Our work explores how new technologies can interface with longstanding architectural traditions of craft, materiality, ornament, and pattern. We strategically leverage digital tools to explore novel material effects, develop efficient workflows, and enhance overall design excellence. Our practice operates at multiple scales and incorporates a broad range of techniques: building information modeling and parametric modeling software, robotic fabrication technologies, and full-scale prototyping. 

SERVICES

Architectural Services & Consultation
New Construction, Renovations/Alterations

Public Art Design
Temporary and permanent public artworks for interior and exterior sites.

Computational Design
Expertise with parametric modeling and building information modeling.

Fabrication Consulting
Expertise with file-to-fabrication workflows and advanced digital fabrication techniques.

Adam Marcus AIA, LEED AP — Director

Adam Marcus is a licensed and registered architect (Louisiana #9998, California #C35221, New York #034114) and educator with over fifteen years experience in the field. His work has been recognized, published, and exhibited internationally. In addition to directing Variable Projects, he is a partner in Futures North, a public art collaborative dedicated to exploring the aesthetics of data. A graduate of Brown University and Columbia University’s Graduate School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation, Adam previously practiced with Marble Fairbanks in New York City, where he served as project architect for a number of award-winning educational and public projects.

Adam is an Associate Professor of Architecture at Tulane University School of Architecture in New Orleans, where he teaches design studios in computational design and digital fabrication and serves as the Research Director of the Center on Climate Change and Urbanism. He previously taught for ten years at California College of the Arts in San Francisco, where he co-founded and directed the Architectural Ecologies Lab. From 2011 to 2013, Adam was the Cass Gilbert Assistant Professor at University of Minnesota School of Architecture, where he chaired the symposium "Digital Provocations: Emerging Computational Approaches to Pedagogy & Practice" and organized the school's annual Architecture As Catalyst graduate workshop program. He has also taught at the undergraduate Department of Architecture at Barnard College / Columbia University and the Architectural Association's Visiting School Los Angeles. He was recently selected by Design Intelligence as one of the ’30 Most Admired Educators’ and received the 2015-2016 New Faculty Teaching Award from the Association of Collegiate Schools of Architecture and the American Institute of Architecture Students. From 2015 to 2021, Adam served on the Board of Directors of the Association for Computer-Aided Design in Architecture (ACADIA), and he currently serves on the editorial board of the International Journal of Architectural Computing. With Andrew Kudless, he is the author of Drawing Codes: Experimental Protocols of Architectural Representation (Applied Research + Design, 2024).

TEAM MEMBERS, PAST & PRESENT

Pete Pham
Haonan Jia
Sean Gentry
Frederico Leite Gonçalves
David Johansson
Daniel Raznick
Sam Daley
Jordan Barlow

COLLABORATORS

Futures North
CCA Architectural Ecologies Lab
SCAPE
PATH
VIF Studio
LOWDO
Marble Fairbanks