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NJ Unaka, PhD joined us in July of 2020 and is a native of both Nigeria and New England. During his professional architecture career, he has worked on schools, office buildings, libraries, and hospitals, with architectural firms in Boston, New York, and Milwaukee. These projects have been across the Americas, Africa and elsewhere. He has taught at middle and high schools in the US and in the Bahamas and has lectured with the architecture departments at the University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee, and Wentworth Institute of Technology. In addition to teaching design studios, he has led technology courses on building construction techniques and environmental systems, as well as seminars on design ethics. He continues to be engaged in applied research at the intersection of ecologically sensitive solutions involving community participation and local resources for construction implementation. He is especially interested in how education can be a catalyst for such interactions.

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He holds a BSc in Civil Engineering, from the University of Massachusetts, a MArch from the Boston Architectural College and a PhD in Architecture from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. NJ lives and teaches in the Boston Area. He has a passion for experimental and sustainable ecological communities, as well as appropriate technology use in low-income areas around the globe, including informal settlements.