Marc Tsurumaki will take over as the next director of the Master of Architecture program at Columbia University Graduate School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation (Columbia GSAPP) in the spring of 2026.

The Master of Architecture program at Columbia GSAPP is renowned for its experimental pedagogy, which links knowledge and research to a larger framework of social, environmental, and global action. The esteemed faculty of the School creates the program's famous design and housing studios, pioneers sophisticated approaches to technology and computing, and advances histories, conversation, and research in the areas of materiality, ecological, and inclusivity. Students are pushed to expand their technical and intellectual expertise and produce work that critically addresses today's most important challenges.

The architecture department at Columbia University, which was founded in 1881, is among the oldest in the world and draws many of the best students from all over the world. The three-year Master of Architecture program, which is approved by the NAAB, advances our knowledge of architectural experimentation and re-invention. Graduates have the most up-to-date skills necessary to become influential academics, practitioners, and change agents. Alumni of the school go on to influence architectural research and design, holding important positions in the field both domestically in New York and abroad.

"At GSAPP, we are very aware that our M.Arch program has a global impact in anticipating how architecture evolves, and Marc Tsurumaki is uniquely prepared to make design, practice, and the profession of architecture the best equipped to address how climate crisis, societal divides, and geopolitical tensions intersect and can be addressed through and as architecture," said Dean Andrés Jaque.

A prominent practitioner with a research-based practice, Marc Tsurumaki investigates how architecture affects society and the environment and creates strategies to lower embodied carbon through the use of earth- and plant-based materials, carbon capture, and material reuse. By transforming construction assemblies into locations for environmental action and decarbonization, his award-winning work broadens the possibilities of ecosystemic approaches to architectural materiality. 

The widely influential books Manual of Section (2016), which has been translated into six languages and explains how the architectural section functions as a representational technique and reveals a building's formal characteristics, and Manual of Biogenic House Sections (2022), which presents a series of houses selected for using materials with beneficial environmental conditions to analyze their benefits at a time of climate crisis as well as their impact on the building's section, are the result of Tsurumaki's inherent integration of research and publishing with material development and design. 

Tsurumaki's partners at LTL Architects, Paul Lewis and David J. Lewis, co-authored both publications.

Having taught for more than 20 years at Columbia GSAPP and the Master of Architecture program, Marc Tsurumaki is well-versed in both. In 2024, he became a full-time faculty member and was appointed Professor of Professional Practice. Through his consistent involvement and participation in a wide range of organizations and events, including his current position as President of the Board of Directors of the Storefront for Art and Architecture, he also makes a significant contribution to the larger cultural and architectural context of New York City outside of the School.

As the new Director of the Master of Architecture, Tsurumaki takes over from Mario Gooden, who has held the role since 2022 and has reaffirmed the program's commitment to leading architecture in its engagement with modern issues involving environmental, societal, technological, and bodily progressiveness and justice. In order to boost graduate readiness and future success, Gooden enlisted the help of both full-time and adjunct instructors. He promoted architecture as an intellectual and activist field of study that can support global and environmental action, and he revamped the Core Curriculum and Professional Practice.

The top image in the article: Marc Tsurumaki, courtesy of Columbia GSAPP.

> via Columbia GSAPP

Director GSAPP Marc Tsurumaki