Aaron Forrest, innovative design researcher, joins CED as Associate Adjunct Professor of Architecture
Aaron Forrest is co-founder and principal of the architecture practice, Ultramoderne, founded in 2014. Established with Associate Adjunct Professor Yasmin Vobis, the celebrated firm is grounded in the principle that design research is best advanced through real-world architectural practice. Ultramoderne follows a heuristic approach that innovates by distilling and resolving complex issues in inventive ways particular to each project.
Their work advances the discipline, particularly by investigating new building materials, such as mass timber, evolving its structural and tectonic language in relation to program, site and community. Key projects related to this line of inquiry include Chicago Horizon, Recess PS1, and Framework, the design for the Philadelphia Contemporary Art Museum. Like Forrest’s own work, the projects rigorously investigate the architectural potentials of innovative tectonic and structural solutions, such as tensegrity and mass timber.
Forrest is engaged in civic and community-based design research as an extension of his practice. Currently, he is working on a project examining urban regeneration in postindustrial Providence, Rhode Island. Disseminated through published pamphlets, the project, “Vacant Providence,” consists of documentation, analytical drawings, and speculative proposals for vacant lots throughout the city to imagine how they can become catalysts for future growth. This endeavor is an outgrowth of the highly successful Southlight Pavilion and public garden, built at the Southlight Cultural Center after a robust community engagement and design-build process at RISD.
Previous to Ultramoderne, Forrest worked for highly regarded and internationally recognized architecture firms: Bernheimer Architecture, Abalos & Herreros, and Guy Nordenson and Associates. Forrest received his Masters and A.B. in Architecture from Princeton University. Since 2019, he has been Associate Professor of Architecture at Rhode Island School of Design (RISD) and has taught previously as Visiting Lecturer at University of Pennsylvania.
As a teacher, Forrest guides students towards a deeply responsible social practice of architecture. “I am beyond delighted to be coming to Berkeley and the Bay Area to contribute to such an important and dynamic public institution. Through both teaching and practice, I am excited to be able to participate in the vital discourse at UC Berkeley and to the future of the city. I can’t imagine a better place to develop new ideas, creative work, and conversations,” says Forrest.