Rate My Professor Dwaine Carver

Dwaine Carver serves as Associate Chair of Architecture and Associate Professor in the Department of Architecture within the University of Idaho's College of Art and Architecture. He holds a Master of Design in History and Theory of Architecture from Harvard University Graduate School of Design (1992), a Bachelor of Architecture from Rhode Island School of Design (1990), and a Bachelor of Fine Arts from Rhode Island School of Design (1989). His areas of expertise include design and the history and theory of architecture, with current research intersecting ecology, infrastructure, and public space. Carver's scholarly work explores new infrastructure models that incorporate ecological systems, social justice, and innovative public space typologies through interdisciplinary collaborations, including percent-for-art programs. He co-authored The Boise Public Works Arts Master Plan, a ten-year arts and culture planning document commissioned by Boise Public Works and Boise Arts and History, addressing air quality, storm and wastewater renewal, material conservation, and geothermal systems. This research was supported by the Paul G. Windley Faculty Excellence and Development Award and presented at the EDRA 53 conference.

In his teaching at the University of Idaho Boise, Carver directs graduate studies and leads studios and seminars that challenge conventional architectural pedagogy. Courses include investigations into spatial form in literary fiction, the uses and limits of precedent through collage techniques, phenomenologically driven first-year design assignments, and recurring design/build collaborations with Treefort Music Festival producing public installations. His essays on these pedagogical approaches include 'Drawing Form from Fiction' (published in Representation, Journal of the Design Communication Association, 2023-2024), 'Precedent and Influence' (2022), 'A Phenomenological Epoché for Beginning Design' (2023), and 'A Tectonics of Ontogenetic Materialism: Three Projects' (2023). Additional publications feature 'PrinTimber: Speculations on the Technical Evolution of Housing' (2024, co-authored with Randall Teal, Carolina Manrique, and Damon Woods). Carver has contributed as set designer for University of Idaho's production of Constellations and maintains an active practice in public sculpture, installations, and exhibits.