Susan Jones

Susan Jones investigates, researches, advocates alternative premises in architecture to advance new lower carbon material systems by designing and building mass timber prototypes at multiple scales. Her design leadership is girded by multiple international collaborations to create change at scale and insure rigor on multiple levels, from policy changes, to material testing to life-cycle analysis.

atelierjones, her design-award winning, solely woman-owned firm, designs and builds new sustainable building prototypes at multiple scales: prefabricated single-family and urban infill residential homes to large, middle-income residential buildings. These prototypes specifically advance mass timber and the new building codes and correlative design detailing that Susan helped craft and guide on a pro-bono basis through US regulatory processes.

Through multi-year national and international collaborations, with such diverse institutions as the USDA, USFS, AIA, International Code Council, AWC, The Nature Conservancy, US Forest Practices Laboratory, Research Institute of Sweden (RISE), University of Washington, Washington State Legislature and community non-profits, Susan guides testing of new materials, develops new building codes for Tall Wood Buildings, leads building modeling to quantify carbon LCA research, while advancing effective dialogues within rural PNW forest ecologies to insure sustainable forest health.

Her prolific work over the last nine years has advanced and restructured the carbon-intensive construction industry towards adopting lower carbon materials by using design as a catalyst creating sustainable change at scale. She is an exemplary role model for architects, demonstrating how design can lead innovation at all scales, to urgently lower our carbon footprint in our fight against climate change.

Based in Seattle, founder Susan is a native of Washington State. She holds a B.A from Stanford University in Philosophy, an M.Arch from Harvard University GSD, is a Fellow of the AIA, author of Mass Timber | Design and Research, and Affiliate Professor at the University of Washington.