ARCH Faculty Promote Discovery through Design

 

English previously taught at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago in the Department of Architecture, Interior Architecture and Designed Objects before joining the School of Architecture, Planning and Landscape Architecture (APLA) faculty in 2015. This year, she was promoted from Assistant Professor to Associate Professor with tenure.

In addition to teaching second-year design studio and building technology lecture courses, English co-leads APLA’s Barcelona Study Abroad program with Professor Xavier Vendrell.

“Barcelona offers a framework to understand architecture as a discipline incorporating social, political, economic, environmental and cultural aspects,” English said.

In the spring semesters, English and Vendrell lead a design studio that allows students to explore Barcelona’s use and improvement of public spaces, as well as conversion of interior city blocks to public parks and plazas.

Additionally, the Barcelona program allows students to connect with Spanish designers and photographers, who participated in city walks, workshops, exhibition visits and reviews to help the students find a deeper reading of place.

In both her study abroad and Auburn-based courses, English encourages her students to experience the full process of design before diving into a specific solution too early.

“Nurturing an environment of exploration and prolonged discovery counters this,” she explained. “As students and faculty together, we do this by gathering information about places and people so as to critically examine the conditions surrounding a design problem and generate ideas towards a solution through iteration.”

English is also a practicing architect, and her work—as part of Mary English and Xavier Vendrell Architects—is slated for publication in multiple avenues. The duo’s project Susan’s House, a courtyard residence in San Antonio, will be featured in Courtyard Homes by Monacelli’s Courtyard Homes, set for publication in October, and in Taschen’s Homes of Our Time: Sustainable Living, coming out in January 2026.

The pair also designed an installment for the story “Caperucita Roja” (Little Red Riding Hood) that will appear in the AIA Washington DC’s “Fairy Tale Architecture” exhibition at the District Architecture Center this fall.