Zachary Colbert
Associate Professor
Zach Colbert (he/him/his) is an architect and associate professor of architecture at Carleton University. He has also held faculty appointments at Columbia University, the New School, and the University of Arizona.
His research and creative practice focus on exploring the interplay between architecture, capital, water, and energy, primarily through mapping, modelling, and photographic media. His research interests include constructed perceptions of nature, post-humanism, climate futures, interrogating the “grid,” and examining architecture’s enmeshments with infrastructural systems of imperialism, extraction, and subjugation.
His design and research work has received support from multiple Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council grants. His work has been published in professional and scholarly journals such as the Journal of Architectural Education, AD, Pidgin, Art Forum, Architect, Canadian Architect, and Architectural Record. Additionally, his work has been exhibited in galleries and museums internationally, including shows at the Center for Architecture (NYC), the Queens Museum (NYC), the Canadian Urban Institute (Toronto), the Berlage Institute (Rotterdam), and the Museo de Arte Contemporáneo (Santiago de Chile).
He has received design awards from the American Institute of Architects and the Ontario Association of Architects and holds professional licenses to practice architecture in the Canadian province of Ontario, as well as in the U.S. states of New York and Arizona.
Education
Master of Architecture – Columbia University
Bachelor of Environmental Design – University of Colorado
Courses
ARCS 5030 – M.Arch Studio 1
ARCS 5032 – M.Arch Studio 2
ARCS 5033 – M.Arch Studio 3
ARCS 5106 – M.Arch Option Studio
ARCN 5909 – M.Arch Thesis
ARCH 5003 – Speculative Architectural Detailing
Practice
www.zacharycolbert.com
Zachary Colbert Architecture (ZCA) is a design and research studio based in Ottawa. Operating in the realms of architecture, urbanism, and landscape, ZCA has developed a portfolio of constructed and speculative projects that examine spatial conditions with broader sociocultural and environmental significance. Before establishing his independent practice, Zach worked with Bernard Tschumi Architects and SHoP Architects in New York City.
Research
The “grid” and ecotechnical systems
Architecture’s integration within global systems of logistics, extraction, and whiteness
Climate futures
Imperialism in the western United States
Deserts and anthropogenic drivers of desertification
Post-Human and More-Than-Human Worlds
Cartographic and photographic media
Architectures of care
Queer Space
Publications
Select recent publications: