Mario Gooden

Mario Gooden (MArch ’90) is Professor of Professional Practice; Co-Director of the Global Africa Lab, an innovative research initiative that explores the spatial topologies of the African continent and its diaspora; and a Faculty Affiliate in the African American and African Diasporic Studies Department. From 2022 to 2025, Gooden served as the Director of the MArch Program and Sequence Co-Director for Advanced Architecture Studios. Gooden is also the Director of Mario Gooden Studio: Architecture + Design. His practice engages the cultural landscape and the intersectionality of architecture, race, gender, sexuality, and technology. His work crosses the thresholds between the design of architecture and the built environment, writing, research, and performance. Gooden graduated magna cum laude from Clemson University in 1987 with a B.S. in Design. He received a Master of Architecture degree from Columbia University in 1990 and is a recipient of the McKim Prize; American Institute of Architects Medallion; Alpha Rho Chi Medallion; and William Kinne Fellows Travelling Fellowship.

Gooden’s work has been exhibited nationally and internationally including the International Exhibition of Architecture Biennale in Venice, Italy; Architekturmuseum der TU München; Het Nieuwe Instituut in Rotterdam (formerly the Netherlands Architecture Institute); Bauhaus Museum Weimar / Bauhaus-Universität Weimar; the American Academy in Rome; Storefront for Art and Architecture; the National Building Museum in Washington, D.C.; and the Municipal Arts Society in New York. His work has also been featured in journals and publications including ARTFORUM International, Architect Magazine, Architectural Record, Metropolis, Wallpaper, Architecture & Urbanism (A+U), PIN-UP Magazine, and The New York Times. Gooden’s multi-media installation work entitled The Refusal of Space was featured in the Reconstructions: Architecture and Blackness in America exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art (2021). Gooden’s three-channel video installation Black Holes Ain’t So Black was exhibited during Les Journées Nationales de l’Architecture, “Architectures du quotidien” at L’AiR Arts Atelier 11 in Paris (2025) presented as part of the 150th anniversary celebrations of Atelier 11. Gooden’s performance of Black Holes Ain’t So Black had its world premiere in April 2026 at the EMPAC / Experimental Media and Performing Arts Center, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute Corpus Festival in Troy, New York.

Gooden is a 2012 National Endowment for the Arts Fellow, a MacDowell Fellow; a 2019 recipient of a National Academy of Arts and Letters Award in Architecture; the 2024 William A. Bernoudy Architect in Residence American Academy in Rome; and a 2025 Artist in Residence at Atelier 11, Cité Falguière, Paris, France. Gooden is the recipient of a 2025 Graham Foundation production grant for his performance work Black Holes Ain’t So Black along with choreographer Jonathan González and film-maker Thuto Somo. Gooden is the author of Dark Space: Architecture, Representation, Black Identity (Columbia University Press, 2016) as well as numerous essays and articles on architecture, art, and cultural production. Gooden is also a Senior Research Associate at the Visual Identities in Art and Design (VIAD) at the University of Johannesburg (South Africa) and a founding member of the Black Reconstruction Collective. Gooden served as the 63rd President of the Architectural League of New York from 2022-2025.