Linda Keane

Linda Nelson Keane (she/her), FAIA
Professor Emerita of Architecture and Environmental Design
Co-Founder of STUDIO 1032 
Creative Director NEXT.cc STEAM by DESIGN e-Learning

Linda Keane, FAIA, is an artist, architect, and design educator who combines an architecture and ecological planning practice, STUDIO 1032, with her partner, Professor Mark Keane, University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee. Together they work with multi-disciplinary teams and diverse communities on green initiatives along the Chicago-Milwaukee-Madison-Milwaukee corridor. Professor Emerita of Architecture and Environmental Design, she is the founding chair of the architecture program at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. Passionate about introducing what design is, what design does, and why it is vital to our sustainable future, she is an advocate for participatory STEAM by design education. Co-creator and director of the informal e-Learning NEXT.cc, recognized with a UIA Media Design Award in Tokyo in 2011, an Association of Collegiate Schools of Architecture National Creative Achievement Award in Education in 2018, and a STATE of Illinois CNR Award in 2019, it is now a UNESCO GREENING EDUCATION PARTNER used in all 50 states and over 150 countries. She delivers keynotes, TEDx, Super Sessions, Teacher Professional Development, and K-12 workshops to students and schools that offer transdisciplinary place-based projects combining science, technology, engineering, environment, art, architecture, and math educators and professionals on the importance of engaging all ages of citizens in urban stewardship. She teaches eco design stressing the Water/FOOD/ENERGY NEXUS which she shared on eco cruises in the Chicago River, encouraging professionals and the public to embrace the importance of healthy water for healthy cities. She leads study abroad semesters with her partner, Mark Keane in the EU for architecture and design students. She swims year-round, kayaks on rivers and lakes weekly and has started to play pickleball!

Education: AA CAP SEMESTER ABROAD, LONDON, 1976; BSED,1977; BARCH, 1978, College of Architecture & Planning, BALL STATE; AIA SCHOOL Medal; Fulbright to Turkey, 1979; MARCH, 1985, UOI Chicago. Films: PBS CHICAGO EMMY Animated Architecture Retrospective; Metropolitan Museum of Art & J PAUL Getty Collection; Columbia University. Exhibitions: COP DUBAI, NEXT.cc's contributions to 4 GEP Pillars: Greening Schools, Greening Curriculum, Communities, and Capacity (2023); MNI WICONI WATER is LIFE Eco Park, AIA Chicago and CPS teens (2022); Chicago Architecture Biennial, Chicago Public Library You Media (2021); Taking the Waters McCormick and Chicago River Museum (2018); Taking the Waters Chicago River Congress (2018); Taking the Waters SAIC AIADO (2018); Taking the Waters Chicago River Congress (2017); Chicago Women in Design SAIC AIADO (2016); LEARNxDESIGN (2015); Union of International Architects, (Tokyo, 2011); Interior Architecture Website, School of the Art Institute of Chicago (2000). Publications: WATER/FOOD/ENERGY NEXUS: CREATE: Muncie School District (2024); NEXT.cc Water Journal (2023); NEXT.cc Food Journal (2023); NEXT.cc Energy Journal (2023); The Water Energy Food Nexus in Built Environment Education (2022); NEXT.cc "STEAM by Design" eLearning, Intl. Technology Journal, (UK, 2016); "STEAM by DESIGN " TEDxCreativity as Essential Capital (2016); UIC Summer Teacher Institute Creative Capital (2016); "Design THIS Place: Built Environment Education," CUMULUS LEARNxDesign Intl. (2015); "STEAM by DESIGN" Cumulus LEArNxDesign (2015); "Green Cities, Green Schools," LEARNxDesign Intl. (2015); "Pairing design education and architecture: Linda Keane," Association of Architecture Organizations (2015); "Milwaukee Water Filtering Gateway Park," Milwaukee NPR (2013); "Reimagining School: Why Creativity & Innovation Matter," Golden Apple (2013); "Moving Design III," with Sharon Gamson Danks, Green School Alliance (2013); "Moving Design IV: Outdoor Learning Environments," American Institute of Architects (AIA) (2013); STUDIO 1032 at 25 Joy of Design at All Scales, UWM (2013); "Smart Growth Guidelines," Menomonee Valley (2013); "STEAM by Design," TEDxHarambee (2013); "Moving Design" with John Dale, Robin Randall, & Roy Diblik, AIA (2012); "Eco Literacy: An Eco Web Greening Public Imagination," Design Principles & Practices: An International Journal (2010); "What Design Is, What Design Does, and Why Design is Important," NEXT.cc (2009); Architecture: An Interactive Introduction, McGraw Hill (2007); Chicago Green Roof website with Nell Westerling (2006);  "The Geometry of Wright," Nexus Journal, vol. 7 (2005); "Aesthetics of Sustainability," Association of Collegiate Schools of Architecture (ASCA) (2004);  "Working with Immersive Environments Towards Informative Ubiquitous Computing," A+A ArchitecturaAnimacion (2001); "The Culture of Design Education," Interior Design Professional Handbook, ed. Cindy Coleman, McGraw Hill. Awards: UWM NSTA I-Core Great Lakes Region Entrepreneurship (2021); American Institute of Architects Fellowship (2019); AIA Illinois Nathan Clifford Ricker Education Award (2019); ACSA Creative Achievement in Education Award (2018); National Environmental Education Foundation Green STEM Innovator (2012); Union of International Architects Architecture + Children Golden Cubes (2011); Wisconsin Arts Board Creative Communities Grant (2011); USGBC Excellence in Green Building Education Award (2009); SAIC Presidential Urban Engagement Award (2009); American Architectural Foundation Merit Award (2009); National Endowment for the Arts Design Education Award (2008); American Architectural Foundation Merit Award (2006); PBS Chicago Emmy Animated Architecture Retrospective (2006); AIA/ASCA School Medal; McMillan Award; National Merit Scholar Award. Concurrent Positions: Co-founder and creative director, NEXT.cc STEAM by DESIGN Resource; UNESCO Greening Education partner; NAEA vice chair of Best Sustainable and Ecological Practices in Art Education!

