At the University of Virginia. Earl Mark teaches, does research, and has published in the areas of computer aided design, design studio, simulation, animation and moviemaking. The core of his current research is focused on the design of rapid shelter settlements for forcibly displaced people. Since 2007 his studios have emphasized tension membrane fabric architecture with a small environmental footprint. His grant funded research and studio teaching has been supported by a Norwegian owned tension membrane fabric building systems maker.
Prior to UVA, Mark was a lecturer at the MIT Department of Architecture. He was a senior teaching fellow at the Harvard Graduate School of Design. In 1998, he was selected as the Thomas Jefferson Visiting Fellow at Downing College and a Visiting Associate of the Martin Centre, Department of Architecture at the University of Cambridge. In 2015, he received a Sabbatical in Residence at Acadia National Park in Maine. He has also held an appointment as visiting Lecturer at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, ETH Zurich. His most recent sabbatical was focused on visiting refugee settings in Greece in Athens and on Lesvos Island.
In Spring 2019 Mark served as a Visiting Associate Professor of Architecture at the University of Oregon where he taught vertical undergraduate / graduate studio on rapid shelter for forcibly dislaced people. This research underlying this studio was the focus of a Savage Endowment for International Peace and Justice grant from the University of Oregon, Global Justice Program. It guided two similarly themed vertical studios at the University of Oregon in Spring 2022 and Spring 2023.
Mark holds a Ph.D. in Architecture with a Minor in Cognitive Science from Harvard University, a Master of Science in Media Technology from the MIT Media Lab, a Master of Architecture from UNM, and a BA in Architecture and Mathematics from SUNY.
At UVA, Mark served as Chief Technology Officer within the School of Architecture responsible for developing resources, establishing and directing the IT Staff. He was a senior software engineer at Computervision where he had lead responsibility for software projects in computer aided design, including general buiding design, naval architecture, and perspective visualization. His visualization work has been on long term exhibitions at the Smithsonian, Monticello, Jamestown, The Monokin Foundation, and The National Building Museum. He periodically works with the practice of Johnson, Craven, and Gibson, Architects, in Charlottesville.