Jeana Ripple
Education
The University of Michigan, Master of Architecture with high distinction;
The University of Notre Dame, Bachelor of Science in Computer Science Engineering
Biography
Jeana Ripple is a registered architect, principal and co-founder of the collaborative architecture firm, Mir Collective. Her practice and scholarship focus on the extensive civic and environmental implications of architectural design, particularly in relation to building materials. Ripple’s work is recognized through international awards, competitions, and exhibitions featuring spatial, temporal, social, and environmental explorations of building material assemblies.
Ripple's book, The Type V City: Codifying Material Inequity in Urban America (The University of Texas Press, 2025), provides the first comprehensive social and spatial examination of building codes and urban material patterns across American cities. The Type V City reveals previously overlooked connections between building material regulations and factors such as economic disinvestment patterns, human and ecological health, job accessibility, spatial dynamics, adaptive capacity, and lifetime embodied energy.
Ripple’s collaborative practice, Mir Collective, emphasizes the transformation of existing buildings, exploring design strategies that anticipate future needs while promoting positive civic and environmental impacts. Notable recent work includes the renovation of Zaha Hadid’s Rosenthal Center for Contemporary Art in 2023, a shortlisted design proposal for the 2021 international C40 Chicago competition, presenting a net-zero community kitchen, permanent supportive housing, and health services for those experiencing homelessness in Chicago, and a community kitchen building rehabilitation utilizing local manufacturing called ArtHouse Gary, recognized with a SEED (Social Economic Environmental Design) Awards for Community Engagement in 2017.
Ripple is an affiliated faculty member of the UVA Environmental Institute (EI) where she leads efforts to model the carbon impact of building materials and trends in building longevity. She was one of six founding editors for the ACSA / Taylor and Francis journal, TAD: Technology | Architecture + Design, and was the issue editor for TAD’s second issue, “Simulations: Modeling, Measuring, and Disrupting Design.” Prior to joining UVA, Ripple practiced at Studio Gang Architects in Chicago, where she led numerous building and landscape projects.
Ripple’s teaching combines design, research, and advanced technology. Her courses include graduate and undergraduate foundation design studios, design research methods courses, and advanced design computation courses. Ripple has been recognized by two national awards, the ACSA/AIAS New Faculty Teaching Award and the BTES Emerging Faculty Award, for innovative approaches to teaching building technology through design and performance-simulation. Ripple’s practice, scholarship, and teaching draw upon her combined background as a computer science engineer and architect to frame material resilience through a systems framework with varying scales, inputs, and objectives.
Ripple, Jeana. The Type V City: Codifying Material Inequity in American Cities. Austin: University of Texas Press, 2025. https://utpress.utexas.edu/9781477331620/
Brause, Caryn, Chris Ford, Chad Kraus, Greg Luhan, Scott Murray, Winifred E. Newman, Clare Olsen, Jeana Ripple, Anne-Catrin Schultz, Marci Uihlein, Julian Wang, and Andrzej Zarzycki. "Reflections on Five Years of TAD." Technology|Architecture + Design 5, no. 2 (2021): 119–20. https://doi.org/10.1080/24751448.2021.1967025
Ripple, Jeana. "Building Codes Don't Measure Up: A Case for Urban Material Performance Standards." In Examining the Environmental Impacts of Materials and Buildings, edited by Blaine E. Brownell, 32–63. Hershey, PA: IGI Global, 2020. https://doi.org/10.4018/978-1-7998-2426-8.ch002
Klosterwill, Kevan J., Alissa Ujie Diamond, Barbara Brown Wilson, and Jeana Ripple. "Constructing Health: Representations of Health and Housing in Charlottesville's Urban Renewals." Journal of Architectural Education 74, no. 2 (2020): 222–36. https://doi.org/10.1080/10464883.2020.1790932
Ripple, Jeana, ed. "Simulations: Modeling, Measuring, and Disrupting Design." Special issue, Technology|Architecture + Design 1, no. 2 (2017). https://www.tandfonline.com/toc/utad20/1/2
Ripple, Jeana. "The Type V City: Encoding Material Inequity." Journal of Architectural Education 70, no. 1 (2016). https://www.tandfonline.com/toc/rjae20/70/1
Ripple, Jeana. "A Meta-Notation for Architects: How Architectural Drawings Can Borrow from Big Data Visualization." Landscape Architecture Frontiers 3, no. 3 (2015): 36–45. https://doi.org/10.1007/slaf-0036-15006
"Building Efficient, Durable, Resilient, Optimizable Communities and Knowledge (BEDROCK)," 2026. Co-PI. Arnold Ventures ($767,571 total award; $584,390 to UVA researchers).
