Bio
With over 22 years of teaching experience, Professor of Architecture Mo Zell specializes in teaching beginning design and design build studios. Her research and scholarship focus on the intersection of affordable housing and design/build. She is part of a $3.4M Department of Energy grant with the City of Milwaukee to help advance new Zero-Energy Ready Homes. Mo is also a principal of the design firm, bauenstudio.
Work of bauenstudio has been recognized with several design awards including a Boston Society of Architecture (BSA) Honor Award, a Boston Society of Landscape Architecture (BSLA) Merit Award and an Association of Collegiate Schools of Architecture (ACSA) Faculty Design Award. Bauenstudio was featured in Architecture Record as an emerging practice to watch. Mo has presented her design research and teaching scholarship in conferences and lectures across the United States, Europe, and Latin America and has been PI or co-PI on several grants including a National Endowment of the Arts (NEA) grant.
Mo previously served as the interim dean of the UWM College of the Arts and Architecture at UWM, interim dean of the UWM School of Architecture and Urban Planning, and past President of the Association of Collegiate Schools of Architecture (ACSA). She created a number of programs at UWM including the award-winning SARUP externship program, annual SUPERjury review, the UWM SARUP Mobile Design Box, the Design and Construction Initiative, and Women in Design Milwaukee.
Mo recently completed the second edition to her book, The Architectural Drawing Course. The new edition includes projects related to installation and the process of building at full scale. Many of the projects from her innovative studio partnership with the Chipstone Foundation can be found in the revised version. The first edition sold 40,000 copies worldwide between 2008 and 2016.
Mo holds degrees from the University of Virginia and Yale University.
Education
Yale University, School of Architecture, M. Arch, 1998
University of Virginia, School of Architecture, BS in Architecture, Minor in Mathematics, 1994
Research Focus
Architectural Design
Architectural Place
Beginning Design Pedagogy
Courses
Arch 310 Fundamentals of Arch Design I
Arch 390/790 Constructed Site
Arch 636/836 Residual Space
Arch 685/885 Car Museum
Arch 800 Graduate Introduction Studio
Selected Work
ACSA Faculty Design Honorable Mention Award 2010, Zell, M. and M. Roehrle, collaborator. ‘The Construct of Remembrance’, 98th Association Collegiate Schools of Architecture Award.
Zell, M. and M. Roehrle, ‘Big Box Redux’, Proceedings of the 98th Association Collegiate Schools of Architecture Annual Meeting: New Orleans, LA, 2010.
Zell, M. and M. Roehrle, ‘Park (ing) Lot’, Proceedings of the 98th Association Collegiate Schools of Architecture Annual Meeting: New Orleans, LA, 2010.
Zell, M and M. Roehrle, ‘New Suburban Prototype’, Poster Proceedings of the 97th Association Collegiate Schools of Architecture Annual Meeting: Portland, OR, 2009.
Boston Society of Architects Citation for Design 2008, Zell, M. and Roehrle, M., collaborators. BSA (Boston Society of Architects) Design Award honoring the Northeastern University Veterans Memorial, Fall 2008.
Boston Society of Landscape Architects (BSLA) Merit Award 2008, Zell, M. and Roehrle, M., collaborators. Award given for the Northeastern University Veterans Memorial.
Zell, M., Principal Investigator. ‘New (Sub) Urbanism: Re-Think, Re-Zone, Re-Use’. UWM Graduate School Research Committee Awards (GSRC).
Zell, M. and M. Roehrle, ‘Big Box Redux’, Proceedings of the 98th Association Collegiate Schools of Architecture Annual Meeting: New Orleans, LA, 2010.
Zell, M. and M. Roehrle, ‘Park (ing) Lot’, Proceedings of the 98th Association Collegiate Schools of Architecture Annual Meeting: New Orleans, LA, 2010.
Zell, M and M. Roehrle, ‘New Suburban Prototype’, Poster Proceedings of the 97th Association Collegiate Schools of Architecture Annual Meeting: Portland, OR, 2009.
Boston Society of Architects Citation for Design 2008, Zell, M. and Roehrle, M., collaborators. BSA (Boston Society of Architects) Design Award honoring the Northeastern University Veterans Memorial, Fall 2008.
Boston Society of Landscape Architects (BSLA) Merit Award 2008, Zell, M. and Roehrle, M., collaborators. Award given for the Northeastern University Veterans Memorial.
Zell, M., Principal Investigator. ‘New (Sub) Urbanism: Re-Think, Re-Zone, Re-Use’. UWM Graduate School Research Committee Awards (GSRC).
