Associate Professor
Director of Professional Residency Program
The Paul Philippe Cret Centennial Teaching Fellow in Architecture
Nichole Wiedemann is a registered architect whose research, practice and teaching establishes the importance of context, with an emphasis on environmental and cultural circumstances, in the production of architecture. In all situations, she seeks a responsive architecture across scales that is both conditioned by, and conditions, the site.
As the recipient of the Rome Prize in Architecture at the American Academy of Rome, she studied the cultural narratives, specifically Christian and pagan events, inscribed in place. Re-Collecting Rome: A Diachronic Guide to the City, a solo exhibition of drawings and models, explored representation, as both an analytic and creative mechanism, entwining narrative, time and space. Following the devastation of New Orleans by Hurricanes Katrina and Rita, she studied the resiliency of urban form when faced with ecological and economic flux. The resulting research, Wet Land_Neutral Ground, with Jason Sowell, proposed infrastructure in anticipation of, rather than reaction to, extreme circumstances. This research was featured in the Resilient Foundations: The Gulf Coast After Katrina in the Venice Biennale and the Pan American Biennale in 2006. Wiedemann’s current research, El Camino Real de los Tejas: A Cartographic Exploration of People + Place, explores how diverse people and places –past to present– can be understood through the infrastructure that connects them. Wiedemann’s creative work, independent and collaborative, has been featured in exhibitions, publications and presentations, nationally and internationally.
Wiedemann is the director of the Professional Residency Program, an internship program that expands a student’s education through professional experience. In the last 25 years, students have interned in over 300 firms in 30 countries, including China, Japan, Italy, Mexico, Chile, Denmark, Spain, France, Germany, Sweden and across the United States. From 2008-13, Wiedemann served as an associate dean for the UT School of Architecture. She has engaged in strategic visioning for the school, overseen undergraduate outreach, recruitment and admissions, managed student exchanges and Study Abroad Programs, co-chaired a National Architectural Accrediting Board (NAAB) school review and traveled for alumni relations and development. Beyond the university, she has served as the Secretary/Treasurer for the Association of Collegiate Schools of Architecture (ACSA) as well as on the boards of AIA Austin and the Texas Society of Architects.
Wiedemann’s teaching is transdisciplinary and encourages students to explore a holistic understanding of the built environment. Her recent seminars, Maps: History, Theory + Practice and Spatial Stories [An Exploration of Narrative, Time + Space], introduce varying philosophies on space and encourage students, across design disciplines, to critically explore representational structures, beyond the conventional. Her design studios engage outside partners (nonprofits, government agencies, communities) and associated experts (ecologists, environmental designers, market analysts, artists, engineers, fabricators) to present the multitude of perspectives that shape the potential of architecture.
In addition to UT-Austin, she has taught at Rhode Island School of Design (RISD), Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), Dalhousie University, University of Florida and the University of Arkansas, where she held the John Williams Distinguished Professorship. Wiedemann is the recipient of the AIA Honor Award for Outstanding Educational Contributions in Honor of Edward Romieniec, FAIA, and the Texas Excellence Teaching Award.
EDUCATION
- Master of Architecture, Princeton University
Bachelor of Design in Architecture (Honors), University of Florida
