KBLstudio is co-directed by Kathleen Brandt and Brian Lonsway.
They can be contacted at kathleen-at-kblstudio-dot-com and brian-at-kblstudio-dot-com.
Kathleen Brandt (www.kathleenbrandt.org) is Faculty Lead of the interdisciplinary capstone course in the Communications@Syracuse M.S. program at the S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications, and instructor of Architectural Research in the Master of Architecture program, both at Syracuse University.
She works between the fields of design, art, and education to develop and promote design systems that respond to current issues of social and cultural change. Her focus on design practice as a process of negotiation more than of material production has led her to develop intensely collaborative teaching and research strategies.
Kathleen has also developed a body of work exploring the implications of designed artifacts to our larger social and spatial environments. From wearable computing devices to interactive installations and documentary video works, these projects seek to theorize how and what we make, and reflect upon the impacts design and the making of things have left on the world.
Brian Lonsway is Associate Professor and Graduate Chair in the School of Architecture at Syracuse University.
Brian is an architectural writer and technologist studying how built environments materialize cultural values, especially in the context of the professionalization and commercialization of design practices since the 20th century. His first book, Making Leisure Work: Architecture and the Experience Economy, surveys the evolution and convergence of these histories, and explores new theories of civic agency within consumer-centric landscapes.
His current research is centered on exploring the inherent transdisciplinary of design, and the intersection of disciplinary and professional identities with alternative models of design practice.