NEWSLETTER - March 27, 2026

Conferences & Presentations

Faculty Members and Undergraduate Student Present at National Conference on Design Education

Fourth-year student Micah Regier, along with Assistant Professor Ali Ghazvinian, PhD, and Assistant Professor David Turturo, PhD, presented at the National Conference on the Beginning Design Student (NCBDS) which took place February 26–March 1, 2026. HCOA faculty also moderated other conference sessions.

Micah presented a papermaking assignment from Arch Tech I: Matter, led by Ali Ghazvinian, PhD, where students sourced material from waste cycles around local environments. Items such as studio pin-ups, coffee grounds, receipts, and dried grass necessitated adaptability due to the unpredictable nature of working with unconventional materials. Students also made their own tools through sieves and frames in an iterative process that required experimentation.

Ali Ghazvinian, PhD, presented a paper titled "MycoKnit Design Research Studio: Integrating Research on Knitted Textiles and Fungal Biomaterials into Architectural Education" which discussed interdisciplinary teaching methods exploring the integration of knitted textiles and biomaterials. In the studio, students worked with knitted textile and mycelium prototypologies to create a biogenic system. Workshops addressed different scales, from understanding the micro-environments of the materials to researching methods for large scale deployment through pavilion designs. The course was taught alongside Farzaneh Oghazian, PhD, from the University of Louisiana and Benay Gürsoy, PhD, and Felecia Ann Davis, PhD, from Penn State University.

David Turturo, PhD, presented a paper titled "Façade City: Everyday Collaboration as Urbanism Pedagogy." Façade City is a third-year undergraduate B.S. Arch design studio intended to reframe the role of the façade within an urban context. The paper articulates how architectural education might meaningfully engage urbanism through a collaborative process that uncovers the rich complexity and ephemerality of the built environment, with Façade City serving as a case study. Façade City trains students to observe, analyze, and recombine what already exists in everyday urban environments. The premise is simple: before students can improve the city, they must learn to read it—closely, skeptically, and with some tolerance for contradiction.

NCBDS is an annual forum for conversation and discussion on beginning design pedagogical approaches and methodology. This year’s theme, “Projective Environments,” examines design education as an interdisciplinary practice rooted in responsible pedagogies, responding to how current design decisions impact future worlds.

For more information on the conference, click here.

Conferences & Presentations

Dr. Mostafavi Presents Patent as part of TTU STEM MBA Program and Serves on Final Jury with Edgar Montejano and Princess Olali

Associate Professor Dr. Sina Mostafavi, Director of the Hi-DARS Lab, presented the Timber Dowel Reciprocal Lattice (TDRL) patent application to Professor Dr. Ron Mitchell’s STEM MBA Technology Commercialization class at Texas Tech University’s Rawls College of Business on January 30^th, 2026.

Each semester, the TTU Office of Research Commercialization selects a filed patent from Texas Tech University to be evaluated in the STEM MBA course. The TDRL system was selected as the featured technology for Spring 2026. During the semester, MBA student teams analyzed the patent and developed commercialization strategies, exploring potential market applications, industry relevance, and pathways for scalability.

On March 6^th, 2026, Dr. Mostafavi returned to the Rawls College of Business to participate in the final review and jury session, where MBA teams presented their commercialization proposals based on the TDRL patent. The session brought together faculty from the Rawls College of Business, representatives from the TTU Office of Research Commercialization, and members of the Hi-DARS Lab, including Edgar Montejano and E. Princess Olali, who contributed to the discussion and evaluation of the teams’ proposals.

The Timber Dowel Reciprocal Lattice system is a design innovation developed at Texas Tech University that explores dry-assembled timber reciprocal structures and their potential applications in scalable architectural and construction systems.

More information about the project and this interdepartmental effort can be found by clicking here.

Awards & Distinctions

Erin Hunt and Dr. Mostafavi Re-elected to ACADIA Board of Directors

Assistant Professor Erin Hunt and Associate Professor Dr. Sina Mostafavi have been re-elected to serve as members on the ACADIA Board of Directors for another two-year term during 2026–2028.

The Association for Computer Aided Design in Architecture (ACADIA) is an international network of digital design researchers and professionals. ACADIA supports critical inquiry into the role of computation in architecture, planning, and building science, advancing innovation in design creativity, sustainability, and education.

For more information on ACADIA, click here.

Erin Hunt

Dr. Sina Mostafavi

Conferences & Publications

Alum Featured in Texas Architect for Design of Community Hub in San Antonio

The architecture and interior design firm Clayton Korte was featured in the Spring 2026 issue of Texas Architect for its design of Pullman Market in San Antonio’s Pearl Historic District. Paul Clayton, an HCOA alumnus and co-principal of the firm, co-designed the project which was recognized for its thoughtful approach to adaptive reuse.

The project repurposes a former glass factory, retaining the existing structural system and many original openings. Retail, dining, and gathering spaces are organized within the preserved industrial infrastructure in a way that maintains the building’s scale and form, emphasizing continuity between the property's original function and its current use.

To learn more about the design of Pullman Market, read the article here.

Photo by Casey Dunn

Publications

Share your Stories: 100 Years of Architecture at Texas Tech

CALLING ALL STUDENTS, ALUMNI, FACULTY, FORMER DEANS, AND STAFF: As we look forward to celebrating the 100^th anniversary of Texas Tech’s architecture program in 2027, we’re calling on the HCOA community to share their memories and experiences with the program.

YOUR STORIES are a vital part of the shared history of our College. Our upcoming book, Limitless Horizons: The First 100 Years of Texas Tech’s Architecture Program, will highlight this rich legacy.

We invite YOU to help us fully capture the impact and influence of Texas Tech’s architecture program with stories that reflect the experiences we all remember, share, and celebrate! Be sure to submit your stories before the deadline on March 31^st, 2026!

All contributors will be recognized in the book.

To share your stories or make a contribution to the publication, please reach out to Noel Barrick and Gary Lindsey at architecture.limitlesshorizons@ttu.edu.

Donations are critical to the advancement of our program. With your contributions, we can fund our merit-based scholarships, recruit extraordinary faculty, fund research endeavors and improve our facilities. No gift is too small to make an impact on our students, faculty, and staff. If you're interested in giving, the Texas Tech University Office of Institutional Advancement has a convenient web portal for making secure, online donations to one of the established Huckabee College of Architecture funds. Click here to donate.

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