Malcolm McCullough

Malcolm McCullough is Professor of Architecture at the University of Michigan’s Taubman College of Architecture and Urban Planning. He teaches in the areas of Architectural Design and Media Arts, with a focus on digital craft and urban computing. McCullough has authored four seminal books on digital design, including Ambient Commons (2013), Digital Ground (2004), and Abstracting Craft (1996). His current research explores data visualization for the augmented city and concepts of information environmentalism, emphasizing responsible attention to surroundings amid digital saturation.

• Education: Master of Architecture (UCLA), Bachelor of Arts (Yale)
• Previous Faculty Positions: Carnegie Mellon University, Harvard University Graduate School of Design

McCullough’s work bridges architecture with interaction design, focusing on themes like legible layers of place, the role of walking in urban technicity, and the intersection of large language models with physical environments. He advocates for reflective media arts practices that prioritize communities of practice over distraction engineering. His courses include Revealing Data, Why Cities?, and Urban Technology for Architects, often emphasizing narrative-driven data visualization and speculative design.

Scientific contributions include foundational texts like Digital Ground, which remains influential in interaction design. McCullough critiques the virtualization of daily life, emphasizing the need for effortless fascination with surroundings rather than entertainment-driven interfaces. He has lectured in 15+ countries and led interdisciplinary thesis seminars such as data::district during the pandemic.