Design x Technology: Christian Unverzagt

Notes on a Practice

Join the College of Architecture and Design at Lawrence Technological University on Friday, March 28th at 6PM for another innovative Design x Technology lecture featuring Design Director of M1DTW Architects, Christian Unverzagt.

Christian Unverzagt is a Detroit-based multidisciplinary designer who founded M1DTW, a nationally recognized architecture and creative studio in 2000. Since that time he has worked to reshape practice through both the work of the practice and by working on the practice.

M1DTW was recently recognized with a Best of Practice Award in the Small Firm category from The Architect’s Newspaper (AN) for its project portfolio and its Notes on a Practice, a collection of reflections on various positions taken by the firm in running a practice. AN’s Executive Editor Jack Murphy summed it up: “The office has an attitude that appears to value engagement with the realities of practice, from proper payment of workers to client satisfaction. It helps that their work backs up the idea, as it transforms what could be mundane locales into considered sites for Midwestern life.”⁠

Unverzagt, who is also an associate professor of practice in architecture at Taubman College will discuss several pivotal projects of the firm’s first twenty-five years of designing books, brands, buildings, and more.

Notes on a Practice could have alternatively been titled, How Not to Start a Practice, and is beneficial for any student of design interested in finding ways to put their work into practice. The lecture will showcase a series of projects, mostly built in Michigan, and will discuss the design process and outcomes at multiple scales, understood within a field of a number of critical positions relative to labor, investment, time, and effort. Come check it out!

CEU: This lecture equals 1 professional architecture credit towards licensure requirements. LTU is not a registered AIA CE provider. By virtue of having a NAAB-accredited architecture program, the State of Michigan authorizes LTU to offer continuing education credit.

As part of CoAD's Design x Technology Lecture Series, this lecture is free and open to the public. Guests may watch online or on campus. Register for the location/viewing details. Your on-campus registration includes a pizza lunch.

About:

Christian Unverzagt is an associate professor of practice in architecture at Taubman College. He also founded Detroit-based M1DTW, a nationally recognized architecture and creative studio working to reshape practice. M1DTW’s projects range from creative workspaces to commercial lifestyle spaces, adaptive reuse projects, and residential work. Select clients include Floyd, Signal-Return, Mills Pharmacy, 6 Salon, Library Street Collective, Eastern Market Corporation, and Samsung. Unverzagt has received numerous awards for his work, including over a dozen honor awards from AIA Michigan and AIA Detroit, a NAHA for Best Salon Design in North America, and a “50 Books/50 Covers” award from the American Institute of Graphic Arts for one of the best-designed books of the year. M1DTW was recently recognized with a Best of Practice Award from The Architect’s Newspaper in the Small Firm (Midwest) category for its project portfolio and its Notes on a Practice. His work has been widely published in outlets including Dezeen, Wallpaper, Fast Company, The Architect’s Newspaper, Detroit Design Magazine, Estetica Italia, Salon Today, Architectural Record, and Azure Magazine.

Unverzagt teaches graduate design studio at Taubman College where he has taught since 1999, is the faculty advisor for Dimensions, the student-produced journal of architecture at Michigan, and teaches the Dimensions workshop each year. Unverzagt is a long-time resident of Lafayette Park, Detroit, where he is an active community member, founding MiesDetroit.org to help steward the neighborhood’s design legacy while fostering awareness and discussion of its contemporary condition.