Caryn Brause FAIA is the founder and principal of SITELAB Architecture + Design. Caryn’s award-winning, socially engaged design work features networks of collaborators with diverse expertise and viewpoints. Her regionally-focused creative work addresses resource scarcity by redeploying abundant resources, such as existing building stock and underutilized landscapes in collaboration with non-profit and community-based partners. Her work has had broad impact in the region by addressing issues such as food insecurity, building material reuse, and youth empowerment.
Caryn also serves as a Co-Director of the Center for Design Engagement (CDE). CDE is a non-profit community & design resource center in Holyoke, MA providing progressive design, innovative public art and civic engagement, particularly in underrepresented communities.
Caryn is Associate Professor in the Department of Architecture at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. Through her many activities, she connects the academy and the profession, and she works to translate research into practice domains. Her current research projects examine the relationship between higher education built environments and student learning and development. She is author of The Designer’s Field Guide to Collaboration, winner of First Prize, 2017 Building Technology Educator’s Society (BTES) Book Award. Her applied professional practice course, Voices from the Field: From Design Concept to Reality, was recognized with a 2016 AIA/ACSA Practice + Leadership Award and a 2013 NCARB Award for the Integration of Practice and Education. Caryn’s leadership and service to the discipline include co-founding and serving as inaugural Design Editor for the journal of Technology | Architecture + Design, service on the AIA Higher Education Advisory Team (HEAT) and the National Council of Architectural Registration Boards (NCARB) Education and Awards Committees, as well as on the Board of Directors for the Western Mass AIA chapter.
Link to academic work here.