Marc Tsurumaki, in partnership with Paul Lewis and David J. Lewis at LTL Architects, has established a model for architectural practice in which research and publishing are intrinsically related to material development and design. The vastly influential book Manual of Section (2016) has been translated into six languages and remains a reference for understanding the ways in which the drawn section functions as representational techniques and reveals a building’s formal characteristics. Their more recent book, Manual of Biogenic House Sections (2022), presents a series of houses selected for using materials with beneficial environmental conditions – such as the capacity to sequester carbon or having low embodied carbon – and analyzes both their benefits at a time of climate crisis and their impact on the building’s section.
Alongside their publishing projects, LTL is an award-winning architecture practice that has sharpened its focus to study the environmental impact of architecture, and develop methods that reduce embodied carbon through the use of plant and earth-based materials, carbon-capture, and material reuse. Their work operates at the intersection of spatial invention, material innovation, and collective experience, with recent projects such as Poster House, The Helen R. Walton Children’s Enrichment Center, and The Contemporary Austin, Texas. LTL are recipients of the National Design Award from the Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum, were named AIA NY State Firm of the Year (2019), and have been inducted into the ID Hall of Fame. Their work is included in the permanent collections of the Museum of Modern Art, The San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, and the Carnegie Museum of Art, and has been featured at the Venice Architecture Biennale. Additional publications include Intensities (2013), Opportunistic Architecture (2008), and Situation Normal… Pamphlet Architecture #21 (1998).
Tsurumaki received a Bachelor of Science in Architecture from The University of Virginia and a Master of Architecture from Princeton University. He currently serves as the President of the Board of Directors for Storefront for Art and Architecture. In over 20 years of teaching experience at Columbia GSAPP, Tsurumaki has led both Advanced and Core Architecture Studios, as well as the popular Seminar of Section course. He presented his unique research and material-based approach to architecture at the Fall 2023 Open House Lecture and recently led a panel during the CONSTRUCTING (activist) PRACTICE conference in March 2024.