"Building Affordable Futures: Regulation, Risk, and Reform," 2025. PI. UVA Environmental Institute Climate Collaborative ($500,000).
"Building Affordable Futures: Regulation, Risk, and Reform," Postdoctoral Fellow Award, 2025. PI. UVA Environmental Institute Climate Fellows ($75,000).
"Virginia Pathways to Carbon Neutrality, Policy Sub-Group," 2022. Sub-Award Lead. Virginia Climate Restoration Initiative, Volkswagen VA Settlement / UVA Environmental Institute ($289,000 sub-award of $1.55M total).
"Imaging the Invisible: Translations of Environmental Risk into Public Information," 2021. Co-PI. UVA 3 Cavaliers Grant ($60,000).
"Material Epidemiology: Health, Segregation, and Building and Cyber-Physical Infrastructure," 2019. Co-PI. UVA 3 Cavaliers Grant ($60,000).
"Design + Manufacture + Build," 2018. PI. National Endowment for the Arts ($40,000).
"Smart Environments," 2017. Co-PI. UVA Humanities Informatics ($50,000).
"ArtHouse Public Art Commissions," 2016. Co-PI. Bloomberg Philanthropies ($108,500).
Jeana Ripple, 2026. Faculty Mentorship Award, University of Virginia School of Architecture.
Caryn Brause, Chris Ford, Chad Kraus, Greg Luhan, Scott Murray, Winifred E. Newman, Clare Olsen, Jeana Ripple, Anne-Catrin Schultz, Marci Uihlein, Julian Wang & Andrzej Zarzycki, 2021. Prose Award Finalist for Best New Journal in Humanities & Social Sciences, Technology | Architecture + Design.
Mir Collective (Jeana Ripple, Kara Boyd, Todd Zima), in collaboration with MKB Architects, 2021. Finalist, "Downtown Loop Site," International C40 Reinventing Cities Competition, Chicago (1 of 5 finalists, alongside Perkins+Will, Studio Gang, Valerio Dewalt Train, and Fitzgerald Architects).
Mir Collective (Jeana Ripple, Kara Boyd, Todd Zima), 2020. Invest/Southwest Design Excellence List, Chicago Architecture Foundation and City of Chicago.
Mir Collective (Jeana Ripple, Kara Boyd, Todd Zima), 2017. First Place (invited competition, 1 of 4) and design contract, Cincinnati Contemporary Art Center 6th floor renovation, Rosenthal Center for Contemporary Art.
Ripple Architecture Studio + Barbara Brown Wilson, 2017. SEED Network Award, Honorable Mention for Excellence in Community Engagement, "ArtHouse Gary."
Ripple Architecture Studio + Barbara Brown Wilson, 2016. First Place, Surface International Competition, Bloomberg Philanthropies Public Art Challenge, "ArtHouse Gary."
Ripple Architecture Studio + Barbara Brown Wilson, 2016. First Place, Illumination International Competition, Bloomberg Philanthropies Public Art Challenge, "ArtHouse Gary."
Jeana Ripple, 2015. AIA VA Emerging Professional Award, Virginia Chapter of the American Institute of Architects.
Jeana Ripple, 2015. ACSA/AIAS New Faculty Teaching Award, Association of Collegiate Schools of Architecture / American Institute of Architecture Students.
Jeana Ripple, 2015. BTES Emerging Educator Award, Building Technology Educators Society.
