Events > Tilt-Up Convention and Expo 2024 - Phoenix > Featured Speaker

Christopher Alt, AIA makes architecture into an agent that creates meaningful change in society, nuanced to its environment. He holds a deep empathy for people and how we experience our surroundings. These compel him to make human-centered buildings that uplift and give greater meaning to our lives. Ecological regeneration, and the aligning of people with the spirit of a place, guide the realization of his architecture.

For Chris, the concept of Ma is a standard and a challenge. It informs a worldview that looks at context continuously as architecture is conceived and refined into a building, and it is a call to step back and to look at how to improve living conditions. Ma underlies both of these dynamics. It reminds him that stillness lends power to active form.

Chris was born in Syracuse, New York, and spent his early years in Brussels, Belgium, Cincinnati, Ohio and Dallas, Texas. Childhood travels in Europe exposed him to how great architecture shapes day-to-day experience. He and Christiana Moss studied architecture at Cornell University and at the Oslo School of Architecture, where they worked with Pritzker Prize winner, Sverre Fehn. Chris has also worked with prominent architects Simon Ungers and Wendell Burnette. He first encountered the landscapes of the southwest on a cross-country drive to spend a summer in Phoenix. The open vistas and dramatic land formations directly influenced his sensibility, as did the ingenious bioclimatic responses of native flora and fauna to their desert environments. Since, Chris and Christiana have sought inspiration for their work in destination-oriented travel. These experiences continue to inform his successful investigations into passive and net-zero building design.

In 2003, Chris co-founded Studio Ma with Christiana and Dan Hoffman. Chris guides our firm’s design from conceptualization through execution, seeking always to inform the process and outcomes with a sense of larger purpose and joy. He is an active mentor and participant within our studio. Along with his considerable role in shaping our firm’s architecture, Chris leads Studio Ma’s research partnerships with partner organizations such as Arizona State University and M.I.T. These alliances include computational modeling to achieve high performance buildings and the exploration of new materials and systems.