Architecture Beyond
I am Brandon Aaron Gibbs, AIA, NOMA—a licensed architect, researcher, educator, media producer, and advocate working across architecture, technology, and public engagement.
My story begins with my parents, who met while attending Howard University. My mother came from Mississippi, and my father came from the U.S. Virgin Islands. They raised me in Memphis, Tennessee, where I developed an early love for music, creativity, architecture, and design.
As a youth member of several orchestras including the Memphis Youth Symphony, I traveled nationally and internationally and experienced cities, cultures, and remarkable spaces beyond my hometown. Those experiences showed me how buildings and public places can express identity, history, and possibility. They helped inspire my decision to pursue architecture.
I studied architecture at Pratt Institute as a recipient of the Pratt Institute Presidential Scholarship. I later earned my Master of Architecture from the Architectural Association Design Research Laboratory in London. Over more than 15 years, I have contributed to sports and entertainment venues, healthcare facilities, churches, community spaces, commercial developments, and residential projects across Tennessee, New York, the American South, and beyond.
My work has expanded into research, education, entrepreneurship, and media. Through MotionFORM, I explore design, sustainability, computational methods, and emerging technology. I also founded Iamthestudio to help architects and designers strengthen their creative and technical skills.
Selected accomplishments include:
- LICENSED ARCHITECT IN TENNESSEE
- CO-CHAIR OF PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT, NOMA NASHVILLE
- PRATT INSTITUTE PRESIDENTIAL SCHOLARSHIP RECIPIENT
- BISHOP G. E. PATTERSON MEMORIAL SCHOLARSHIP RECIPIENT
- AUDIENCE AWARD RECIPIENT, QUICKFLICK LONDON
- WORK FEATURED BY PRATT INSTITUTE AND AIGA MOBILE
- PANEL SPEAKER WITH MUSIC CITY NSBE
- SPEAKER AT PODCAMP NASHVILLE AND BARCAMP NASHVILLE
- SHORTLISTED AS A PROSPECTIVE TEDX MOBILE SPEAKER
- ENTREPRENEURIAL TRAINING THROUGH THE NASHVILLE ENTREPRENEUR CENTER AND NASHVILLE BUSINESS INCUBATION CENTER
Through Architecture Beyond, I bring together professional experience, independent research, and storytelling to make architecture more accessible and relevant. As “The Architect in Your Corner,” I explore how design affects our communities, industries, opportunities, and everyday lives.
Architecture Beyond
Remembering The Twin Towers And The Reasons We Go To Studio // Saturday Studio AB Ep 43
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Architecture Beyond
In this reflective Saturday Studio episode, Architecture Beyond takes a different approach — moving away from a traditional presentation format and into a spoken-word narrative about memory, architecture, and the purpose of studio.
Remembering a Tower and the Reasons We Go to Studio reflects on the relationship between architecture, tragedy, imagination, and the human need to create places that carry meaning.
About This Episode
This episode begins with a young architecture student arriving in New York City for his first Saturday Studio on September 8, 2001.
Just three days later, the events of September 11 changed the world — and reshaped how many people understood cities, towers, memory, and loss.
Through that contrast, the episode explores a deeper question:
Why do we go to studio?
Not simply to learn drawing, modeling, or software — but to develop the ability to imagine, care, collaborate, and create meaning through the built environment.
Key Themes
- Architecture as memory
- The emotional meaning of towers and skylines
- Studio as a place of possibility
- The role of architecture after loss
- Why buildings matter because people matter
- The idea that “I am the studio”
- Architecture as a collective act of imagination, relationships, materials, geometry, and stories
Why This Episode Matters
Architecture is often discussed through projects, styles, awards, and famous designers.
But this episode returns to something more fundamental: the personal and collective reasons people enter the field in the first place.
It asks listeners to consider architecture not only as a profession, but as a gift — one shaped by cities, tragedy, community, memory, and the responsibility to imagine what does not yet exist.
Architecture Beyond is where architects, designers, and creative thinkers share the stories shaping life and impact beyond the studio. Since launching, we’ve released dozens of inspiring episodes and grown into a global community of listeners who care about architecture’s role in the world.
We’d love to hear from you—what topics inspire you most, or who you’d like to see as a guest. If you’re interested in sharing your own story on the show, visit Iamthestudio.com and click ArchBeyond in the menu. Join the conversation and help us continue building a platform that elevates architects everywhere.
Sponsored by iamthestudio architecture software courses (site here).
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