Graduating Student Alexandra Daley to Present Research at National Building Technology Conference
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As she prepares to graduate this spring, dual-degree student Alexandra Daley (M.Arch ’25, MLA ’25) will co-present original research with Assistant Professor Mohamed Ismail at the 2025 Building Technology Educators’ Society (BTES) Conference in Chicago—a significant milestone and exciting opportunity at this early stage of her career.
Daley co-authored the paper Holistic Evaluation of Formwork Materials for Low-Carbon Concrete with Mohamed Ismail, director of UVA’s Open Structures Research Group, and fellow student Leopold Wehner (M.Arch ’26). The paper contributes a framework for evaluating the embodied carbon and labor associated with different concrete formwork materials and fabrication methods—an essential focus in the broader effort to reduce carbon emissions from construction.
The research is centered on lab-scale prototypes of shape-optimized concrete beams, cast using formwork made from materials representing traditional, emerging, and organic categories. By combining digital fabrication with life cycle and labor analysis, the team quantitatively compared formwork options for their environmental and construction impacts—including embodied carbon, fabrication precision, and ease of assembly. The results offer a replicable method to guide future design decisions in low-carbon construction practices.
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The project emerged from collaborative work done in summer 2024 within the Open Structures Research Group, which advances structural design and contextual fabrication methods to enable global sustainable development. In early 2025, the group—led by Ismail and including Daley, Wehner, Dasani Madipalli (M.Arch ’26), Leila Ehtesham (MLA ’24), Gordon Miller (M.Arch '26), Ruth Player (M.Arch ’27), and Haley Richmond (M.Arch ’27)—presented their innovations in low-carbon concrete and sustainable formwork design in the exhibition Digital Forms, held at the UVA School of Architecture.
Daley credits her A-School education and its culture of experimentation with sustainable building practices for preparing her to engage with this level of inquiry. Courses such as Building Workshop II, Urban Timber Framing, and Processing the Anthropocene—taught respectively by Katie MacDonald, Andrew Spears, and JT Bachman—helped her build confidence in exploring material relationships across different scales. Her research assistant work with Ismail and other faculty, including Brian Davis, co-director of the Natural Infrastructure Lab, and Ehsan Baharlou, director of the Computational Tectonics Lab, allowed her to critically investigate how materials like green infrastructure, mycelium, earth, and concrete are used in both landscape and architectural building processes.
“The A-School has a wealth of materially engaged learning experiences for students, which I’ve thoroughly enjoyed being a part of,” Daley said.
Daley is excited to present at BTES alongside Ismail and other leaders in building technology, and to explore Chicago’s architectural landscape—including a visit to a metal rolling facility—an inspiring conclusion to her time at UVA. After graduation, she plans to enjoy time with family and riding horses while navigating the next steps in her professional journey.
