Nicholas Bruscia

Assistant Professor - Department of Architecture
nbruscia@buffalo.edu - 319 Hayes Hall - 716-829-5926

Nicholas Bruscia is an Assistant Professor in the School of Architecture and Planning at the University at Buffalo. He has over a decade of experience in applied digital design media and fabrication workflows, practiced in collaborative projects resulting in the construction of large-scale, industry sponsored prototypes. A strong interest in architectural geometry and enthusiasm for calculated formal and structural elegance informs much of his work with materials and fabrication processes.

Prior to joining the Sustainable Manufacturing and Advanced Robotics Technology (SMART) Community of Excellence at UB, Bruscia’s work in the realm of digital design and fabrication has received several international awards including three Architizer A+ Awards in the +Fabrication and +Materials categories, and Architect’s Newspaper’s Best of Fabrication Award. His work has been presented internationally at venues such as the Architectural Association, London; Digital Arts Museum, Berlin; University of Texas at Austin; University of Michigan; and FabCafe, Tokyo.

His teaching experience ranges from the co-coordination of undergraduate design-build studios, the instruction of advanced digital modeling in undergraduate and graduate seminars and workshops, to graduate research studios within the Situated Technologies Research Group. Bruscia is also a long-term member of the Center for Architecture and Situated Technologies (CAST) where he is currently leading a team of faculty and students on the development of new augmented reality tools for architectural education, research, immersive data visualization, and construction. Since 2010, he has directed a recurring study abroad program to Japan that is based in Tokyo and Hida, offering students both urban and rural experiences with hands-on workshops that blend computational modeling and augmented reality with traditional carpentry, weaving, and thatching.

Featured work

Dezeen spotlights 10 student projects
12/14/22
Dezeen, a global publication in architecture and design, spotlights 10 student works from across the School of Architecture and Planning in its latest edition of School Shows.
Figure to Fiber
12/9/22
The Spring 2021 Situated Technologies research studio returned to the topics of geometry and topology through surface disclinations, introduced by Assistant Professor Nicholas Bruscia in 2019 as both a developing area of research and a pedagogical exercise.
Architecture students apply AR technology to wood manufacturing with FabCafe Tokyo and FabCafe Hida
11/24/22
A recent article published by FabCafe features an innovative partnership with the School of Architecture and Planning that’s revealing new possibilities in AR-driven design and fabrication.
Summer study abroad 2019
9/6/19
This summer, dozens of students from across UB fanned across three continents as part of the School of Architecture and Planning's annual study abroad program.
Terra cotta grotto
3/20/19
“Terra-Cotta Grotto” is a design intervention constructed with standard terracotta extrusions that explores the spatial, material, structural and ecological conditions of a grotto.
2xMT
5/31/13
The research represented by project 2XmT has an underlining goal of producing self-structuring and lightweight architectural screens built entirely from thin-gauge sheet metal. Using only textured stainless steel, the research attempts to investigate the relationship between structure and appearance through performative analyses at full-scale.