PEOPLE PLACE POTENTIAL
The work of the artist and the environmentalist is the same.
They both work to sustain life.
To be alive is to be learning!

Living and learning in a city like Chicago offers a dynamic and ever-changing urban experience for exploration, experimentation, and entrepreneurialism. The SAIC community is a creative commons with the extreme divergence of belongings yet an incredibly focused convergence of energy, ambition, and intention. There is no better place to challenge, critique, communicate, create, and collaborate than SAIC.

The Art Institute and School nurture and critically challenge design advocacy work. I arrived in 1985 upon the invitation of John Kurtich and had immediate immersion in experiential environments with everyday technology for participatory public understanding. SAIC's Department of Interior Architecture was small at that time (two FT and five PT faculty) but with a history of integration with the school through environmental design and "design from inside out" from its original teacher––Polish architect Marya Lilien, the first female apprentice to Frank Lloyd Wright. Chairing the department, I expanded the Interior Architecture BFA to a professional degree under the critical eye of the newly formed Design Advisory Council. I increased course offerings taught annually, initiated a study abroad summer program, and increased the number of full and part-time faculty. I initiated Midday Musings with local art and design professionals, curated a monthly exhibition schedule, and initiated Art and Design NEXUS courses: Fashion and Architecture (Fashion); Interactive Space (Performance); Digital Portfolio (Visual Communication); Immersive Space (Art and Technology); Architecture & Film (Film and New Media), Green Materials (Fiber and Material Studies); Architecture and Design Theory (Liberal Arts), Interiority (Art History) and Ethical Imagination (now Eco Design). Through five presidents and four deans, I contributed to the design initiative discussions (with Anne Tyler, Visual Communication, and Clive Dilnot, design theorist), expanding faculty and design degree options and establishing the Department of Architecture, Interior Architecture, and Designed Objects with new graduate degree programs in architecture.

I teach graduate and undergraduate seminars and studios introducing design through contemporary environmental theory, and served as graduate thesis coordinator 2015–2021. I also work to remediate post-industrialized brownfields and revitalize communities through alternative learning experiences.

Personal Statement: Design advocacy and art are socially engaged practices that analyze and activate the world. Architecture integrates art and science in design practices at specific sites that respond and ground complex social information systems in new ecologies of place. Working in academia tests and challenges ideas informing design practice and elevating value in relationships between the built and natural environments across broad bands of culture.

Participatory design methods encourage reading and learning, with access to and using broad media—creating, communicating, and collaborating ideas. I have studied and made animated films, created the first CD on architecture by an architect, and connected a network of learners through eLearning opportunities. As a result, I am a leader in integrating everyday technology into design and disseminating design education.

Current Interests: Ecological urbanism, environmental design, and climate change education.

Postindustrial urban regeneration informed with eco-literate education is the work of this century. With more than half of the world's population soon to be living in cities and many lacking basic needs of clean water and good food, architects are responsible for changing the face of development. The triple pundit effort (people, planet, profit) demands participatory design with diverse political, economic, and social organizations generously sharing best practices and redefining strategies to implement change that improves living. The participatory design opens access to design education as critical to critique consumption and proposes humanitarian solutions. Service on several national and local boards (AIA Committee for Architecture Education; Metropolitan Planning Council; Project for Public Space; EU's Internet of Things) connects a network of advocates for access to and design of creation of public space and interactive 21st-century learning experiences.

STUDIO 1032 seeds ecological urban strategies for the Milwaukee-Chicago Corridor collaborating with environmentalists, garden educators, hydrologists, architects, engineers, and public interest groups at Prairie Crossing, IL; Milwaukee's Wisconsin Avenue Pedestrian Corridor (2006); Milwaukee's North East Side Plan (2009); Milwaukee River Greenway Corridor Plan (2005–2010; Greening Goose Island (2009); Smart Growth Guidelines for Milwaukee's Menomonee Valley, St. of Wisconsin Building Retrofitting (2007); Greening Shorewood (2005–2007) and Milwaukee's ecological gateway (2013).

Stepping down from starting architecture at SAIC, my partner and I cofounded NEXT.cc, a free eLearning resource that nurtures creativity and ethical imagination across boundaries. An educational non-profit, NEXT.cc, introduces what design is, what it does, and why it is essential to K12 educators, students, and families. A collaborative effort of K12 administrators, teachers, and college students from SAIC, Harvard, MIT, CCA, and UWM with K12 teachers, administrators, and architects, NEXT.cc delivers Design as Nature professional development workshops, keynote speeches and consultation on integrative place-based STEAM by Design curricula for schools in the United States and internationally. NEXT.cc is now a UNESCO Greening Education Partner working to reach imaginations worldwide. It is used in all 50 states and over 150 countries.

Keane, L. & Keane, M., "Design is Our Nature: Disseminating Design Practices in K12 Education." 

Keane, L. & Keane, M., "Eco Literacy: An Eco Web Greening Public Imagination," Design Principles & Practices: An International Journal, vol. 4, no. 4 (2010).

Keane, L., "Aesthetics of Sustainability and the Ethical Imagination."

"Pairing design education and architecture: Linda Keane," Association of Architecture Organizations (2015); "Milwaukee Water Filtering Gateway Park," Milwaukee NPR (2013)