Danny Wills is an architectural designer, educator, and researcher. His work advocates for multidisciplinary modes of practice that engage issues of labor, site-specific agency, accessibility, and material circularity. He holds a Bachelor of Architecture from The Cooper Union, and a Master of Science in Design Theory and Pedagogy from SCI-Arc.
From 2013 to 2017, he was a Scientific Researcher and Design Studio Coordinator at ETH Zurich, contributing to the research, design, and construction of cultural, civic, and non-profit projects in cities such as Cape Town, Barcelona, Budapest, and San Francisco. From 2018 to 2022, he taught advanced-level integrated design studios and media technology courses at Chulalongkorn University in Bangkok and Kent State University in Ohio, where he is originally from. Prior to joining the faculty at CU Denver, Danny worked as an architecture teacher scholar at Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo, focusing on design-build, building technology, and carbon conscious material research.
In 2018, he co-founded Space Saloon, a design lab dedicated to situated research and community-focused workshops. Space Saloon's activities include artist-in-residences with the Institute of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles and the MPavilion in Melbourne, leading international Visiting Schools for the AA School of Architecture, and building public pavilions for the 2024 Timișoara and Tbilisi Architecture Biennials.
Research & Creative Projects
Porto Futuro: Futuro Pronto, Public Installation, Port of Fano, Italy, 2022
Make Heaven From What You Have, Public Installation, Timișoara Architecture Biennial, 2024
Nang Leong Playground and Park, Bangkok, Thailand, 2019
Public Art & Ecology Residency, Iowa Lakeside Lab + Imagine Iowa Great Lakes, 2021
Public Protocols, Public Workshop, MPavilion: MProjects, 2022
Space Saloon: Landing, Design-Build Festival, Joshua Tree, California, 2018
Hello Pizza, Design-Build Workshop, Hello Wood, Hungary, 2017
Xarranca, Public Pavilion, Barcelona, 2015
Education, Licensure & Certifications
Bachelor of Architecture, The Cooper Union
Master of Science in Design Theory and Pedagogy, SCI-Arc
Courses
Danny typically teaches integrated design balanced with technology and representation courses. Danny has been teaching integrated design studios for upper-level undergraduate and graduate students, as well as coordinating new versions of technology, building systems, and structural labs and lectures for core courses. Danny’s teaching injects circular building topics into the curriculum, emphasizing life cycle analysis, decarbonization, assembly systems for deconstruction and reuse, bio-based materials and additional forms of low carbon energy production. His main goals for this line of teaching work are to better engage students in the process of relating to abstract concepts like energy and environment, in the hopes that energy can compete with form for design priority.
Fall 2025
ARCH 3330 - Building Systems I
ARCH 5130 - Graduate Design Studio III
ARCH 3800 - Special Topics: Advanced Digital Techniques
Research
Danny’s work explores, researches, tests, implements, and evaluates circular building topics, carbon-neutral materials, life-cycle considered components, exploitation-free assemblies, and land regenerative forms of making. Recent examples include 1:1 wall mock-ups of cob, rammed earth, hemp, and reused construction waste - using materials found on site and constructed using demountable methods.
Danny’s interest and experience with design-build pedagogy has shaped his scholarly research. He is currently curating a growing database of pedagogical projects and literature identifying with the moniker ‘design-build.’ Titled “Why Build?” it systematically surveys the critical conversations (or lack thereof) behind this umbrella term, and in what sociological and industrial contexts they took place. The goal of this project is to address the teaching of construction methods and materials as it relates to the evolution of ‘mechanical arts’ education in the U.S.
Publications and Presentations
“The Passive Solar Greenhouse and the Fluid Column: Two Case-Studies in Integrated Design-Build Pedagogy,” Paper, Building Technology Educators’ Society (BTES) Conference, Summer 2025
“Why Build: Contemporary Intentions Behind Design-Build Pedagogy,” Paper, Association of Collegiate Schools of Architecture (ACSA) International Conference, Summer 2024
“A Timeline of Current and Recent NAAB Design + Making Programs,” Poster, Society of Architectural Historians (SAH) International Conference, Spring 2024
"I am a (Data) Monument,” Essay, CLOG: Feeds, Summer 2022
“Community in Residence,” Interview, CROP TTU Journal, Spring 2022
“Review: Fulfilled,” Review, JAE Online, March 6, 2020
“By itself, this device does nothing,” Essay, OFF-Topic Journal, Vol. 5, 2020
Selected Activity
“Make Heaven From What You Have,” Public Installation, Timișoara Architecture Biennial, 2024
“Let’s Get Ready to RRRUBBLE,” LINA European Platform Fellowship, 2023
Porto Futuro: Futuro Pronto, Installation, Port of Fano, Italy, 2022
Public Protocols Special Workshop, MPavilion: MProjects, 2022
Public Art & Ecology Residency, Iowa Lakeside Lab + Imagine Iowa Great Lakes, 2021
Climate Crisis Hotline, Field Workshop at the Institute for Contemporary Art, LA, 2020
