Faculty: Territories of Wood(s)

Johanna Barthmaier-Payne is a landscape architect and cofounder of the multidisciplinary studio A TON. In her professional practice and research she examines the relationships between urban design, ecological and cultural systems, and community collaboration.

Leveraging her expertise as a graphic designer, artist and visualizer, Johanna explores large-scale ecological opportunities involving social and environmental issues in urban and built environments. She is dedicated to advancing knowledge on how ethical design, narrative, and visual communication can support the broader public and promote nature-based design solutions.

Mark Johnston is a designer/maker, photographer, and educator who has worked in the Industrial Design department since 1991. From project inception to ideation to fabrication, he helps students reach their full potential and produce projects that represent their individuality and meet the goals of the assignment. He has taught such courses at RISD as beginning and advanced woodworking and photography.

The introspective approach Johnston takes to the various aspects of his career are similar in nature. He uses material exploration—combining wood, bronze, glass, and other materials—and process manipulation to create functional and nonfunctional pieces. In his photography, he uses techniques and lighting to capture the essence of the object.

Fatema Maswood (they/she) is a landscape and architectural designer based in Providence. They design, vision, build and grow towards “life-affirming institutions” (Ruth Wilson Gilmore). Some of their work includes co-creating the Providence Seed Library with Community Libraries of Providence (provseedlib.com), researching and modeling North African water harvesting and flood mitigation technologies, working towards community land access and designing and building with youth.

Maswood earned their MLA degree from the University of Washington in Seattle and a Bachelor of Arts in Architecture from Barnard College. They were a 2022 NAS Creative Community Fellow, the 2020–21 Artist-in-Residence with the City of Providence Office of Sustainability, a 2019 National Olmsted Scholar Finalist, and a recipient of a Merit from the American Society of Landscape Architects.

Bob Pavlik is an artist and professor of architecture, based in northwest Connecticut and western Massachusetts. His work focuses on novel experiments with materials and methods of making, with a strong emphasis on physical structure, often highlighting unique connections and joinery.

It is Bob’s goal to design and construct objects that create memorable and unique experiential spaces within the public realm, and to create artifacts that instill curiosity and reflection about how they were made, how they were put together, how they stand, and that reveal the aesthetic beauty that is possible by expressing these principles.

Wolfgang Max Rudorf received his engineering diploma in Architecture and Urban Planning from the Technical University in Berlin. As a recipient of a German Academic Exchange scholarship, he attended the History Theory and Criticism Program at MIT, receiving a Master of Science in Architectural Studies with a research focus on the Public Works Administration’s public housing initiative during the New Deal era.

Rudorf is a licensed Architect in Massachusetts and a LEED accredited professional, concentrating in his practice on the interface between the architectural and engineering disciplines. Responsible for the design and construction of large adaptive re-use projects, affordable housing projects, and the preservation of historic landmarks in the United States and Germany, he is an adamant supporter of an integrated project delivery method. He has taught for many years at RISD.

Founder of the Altimeter Design Group, Tom Weis focuses in his work and research on the intersection of design practices and global security issues. Since 2015, Weis has worked with partners in the nuclear threat reduction space and has designed and facilitated workshops for organizations such as the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the International Atomic Energy Agency, the United Nations, and many more.

In addition to his research and curriculum addressing global security issues, Weis has a deep-rooted knowledge of traditional crafts and has devoted years to apprenticing as a traditional wooden boat builder and as the studio assistant to the artist Martin Puryear.