Throughout his nearly 15-year career, Kevin Jones, AIA, Assistant Professor at Virginia Tech, has pursued rigorous design work, robust community engagement, and mentorship of young designers.
As a member of the leadership team for AIA Blue Ridge, and as a current and former member of design-focused groups like Beer+Design and Modern Richmond, Kevin has made communicating the value of architecture an integral part of his extracurricular pursuits. (Just ask his wife and kids, who are frequently ‘invited’ along on these “architect–nerd” adventures.)
Kevin’s early interest in community-engaged design was solidified as a member of the 2012 AIAVA Emerging Leaders in Architecture program. Since then, he has worked as a practitioner and teacher with a variety of community and student teams in support of rural and urban communities throughout the state.
Kevin works to introduce real-world scenarios and community-focused experiential learning opportunities into his courses at Virginia Tech. In the studio, this has manifest with design-build collaborations with the music department as well as the introduction of client voices to studio critiques. Last spring, he turned the professional practice course into the “Spatial Practice Lab.” This effort saw student teams engaging questions of practice (fees, schedules, communication, etc.) by designing real projects for members of an under-served neighborhood in Roanoke. Learning architecture by practicing architecture.
Kevin has also been faculty co-leader of the Malawi Studio – a vertically-integrated studio of undergraduate and graduate students working collaboratively with faculty to realize a singular work: a new campus library for the University of Mzuzu in Malawi, Africa. In collaboration with architects in Malawi, the project is slated for construction in 2019.