Whether he is hijacking plastic or determining the “tectonics of blanket-ness,” Thomas Moran spends a lot of time in a fabrication lab. But there is nothing fabricated about this Ann Arbor–based architect’s interest in materiality or his commitment to collaboration—or his belief that architecture should have a funny side. "Architects often wear many hats: urban designer, bureaucrat, philosopher,” he says. “So why not comedian? Why not use architecture as a medium to lighten things up?”

Moran’s profile is on the rise this year. Last May, he won the Architectural League Prize for Young Architects + Designers, and, along with the other winners, installed his work at the New School in New York. In August, Moran and a team of colleagues—literally called T+E+A+M, an acronym created from their names—were selected to participate in the U.S. Pavilion at the 2016 Venice Architecture Biennale.