Kazys Varnelis
Kazys Varnelis (born 1967) is an American historian and theorist of architecture, specialising in network culture. He is Director of the Network Architecture Lab at Columbia University's Graduate School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation and a founding member of the conceptual architecture practice Architecture Urban Design Collaborative (AUDC).
Kazys Varnelis

Columbia GSAPP · Kiosk: Copyright, Design, and Digital Culture · CC BY 2.0
- Name
- Kazys Varnelis
- Born
- 1967
- Birthplace
- Chicago, Illinois
- Education
- Ph.D.
- Nationality
- United States.
- Occupation
- architect, university teacher and historian.
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Kazys Varnelis (born 1967) is an American historian and theorist of architecture, specialising in network culture. He is Director of the Network Architecture Lab at Columbia University's Graduate School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation and a founding member of the conceptual architecture practice Architecture Urban Design Collaborative (AUDC).
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wikidata · Q16197354
In this article
Key facts
Key facts
• Name — Kazys Varnelis • Born — 1967 • Birthplace — Chicago, Illinois • Education — Ph.D. • Relatives — Kazys Varnelis (father) • Alma Mater — Simon's Rock College (undergraduate) Cornell University (undergraduate) Cornell University (graduate)
Family and education
Family and education
Varnelis grew up in Chicago and Berkshire County, Massachusetts. He is the son of artist Kazys Varnelis. He attended Simon's Rock College and received a Ph.D. from Cornell University in 1994. He has two children.
Work
Work
Varnelis is a historian of architecture, writing on Philip Johnson, Andrea Branzi, late modern and contemporary architecture. He has published in magazines such as Log, Volume, A+U, and Praxis. He has also written extensively on the Internet, locative media art and network culture. Since 2000 has maintained a blog at his web site, varnelis.net. In addition to Columbia, he has taught at the Southern California Institute of Architecture, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, University of Pennsylvania, and University of Limerick, Ireland. In 2004, he was appointed as senior researcher at the Annenberg Center for Communication where he worked with Mizuko Ito on "Networked Publics," a year-long research project. More recently he has been involved in research on infrastructure and urbanism, which he began as director of the Los Angeles Forum for Architecture and Urban Design. Together with Robert Sumrell, he founded AUDC as a conceptual architecture practice in 2001. They have exhibited at Andrea Zittel's High Desert Test Sites and Art Center College of Design. They have published their work in numerous magazines such as Cabinet, Perspecta, Textfield, Verb and 306090. Varnelis has also worked with the Center for Land Use Interpretation.
With AUDC
With AUDC
• Blue Monday: Stories of Absurd Realities and Natural Histories

Panel discussion
Columbia GSAPP · Kiosk: Copyright, Design, and Digital Culture

Panel discussion
Columbia GSAPP · Kiosk: Copyright, Design, and Digital Culture
Life and career
Dated record
Life and career
The full dated record · 1 entries
1967
Kazys Varnelis was born on 1 January 1967.
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Montclair.
Residences
Chicago.
Birth place
Edited books
• The Philip Johnson Tapes: Conversation with Robert A. M. Stern • The Infrastructural City • Networked Publics
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Kazys Varnelis is recorded with the occupation university teacher. Recorded as architect, university teacher and historian.
The Encyclopedia exists whether or not anything is for sale. Corrections are recorded rather than overwritten, and every version of this record is kept. Published 17 August 2026.
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