Wesley McGee

Wes McGee explores the integration of advanced manufacturing technologies with critical design-driven workflows. He is known for innovating in the space of design and fabrication across a range of material processes, particularly in the application of industrial robotic tools to architectural production. Wes is Co-founder and Partner of Matter Design.

McGee’s research revolves around the interrogation of the means and methods of material production in architecture, focusing on developing new connections between design, engineering, materials and manufacturing processes as they relate to the built environment. This work includes the development of software and hardware tools which link computational design with novel manufacturing and construction methodologies utilizing digital fabrication and robotics to produce sustainable, performative architectures.

• Finalist, PS1 Young Architects Program, MoMA, 2019.
• Merit Award, R+D Awards, Architect Magazine, 2018.
• Award for Innovative Research, Association for Computer Aided Design in Architecture, 2017.
• Honorable Mention, R+D Awards, Architect Magazine, 2016.
• Boston Design Biennial, Boston Society of Architects, 2013.
• Architectural League Prize for Young Designers, Architectural League of New York, 2013.
• Product of the Year. Architectural Record, 2010.

• Liang, Ci-Jyun, Kurt Lundeen, Wes McGee, Carol Menassa, Sanghyun Lee, and Vineet Kamat. “A vision-based marker-less pose estimation system for articulated construction robots.” Automation in Construction, vol. 104, 2019, pp. 80-94.
• Lundeen, Kurt, Vineet Kamat, Carol Menassa, and Wes McGee. “Autonomous motion planning and task execution in geometrically adaptive robotized construction work.” Automation in Construction, vol. 100, 2019, pp. 24-45.
• Tish, Dan and Wesley McGee, Tim Schork, Geoffrey Thun, Kathy Velikov. “Case Studies in Topological Design and Optimization of Additively Manufactured Cable-Nets.” Structures, vol 18, pp. 83-90.
• McGee, Wesley and Geoff Thun, Kathy Velikov, Dan Tish. “Prologue for a Robotic Architecture: Bridging design Environments, robotic additive manufacture, and systemic controls for kinetic information.” Towards a Robotic Architecture, edited by Mahesh Daas and Andrew Witt, ORO Editions, 2018, pp. 190-203.
• Lundeen, Kurt and Vineet Kamat, Carol Menassa, Wesley McGee. “Scene Understanding for Adaptive Manipulation in Robotized Construction Work,” Automation in Construction, vol. 82C, 2017, pp. 16-30.
• Feng, Chen and Yong Xiao, Aaron Willette, Wesley McGee, Vineet R. Kamat, “Vision Guided Autonomous Robotic In-Situ Assembly and As-built 3D Scan.” Automation in Construction, vol. 59, 2015, pp. 128-138.
• Clifford, Brandon and Wesley McGee. “Microtherme: Examining Contradictory Concepts of Spatial and Thermal Comfort.” TxA Emerging Design + Technology, Texas Society of Architects, 2017, Austin, Texas.
• Ng, Tsz Yan and Wesley McGee. “Thermoplastic Concrete.” TxA Emerging Design + Technology, Texas Society of Architects, 2017, Austin, Texas.
• Seyedahmadian, Ali and Omid Torghabehi, Wesley McGee. “Developing a computational approach towards a performance based design and robotic fabrication of fibrous skin structures.” Future Visions, Proceedings of IASS Symposium, International Association for Shell and Spatial Structures (IASS), 2015, Amsterdam, Netherlands.

• Director of the Digital Fabrication Lab (FABLab)
• Associate Professor of Architecture, A. Alfred Taubman College of Architecture and Urban Planning