Viola Ago is an architectural designer, educator, and practitioner. She is the director of MIRACLES Architecture and is an assistant professor at the Toronto Metropolitan University. She has taught at the Ohio State University Knowlton School of Architecture, Harvard University Graduate School of Design, Rhode Island School of Design, Southern California Institute of Architecture, and Taubman College of Architecture where she was the 2016-2017 William Muschenheim Design Fellow. She earned her master of architecture degree from the Southern California Institute of Architecture in Los Angeles, and a bachelor of architectural science from Ryerson University in Toronto. Prior to teaching, Viola worked as a lead designer in the Advanced Technology Team at Morphosis Architects in Los Angeles. Viola’s work has been exhibited in Los Angeles, Ghent (NY), San Francisco, Columbus, Ann Arbor, and Cincinnati. Her written work has been published in Architectural Design (AD), Instabilities and Potentialities, Offramp, Acadia Conference Proceedings, TxA Emerging Design and Technology Journal, JAE Journal, Architect’s Newspaper, and Archinect, among others. Viola is currently holding a residency at the Autodesk Build Space in Boston, as well as a University Design and Research Fellowship with Exhibit Columbus.
During her time at MacDowell, she worked on a new paper on mechanics as the study of motion and relationship to architecture. The paper is based on equal parts analysis and history. This endeavor is a sequence of one of her other projects, Poppy Red, which was exhibited at the Pinkcomma Gallery in Boston in late 2019. As a result, Viola was simultaneously working on the design exhibition for Poppy Red while she was at MacDowell.
