Black Holes Ain’t So Black

Mario Gooden is Professor of Professional Practice, Director of the Master of Architecture Program, Sequence Director for Advanced Architecture Studios, and Co-Director of the Global Africa Lab at Columbia GSAPP. He is also the Director of Mario Gooden Studio: Architecture + Design, a transdisciplinary practice dedicated to the design and exploration of architecture and its relationships to culture and knowledge. His practice merges architectural design with landscape, urbanism, history, cultural production, and performance.

A recipient of numerous design awards, citations, and recognitions, Gooden is a 2012 National Endowment for the Arts Fellow, a MacDowell Fellow, and a 2019 recipient of a National Academy of Arts and Letters Award in Architecture. His work has been exhibited nationally and internationally at the Venice Biennale, Architekturmuseum der TU Mūnchen, the Netherlands Architecture Institute (NAi), Storefront for Art and Architecture, the National Building Museum, the Municipal Arts Society, and the Museum of Modern Art. He has been featured in journals and magazines such as ARTFORUM International Magazine, Architect Magazine, Architectural Record, Metropolis, Wallpaper, Architecture & Urbanism (A+U), and The New York Times. Gooden is also the author of Dark Space: Architecture Representation Black Identity (Columbia University Press, 2016).

In addition to his roles at Columbia GSAPP, Gooden is a Research Associate at the Visual Identities in Art and Design (VIAD) at the University of Johannesburg and a founding member of the Black Reconstruction Collective (BRC). Gooden received his Bachelor of Science in Design from Clemson University and his Master of Architecture degree from Columbia University.