Jeana Ripple, 2014. AIA DC Award of Excellence in Materials and Innovation, "Breathe Wall: Microstructure Infrastructure," 2014 Unbuilt Architecture Awards, Washington D.C. Chapter of the American Institute of Architects.
Jeana Ripple, 2014. AIA DC Design Award, "Evaporative Skin," 2014 Unbuilt Architecture Awards, Washington D.C. Chapter of the American Institute of Architects.
Ripple, Jeana. "The Type V City." (lecture) the Yale + UVA Club of New York, 2026.
Ripple, Jeana. "The Type V City." (lecture) Charlottesville Festival of the Book, 2026.
Ripple, Jeana, and Barbara Brown Wilson. "Resilience and the Building Code: Democratizing Standards and Material Realities." (lecture) 2026 Housing Resilience Roundtable, Florida A&M University, March 2–3, 2026.
Ripple, Jeana. "Equity, Climate, and Displacement" (panel). Communities, Cities, and Climate: Constructing Solutions to the Housing and Climate Crisis, (panel) UCSF Annual Law Symposium, February 20, 2026.
Ripple, Jeana. "Building Material Codes and Social Impact" (lecture) the Symposium on Building Energy Research, National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), November 6–8, 2024.
Ripple, Jeana, and Kara Boyd. "The Legacy of Zaha: Architecture of Civic Discourse" (keynote). 20 Years at the Center, Contemporary Arts Center, Cincinnati, 2023.
Ripple, Jeana. "Material Cultures." (lecture) the Department of Architecture Lecture Series, University of Massachusetts Amherst, 2022.
Ripple, Jeana. "Mir Collective: Practice + Research" (lecture) the College of Architecture and Planning Lecture Series, University of Denver, 2021.
Ripple, Jeana, Alissa Diamond, and Barbara Brown Wilson. "Constructing Health: Representations of Health and Housing in Charlottesville's Urban Renewals" (lecture) the Branch Museum of Architecture and Design, Richmond, 2021.
Lokko, Lesley (moderator), with Jeana Ripple, Rempel, Alan, and Keena. "21st Century Frameworks for Architectural Materials" (panel). Association of Collegiate Schools of Architecture 2021 Teachers Conference, 2021.
Ripple, Jeana. "The Open + Local Competition: Prototyping Positive Social and Economic Impact." (panel) Fieldwork Symposium, Tulane University School of Architecture, New Orleans, January 2019.
Wilson, Barbara Brown (moderator), with Alissa Diamond, Jeana Ripple, and J. Yaeger. "Construction Type and Racial Division in Charlottesville" (panel). the Society for American City and Regional Planning History, 2019.
Ripple, Jeana. "Generative Material Practice" (lecture). the School of Engineering, University of Notre Dame, South Bend, 2018.
Ripple, Jeana. "Material Performance Boundaries" (lecture). the University of Kansas Lecture Series, Lawrence, 2018.
Ripple, Jeana. "Design Justice as Design Innovation" (panel). SXSW, Austin, March 2018.
Ripple, Jeana. "Material Practice + Performance" (lecture). Lawrence Technological University Lecture Series, 2018.
Ripple, Jeana. "ARCH + X" (panel). Computational Foundations Colloquium, Department of Architecture, Iowa State University, 2017.
Ripple, Jeana. "Teaching Structures with Parametric Structural Design Plugins" (workshop). the Building Technology Educators Society (BTES) Conference, 2017.
Ripple, Jeana. "Structuring Material" (lecture). Arthur W. Decker Endowed Memorial Lecture, School of Architecture & Planning, University of New Mexico, 2016.
Ripple, Jeana. "Material Performance and Design" (lecture). the Mechanics of Materials and Design course, University of Illinois, 2016.
Ripple, Jeana. "Material Flux Set: Labor, Manufacturing, Infrastructure" (lecture + workshop). Hyde Visiting Lecture and "Parametric Structural Design" workshop, University of Nebraska, 2016.
Ripple, Jeana. "Material Flux Set: Labor, Manufacturing, Infrastructure" (lecture + workshop), Iowa State University, February 2016.
Ripple, Jeana. "Designing Input" (lecture + workshop). University of Michigan, March 2015.
