Jason Griffiths grew up in Africa and rural England. His involvement in architecture began in a medieval home that he helped his father restore throughout his teens. He graduated as an architect with a distinction from the Bartlett in 1994 and began a career that mixed practice with teaching and competition work. After his first competition win he was invited to teach with Sir Peter Cook on the Bartlett’s M. Arch Course. course. Throughout the 90s he built a portfolio of competition prizes and teaching positions in London and Oxford. He taught with David Greene for two years and held visiting positions at ESTAM in Madrid.

A growing interest in the  importance of “ordinary” architecture led him to leave the UK in 2002 and to conduct an 8-month road journey across the US and Mexico with his partner Alex Gino. In 2007 he was invited to publish his writing and photography by the Architectural Association firstly through the AA Files then as book. In 2011 “Manifest Destiny – A Guide to the Essential Indifference of American Suburban Housing” was published and quickly received the Deutsches Architekturmuseum (DAM) award at the Frankfurt Book Fair. Shortly afterwards Los Angeles Times critic Christopher Hawthorne included it in “2011 year in review: Best in Architecture” stating Jason “miraculously finds new language to describe the eternally affectless qualities of gated communities and tract housing.”

Jason’s writing is paralleled with a long career in teaching and small architectural commissions. He specializes in design build projects that combine digital fabrication and social engagement with graduate and undergraduate teaching. Jason Griffiths’ own practice (see also) is based on a multidisciplinary approach to architecture working through buildings, competitions, public art, writing and photography. His work investigates the relationship between “normative” forms and architecture often through digital fabrication techniques. Built work includes The Lowest House in the Mojave Desert, Siouxland Transit Bus Stops, K-Zell Metalworks, The Political Ply Shade Canopy and Scottsdale Arts Camera Obscura’s among others. Many projects result from collaborative work with his Integral Studio as an Assistant Professor at the Herberger Institute, Arizona State University, Phoenix, Arizona. Jason recently completed public furniture installations for the City of Tempe and an exhibition at Project Row Houses in Houston and writes regularly for uncube magazine. 

 Photo Courtesy of  Michael Duerinckx