. Exhibition at the World Design Capital Exhibition, City of Cape Town, South Africa, January- December. Collaboration project of RWTH Aachen, PBSA Düsseldorf, and Georgia Institute of Technology.