Maya Przybylski

Maya Przybylski is the O'Donovan Director and Associate Professor at the School of Architecture at the University of Waterloo where she co-founded the DATAlab group. She is a graduate of the Faculty of Architecture, Landscape and Design at the University of Toronto where she was awarded the Royal Architectural Institute Medal. She previously earned a degree with a specialization in Software Engineering at the Department of Computer Science at the University of Toronto.

Maya combines her backgrounds to explore how the increased availability of data and the emergence of computational design transforms the theoretical frameworks, methodologies, tools and outcomes of the architect. In 2018 she was awarded a multi-year grant from Canada’s Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC) for her Soft Materials project to develop architecture-specific methods for achieving more complete engagement with both the sociocultural agency and technical capacity of the computational components embedded within data-driven design work. With the goal of bridging technological and sociocultural concerns, this work has been presented in a variety of venues including technically focused venues such as ACADIA and CAADRIA alongside socially-minded venues such as Architecture Media Politics & Society(A_MPS) and the Architectural Humanities Research Association. Maya’s design work brings together software, data, hardware and physical materiality to explore citizen-oriented visions of a software/data enabled city.

Maya is a founding editor of bracket, a series that, since 2010, has documented the intersection of architecture, environment and digital culture. She has co-edited two issues: Bracket 1 [On Farming] and Bracket 3 [At Extremes], both supported by the Graham Foundation for the Arts.

• architecture, computation, design, software-embedded-design, smart cities, data-driven design, sentient environments, experimental material systems,

• 2007, Master of Architecture Architecture, University of Toronto, Canada
• 2004, Bachelor of Science (BSc) Computer Science, University of Toronto, Canada

• 2018 In cooperation with the Dean's Office in Engineering, the Sandford Fleming Foundation presents awards to faculty members that are recognized as outstanding teachers. Recipients must show a continued record of excellence in undergraduate teaching. Other contributions are considered, such as course development, student guidance, and student project supervision.
• 2019 honour outstanding, well-rounded faculty members. Winners are those with exceptional overall merit ratings, who have also made some significant contribution through their research, teaching, or service.

• ARCH 193 - Design Studio
  • Taught in 2019, 2020
• ARCH 393 - Option Design Studio
  • Taught in 2019
• ARCH 484 - Architectural Research
  • Taught in 2021
• ARCH 684 - Special Topics in Architecture
  • Taught in 2022
• ARCH 693 - Thesis Research & Design Studio II
  • Taught in 2021, 2022

* Only courses taught in the past 5 years are displayed.

• Przybylski, Maya and Parkin, Cameron, MATERIAL RECALIBRATION: Exposing the complex interplay between physical materials, computational elements and real-world outcomes in Software-Embedded Design, RESPONSIVE CITIES: DISRUPTING THROUGH CIRCULAR DESIGN SYMPOSIUM PROCEEDINGS 2019, 156, 2019
• Przybylski, Maya, Soft Materials: Assessing Architects’ Roles as Ethical Producers of Digital Technology, The Ethical Imperative: Proceedings of the 106th Annual Meeting of the Association of Collegiate Schools of Architecture, , 2018
• Przybylski, Maya, Confronting the Socio-Cultural Effects of Software-Embedded-Design in Shaping the Built Environment, AMPS Proceedings Series 12. Critical Practice in an Age of Complexity., , 2018
• Przybylski, Maya, A Framework to Establish Data Quality for Software Embedded Design, Learning, Adapting and Prototyping, Proceedings of the 23rd International Conference of the Association for Computer-Aided Architectural Design Research in Asia (CAADRIA) 2018, 2, 2018
• Przybylski, Maya, New Materials Mean New Responsibilities: Expanding the Ways Architects Engage Software-Embedded Design, The Site:, , 2018
• Przybylski, Maya, Critical Computational Literacy: A Call for the Development of Socially Aware, Ethically Minded Research within ACADIA, ACADIA, , 2018
• Przybylski, Maya and Malka, Daniel, From Metaphor to Model: Expanding Ecologically-Informed Design, Open Cities: The New Post-Industrial Order: Proceedings of the 2015 International Conference of the Association of Collegiate Schools of Architecture (ACSA), 566, 2015
• Przybylski, Maya, Confronting Complexity: An Introduction by way of Design Computation, Engaging Media: Proceedings of the 2015 National Conference of Beginning Design Students (NCBDS), 444, 2015
• Przybylski, Maya, Recoupling Soft and Hard: Engaging Data as an Immaterial Practice, Architecture and the Smart City, 197, 2020
• PRZYBYLSKI, MAYA, CONFRONTING THE SOCIO-CULTURAL EFFECTS OF SOFTWARE-EMBEDDED-DESIGN IN SHAPING THE BUILT ENVIRONMENT, Critical Practices in Architecture: The Unexamined, 275, 2020

• School of Architecture director sheds ‘interim’ title