Michael DiBenedetto Michael DiBenedetto
Piedmont Unified School District | Piedmont, CA
Architecture and its adjacent industries represent crucial tools in the greater sustainability toolkit. I wish to work alongside AEC professionals as part of a collective tasked with addressing emergent climate crisis issues and systemic resistance to influential change. Designers must balance complex relationships across time and space. Architecture is an opportunity to express compassion through design that can fundamentally shape how we live. Collaboration in the design process is imperative, as seemingly small decisions can affect immense change. The underlying framework of any public-facing design process must be informed by the needs of the intended occupant and the surrounding community. Consideration and assembly are important here. Prioritizing these voices is a responsibility that comes with great consequence, this task can be manageable given a design team well-versed in empathy. As designers, our agency within this hierarchy of ideas must be understood as a unique privilege. The resulting organization of parts—whether it be architectural or not—represents a series of weighted compromises. As climate change accelerates, communities across the globe face threats to housing, education, and life-sustaining infrastructure. We as designers have a collective responsibility to embrace sustainability as an ideology, not merely a metric to achieve. To listen and respond to climatic shifts is to bring lasting change from the ground up. Most critical in this pursuit is knowing that what we do, and how we do it, matters.
I have work experience in design, managerial, and academic settings. I’m very approachable and exceptionally driven. I am a compassionate artist with strong creative intuition and a knack for technical, detail-oriented work. A teacher at heart, I have made a living by learning new skills and helping others figure things out. I lead by example to bring empathy and positivity to any team. No matter the learning curve, I have confidence in my ability to learn quickly and immerse myself in new territory. My work ethic and flexible routine have taught me to navigate stress, manage workloads, and subdivide learning curves into workable parts. I learn best from past mistakes and failures, believing in a path to success despite adverse or ‘unprecedented’ conditions.
Education
University of Michigan, Taubman College of Architecture & Urban Planning | Ann Arbor, MI
Master's of Architecture Winter 2024
Hobart & William Smith Colleges | Geneva, NY
Bachelor of Arts in Architectural Studies, Environmental Studies Minor | Magna Cum Laude Spring 2020
Relevant Coursework
ARCH 421; Geometric Modeling
ARCH 509; Advanced Robotics
ARCH 537; Fabrication
ARCH 571;
ARCH 509; Engage
ARCH 581; Advanced Robotics II
ARCH 709; Adv Computational Geometry
Thesis: Concrete Labor_Circularity
BeachElementarySchool- Substitute Teacher K-12
California Basic Educational Skills Test (CBEST), certifited. Substitute teaching K-12 students on weekdays and organizing group activities for after-school. In this role I teach generally all subjects such as Mathematics, English, and Studio Arts. Closely followed specific lesson plans based on certain goals for each day and each class.
STAMPS School of Art and Design Ann Arbor, MI
Studio Assistant-DigitalFabricationLab- Mike Vitale (mpvitale@umich.edu), Manali Desai (dmanali@umich.edu)
Assisted Digital Fabrication Studio Coordinator in daily operation of studio. Performed machine orientations and maintenance, ran machines for students or faculty, diagnosed issues with files and vector-line workflows. Often collaborated with students, instructors, and staff to use digital fabrication processes as iterative problem solving.
Taubman College of Architecture & Urban Planning | Ann Arbor, MI
Social Media Coordinator - Kent Love-Ramirez (kloveram@umich.edu)
Lead in curating and managing daily content for Taubman College’s social media platforms. Enhancing the social media presence of the college to convey the prestige and strength of the University of Michigan, focused on fostering a positive studio culture through increased engagement.
Graduate Research Assistant - Sean Ahlquist (ahlquist@umich.edu)
Specialized in metal fabrication work with Sean Ahlquist for Orchids Playscape installation. Extensive experience on metals lab equipment and MIG welding techniques. Worked in the Taubman College FABLab with CNC routing, CNC weft-knitting, and KUKA industrial robotic processes. See 'Making' below for Industrial Robotics experience
HWS Art & Architecture Department | Geneva, NY
Teacher’s Assistant x2 - Portfolio Design; 3Dimensional Design - Gabriella D'Angelo (dangelo@hws.edu)
2023 - 2024
2020 - 2023
Winter 2022
Spring 2020, Fall 2019
Aided students in Senior Architectural Studies capstone course to assemble a comprehensive design portfolio. Supervised investigations of material use, form, and limitation through iterative design and diagramming in the woodshop. Helped students develop working knowledge of print media, to also synthesize a body of design tangents into coherent portfolio of work.
Hobart Athletics - Hobart Soccer | Geneva, NY
Director of Operations & Social Media Coordinator
Coordinated logistics for planning team events, meetings, and facilitated academic help for players. Promoted social media presence of the Hobart Soccer Program, produced and distributed drone imagery for social media platforms and strategic team analysis.
Joy Kuebler Landscape Architect | North Tonawanda, NY
Architectural Intern
Focused on brownfield reclamation projects, water mangement, and community engagement within design process. Gained exposure to operations of local firm, assisted in client meetings and construction documentation.
Attributes
2017 - 2020
Materials; Metal (aluminum, Steel, copper), Wood (2 x Framing, plywood Milling, clt Construction), Plastic (petg Panels, pp GeoTextile), Composite ( Nat. Rubber /Silicone, Epoxy Resin/ Carbon-Fiber), Textile (woven nylastic, ), Concrete (GFRC/SSC/RCC)
Parametric Modeling; Rhino Grasshopper , GhPython, Kangaroo Physics Lunch Box (PolyFrame (3D-Graphic Statics)
Making; CNC Cutting (ZUND), CNC Rotary/5-axis Milling (RhinoCam, MasterCam), Laser Cutting (UCP), Vinyl Cutting (RolandCutStudio), KUKA Industrial robot (kr120/kr6) : Rod-bending (kr120), FDM3d Printing (kr120, SuperMatterTools ) Incremental Sheet Forming (kr6, PETG panels), Welding (MIG), STOLL CNC weft-knitting machine (M1Plus), CNC Embroidery (Barudan)
Technical Drawing; Hand-Drawing Prototyping & Drafting ( Rhino , CAD, Revit )
Illustration & Representation; Adobe Creative Cloud , Acrobat, Photoshop InDesign Illustrator Fresco, V - Ray, Blender , Enscape
Multi-Media Content Generation; After Effects , Premiere Pro, OBS Studio, Canva, Instagram
Communications, Marketing, & Management; Meta Business Suite Hootsuite, Asana, Linkedin
Languages; Conversational German Basic Mandarin
CityLAB: Berlin | Berlin, Germany - Gymnasium Beilngries | Beilngries, Germany
Huazhong University of Science & Technology | Wuhan, China
