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Alex Timmer

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Alex Timmer

  • Associate Professor, Architecture
  • Director, Design + Construction Initiative

Education

  • MArch, Harvard, Graduate School of Design
  • BSAS, University of Michigan, Taubman College

Biography

Alex Timmer is an architectural designer, researcher, and educator whose work focuses on how flows of matter and energy shape architectural design. He draws on open thermodynamics, systems thinking, and contemporary fabrication practices to explore how environmental forces influence the built environment and how designers can more directly engage the material and energetic conditions that define architecture.

Professor Timmer’s research examines the relationship between material assemblies and energy flows, treating activation—whether thermal, spatial, or material—as a central architectural act. His projects range from studying the thermal behavior of concrete through heat activation to harvesting and processing EAB damaged trees. Across all scales, he approaches architecture as a hybrid system in which matter and energy interact dynamically. This systems-based perspective moves beyond deterministic or purely technical solutions, instead offering more nuanced and adaptable methodologies, mappings, prototypes, and typological studies.

A major part of Professor Timmer’s work involves digital fabrication and full-scale making. Through hands-on experimentation and courses that emphasize physical modeling, he and his students investigate complex flows of matter and energy through direct engagement with materials. His teaching prioritizes process over product, encouraging iterative and adaptive design methods that prepare students to address the environmental and systemic challenges facing contemporary architecture. By framing design at the level of systems rather than isolated objects, he aims to equip emerging designers with the tools needed to navigate issues of environment, materiality, and technology.

Timmer’s professional and academic experience includes more than 20 notable projects completed at PLY Architecture, where he contributed to award-winning work recognized by the AIA Small Project Award, Architect Magazine R+D Merit Award, AIA Michigan Merit Awards, and the ar+d Emerging Architecture Award. Through his independent practice, studioTMMR, he focuses on installations, competitions, and experimental design research. His work has been exhibited at the University of Michigan Taubman College, Harvard Graduate School of Design, YveYANG Gallery, the Seoul Biennale of Architecture and Urbanism, AIA Wisconsin, and the University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee SARUP.

His writing and design research have been featured in venues such as the Technology Architecture + Design journal, the International Building Physics Conference, the Society of Building Science Educators, the National Conference on the Beginning Design Student, and both national and regional ACSA conferences. These contributions highlight his commitment to advancing conversations around energy, material systems, community-based design, and modular fabrication.

Across his research, teaching, and service, Professor Timmer’s work is unified by a commitment to understanding architecture as an active, open system shaped by flows of matter and energy. He continues to develop approaches that challenge conventional environmental design practices and believes that students trained through systems-based pedagogies will be better prepared to address the complex environmental realities of contemporary architecture.

studiotmmr.com

Recent & Selected Works

Wall-mounted panels of perforated wood tiles arranged in vertical grids with varied hole patterns on a white wall.
Plywood Acoustic Wall Panels.
Black and white close-up of layered corrugated panels forming a repeating wavy pattern with rough textures and overlapping edges.
Modular Concrete and Fabric Radiant Wall.
Curved wooden lattice reception desk with a black monitor and large wall-mounted screen in a minimal white room.
Plywood Acoustic Podium.
Hallway with wood panel columns, blue accent wall, carpet tiles, and a display table by windows with architectural models.
Faculty Mailboxes Utilizing Reclaimed Urban Wood, View from Entrance.
Vertical wooden shelving units with staggered trays set between tall wood panels, forming a repeating storage display against a neutral wall.
Faculty Mailboxes Utilizing Reclaimed Urban Wood, Detail of Mailboxes.
Interior view of a wooden slat structure with horizontal gaps, framing an outdoor scene with trees and landscape beyond.
Timber Pavilion, Interior Detail.
“Milwaukee’s other architecture: The importance of brutalist buildings in the Cream City”, Timmer, A. Interviewed by Frank Healy, CBS 58

Articles & Selected Papers

  • Timmer, A, Krug, L, Reynolds, K, Schuermann, S. 2023. “Curriculum Junkspace,” 38th National Beginning Design Student Conference Proceedings (NCBDS)
  • Timmer, Alexander. 2023. "Waste Wood and Cement Composite Sculpture: An Analysis of Embodied Carbon and Compressive Strength," 2023 ACSA/AIA Intersections Research Conference Proceedings
  • Timmer, Alexander. 2021. "“Open Thermodynamic Design: Exploring Dialectic Design Processes through Mass Timber” Association of Collegiate Schools of Architecture / European Association for Architectural Education Teachers Conference Proceedings (ACSA / EAAE) 2021
  • Timmer, Alexander. 2021. “Building Integrated Evaporative Cooling Utilizing Pervious Concrete.” Technology|Architecture + Design 5 (1): 73–81. doi:10.1080/24751448.2021.1863675.
  • Timmer, Alexander. 2017. “Abductive Architecture,” Interior Matters, a +t Architecture Publisher

Artistic Exhibitions & Artwork

Timmer, Alexander. Cordwood Redux. Spring 2023, Wood Waste, Cement, 24"x144", Exhibited in Hello Nature, Sculpture Milwaukee, Milwaukee, Wisconsin

Built Works

  • Timmer, Alexander, Saral,T. Acoustic Panels. 2024-2025, Milwaukee, Wisconsin.
  • Timmer, Alexander, Acoustic Plywood Desk. 2024, Milwaukee Wisconsin.
  • Timmer, Alexander, Built In #2, Bench and Bookshelf, 2025, Mequon, Wisconsin.