MARK WEST

Founding Director of C.A.S.T

Mark West received his practical education working as a builder, and his professional architectural education at the Cooper Union for the Advancement of Art and Science, where he graduated in 1980. He has studied post-professionally in the areas of cultural studies, at the University of California Santa Cruz, and architecture at Carleton University.

He has taught architecture at a number of universities throughout North America since 1981, while working as an artist, inventor, and independent researcher. His inventions of flexible formworks for reinforced concrete construction have been central to establishing this as a new field of architectural and construction research. He is the founding director of C.A.S.T., the Centre for Architectural Structures and Technology, at the University of Manitoba (Winnipeg MB) where he is an Associate Professor of Architecture.

His work merges the disciplines of sculpture, architectural design, structural engineering and drawing, and has received wide recognition through publications, awards, lectures and exhibitions in North America, Asia, and Europe.