Notes From the Field #3: Phillip Tabb

We hosted our third guest, Phillip TABB founder of Dr. Phillip Tabb Design Studio, in the second of three thematic seminar series organized by the Department of Architecture, "Career Outside the Box". Tabb presented his 50-year old career as a green architect and scholar.

Dr. Tabb is Emeritus Professor of Architecture at Texas A&M University, where he served as Head of the Department from 2001-2005. He was also the Liz and Nelson Mitchell Professor of Residential Design. He is the author of several publications on green architecture and planning, of which one on "Biophilic Urbanism" he presented to our faculty in May 2020. In this event, he gave us the opportunity to travel in time with him, as he unfolded his various stages of development from a young architect into a renowned expert in sustainable urban design coupled with spirituality. 

Dr. Phill James Tabb is the author of Solar Energy Planning published by McGraw-Hill in 1984, co-authored The Greening of Architecture: A Critical History and Survey of Contemporary Sustainable Architecture and Urban Design published by Ashgate in 2014, co-edited Architecture, Culture and Spirituality also published by Ashgate in 2015. He was the author of Serene Urbanism: A Biophilic Theory and Practice of Sustainable Placemaking in 2017, Elemental Architecture: Temperaments of Sustainability in 2019, and Biophilic Urbanism: Designing Resilient Communities for the Future in 2021 all published by Routledge. Currently he is writing "Thin Places: The Architecture of Awe". He is the master plan architect for Serenbe Community – an award winning sustainable biophilic community being realized near Atlanta, Georgia, and he was the architect for the StarHouse in Boulder, Colorado.

Dr. Tabb received his Bachelor of Science in Architecture from the University of Cincinnati, Master of Architecture from the University of Colorado, and Ph.D. in the Energy and Environment Programme from the Architectural Association in London with his dissertation titled "The Solar Village Archetype: A Study of English Village Form Applicable to Energy Integrated Planning Principles for Satellite Settlements in Temperate Climates" in 1990. Dr. Tabb taught studio design, sustainable architecture, the theory of placemaking, in the US and Italy. He is a practicing urban designer and licensed architect, and a member of the American Institute of Architects, and holds an NCARB certificate.