John Quale

M.Arch., University of Virginia;
B.A., American University

Assistant Professor

John Quale teaches architectural design studios, design / build studios and building technology courses in the Department of Architecture and Landscape Architecture. He initiated and serves as Project Director for the ecoMOD project.

ecoMOD is a multi-year research and design / build / evaluate project at the School of Architecture, in partnership with the UVA School of Engineering and Applied Science. Over the next several years, UVA students and faculty are designing and building several 400 to 1,500 square foot ecological, modular and affordable housing units. Thus far, the project has created five housing units in the context of three built projects – ecoMOD1, 2 and 3. The project has been funded by a variety of non-profits, companies and the U.S. Environmental Project Agency. It has been recognized by the American Institute of Architects Committee on the Environment (AIA COTE) as one of a few exemplary sustainable design curriculum initiatives in the country. John and the ecoMOD project are the recipients of the 2007 NCARB Grand Prize For Creative Integration Of Practice And Education In The Academy, the 2007 AIA Education Honor Award and the 2006-07 ACSA Collaborative Practice Award. This is the first time an initiative has been the recipient of all three major architectural education awards in the same year.

The ecoMOD project has appeared on CNN’s “Global Challenges” show, and in various publications including Architectural Record. Environmental Building News, Sustain OSC Magazine (UK), and Hors Serie: Science et Vie (France).

John is a LEED Accredited Professional of the U.S. Green Building Council, and his research interests include ecological and climate responsive design and environmental criteria. In 2007, he was elected to the Board of Directors for the Virginia Sustainable Building Network. He was spoken nationally and internationally at various venues, including the National Building Museum, the U.S. Green Building Council’s Green Build conference, Princeton, Cornell, the Architectural Association (U.K.), University of Michigan and many other universities and conferences. He served on the jury of the 2007 AIA Top Ten Green Projects Award, and on the international jury for the Abu Dhabi Future Energy Company’s Masdar Headquarters, a carbon neutral building to be located in the carbon neutral city of Masdar (master plan by Norman Foster) in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates.

John is the author of "Trojan Goat: A Self Sufficient House," distributed by UVA Press. The book is about his experience as the architecture advisor / coordinator for the 2002 UVA Solar Decathlon Team, a national design/build house competition sponsored by the U.S. Department of Energy. The UVA team won 1st Place in the Design & Livability (architecture) and Energy Balance events of the 2002 Decathlon, and 2nd Place overall. The project was published in the New York Times, the Washington Post, Architectural Record, Architecture, Metropolis, and featured on HGTV, the DIY Network, and Tech TV.

He has worked for several architecture firms in New York City. He spent four years as a project architect with Architecture Research Office (ARO), where he managed a variety of projects, including a house in Colorado, and the offices of Capital Z Partners. These projects have been published in the New York Times, Architectural Record, A+U, Metropolis, and Interior Design. As an intern designer at Richard Meier & Partners, he worked on the J. Paul Getty Center in Los Angeles. He has also spent time in the offices of W.G. Clark Architects, William McDonough and Partners, and Perkins & Will, New York.

John’s MArch thesis project at the University of Virginia, a children’s summer camp sited on a landfill, won 1st Place in the 1993 ACSA/American Wood Council National Design Competition. He also received the 1992 RTKL Travel Fellowship, and used the opportunity to pursue research in Asia.

As a photographer, he has mounted three solo exhibitions, and has been included in several group shows in New York City, Washington DC and Charlottesville, Virginia. He has taught photography workshops at the International Center of Photography in New York City, and the National Building Museum in Washington DC.

John and his wife Sara Osborne, a landscape architect, established Q&O Design in 2001.