Architecture professor named one of the most admired educators in North America
Robert Dunay, the T.A. Carter Professor of Architecture in the School of Architecture + Design at Virginia Tech, has been named one of the 25 Most Admired Educators of 2012 by the magazine DesignIntelligence.
DesignIntelligence, the only national college ranking survey focused exclusively on design, annually selects educators and education administrators who exemplify excellence in design education leadership for this distinction. The disciplines of architecture, interior design, industrial design, and landscape architecture are included.
This is the third time Dunay, who is also the director of the Center for Design Research, has received this recognition from the magazine, which released the list of admired educators in its November/December 2011 edition.
Dunay was inducted as a Fellow in the American Institute of Architects last year, and in April he was one of four educators nationwide named a distinguished professor by Association of Collegiate Schools of Architecture.
Dunay received both a bachelor of architecture degree and a master of architecture from Virginia Tech. He has previously served the College of Architecture and Urban Studies as an associate dean and director of industrial design. He is a primary faculty advisor for Virginia Tech’s entries in the U.S. Department of Energy’s Solar Decathlon competitions.
In June of 2010, Virginia Tech's Lumenhaus, the third solar house won the international Solar Decathlon Europe Competition in Madrid, Spain. In addition to appearing on national television and spending time on Times Square in New York, and Millennium Park in Chicago, the solar house was on joint exhibition on the grounds of Mies Van der Rohe’s illustrious Farnsworth House in Plano, Ill., where it helped draw record attendance to the site over the summer of 2011. The solar house was awarded a 2012 Honor Award from the American Institute of Architects, the first time a university team has won the award.
Dunay’s most recent research centers on digital fabrication techniques and processes. Exhibitions of industrialized furniture and innovative materials have been presented at the International Contemporary Furniture Fair, the Salone Internazionale del Mobile in Milan, and the Cologne Furniture Fair.
His recent awards include the National Council of Architectural Registration Boards Prize for creative collaboration between the academy and the profession; the Design Research Award, and an Award of Excellence in Architecture from the Virginia Society of the AIA; an International Design magazine award for innovative concepts; and the Virginia Tech Xcaliber Award for innovative technology.
