Kyle Schumann

Education

Princeton University, Master of Architecture
Cornell University, Bachelor of Architecture

Biography

Kyle Schumann is Assistant Professor of Architecture at the University of Virginia School of Architecture, Director of the Before Building Laboratory, and Cofounder of After Architecture.

Schumann is Director of the Before Building Laboratory at UVA, where he leads robotic construction. Schumann seeks to advance the accessibility of digital fabrication, leveraging democratized technologies and inventing and building low-cost ground-up fabrication and imaging systems. Current research focuses on robotic timber construction. Research accolades include the R+D Award from Architect Magazine in 2022, Best in Digital Fabrication in The Architect’s Newspaper Best of Design Awards in 2022, and Best in Research in The Architect’s Newspaper Best of Design Awards in 2021. Schumann is recipient of the 2024 Timber Education Prize from the Association of Collegiate Schools of Architecture (ACSA) and the Softwood Lumber Board, the 2023 ACSA Design Build Award, and the 2025 ACSA Faculty Design Award. Schumann has been recognized as an Outstanding Researcher in the 2022 and 2024 UVA Research Achievement Awards.

Schumann is Cofounder of After Architecture, an architecture firm named to convey the built environment's impact on cultures and ecologies. After Architecture was awarded the Architectural League Prize for Young Architects + Designers in 2023, named to Cultured Magazine's Young Architects List in 2021, “Next Progressive” by Architect Magazine in 2019, and “Curbed Young Gun” by Curbed National in 2014. Recent works include a memorial in Washington D.C. and installations for the Oslo Architecture Triennale, the Knoxville Museum of Art, and Exhibit Columbus as 2022-2023 University Design Research Fellow. In 2024, After Architecture was awarded the AIA National Small Project Award.

Schumann creates venues for scholarly exchange including the Biomaterial Building Exposition, which put developments in biomaterial construction on view at the University of Virginia in 2022, and Projecting Fellows, a virtual symposium which brought together fellows from American architecture schools to explore the vehicle of the fellowship project in 2021.