MacBride Studio is a collaborative and multidisciplinary practice formed to explore architecture through innovative design and research. We provide creative ideas and design services for diverse clients and communities, investigating multiple building types at many scales. The office is a collaborative studio which can handle any size or type of project. We are interested foremost in challenging design ideas and have worked in architecture, landscape, urbanism, planning, and graphic design.
Passive House
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PH01: BRK
Passive House 01: Brookings, SD
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McGlynn Passive House
Palo Pinto, TX
DoArch Projects
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![An image of The Cultural Center.]()
Figure Ground
DoArch Public Works in Webster, SD
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![An image of Greenspacing.]()
Orange Driver
Student Installation
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![An image of The Float House]()
The Big Model
Coursework of Partner Communities
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Housing SD
Advocacy and Design for Small Cities: Webster & Wagner
Building Workshops
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![An image of The Cultural Center.]()
Tensile Structure
Tensile Structures & Lightweight Building Workshop
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![An image of Greenspacing.]()
Thermoplastics Workshop
South Dakota Projects
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![An image of The Cultural Center.]()
Laura Ingalls Wilder Memorial Society
Campus Master Plan, New Museum and Learning Center DeSmet SD
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![An image of Greenspacing.]()
Riverfront Masterplan
Mobridge SD
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![An image of The Float House]()
Beadle County Courthouse
Third Floor Renovations Huron, SD
Publications / Awards / Media
Awards
2023 "Navigating new climates: Three ICF & SIP passive houses in North Texas," PhiusCon 2023 Presentation.
2022 "PH01:BRK: Potentials of Teaching Building Science through Design-Build," ACSA Paper & Presentation. With Robert Arlt.
2022 "Sowing the Seeds of Passive House Research and Design in North Texas," PhiusCon 2022 Presentation.
2021 "Micro-community: A Design Build Catalyst." AIA/ACSA Intersections Research Conference Paper & Presentation. With Brad McCorkle and Joshua Nason.
2021 "Teaching Lightweight and Tensile Structures: A Pedagogy for Beginning Design Students," IASS Conference Paper & Presentation.
2020 "There Goes the Neighborhood: How a NZE Passive House Changed the Culture of a Community." AIA/ACSA Intersections Research Conference: CARBON.
2020 "Theory and Practice: The Formulation and Delivery of Teaching Professional Practice." ACSA Paper & Presentation. With Jessica Garcia Fritz and Federico Garcia Lammers.
2019 "Building In the Void: The Pursuit of Zero in the Unregulated Midwest." 14th Annual Phius Conference.
2019 "A Case Study on the impact of PHIUS+ 2018 standard on a Student Designed PHIUS+ House in South Dakota." 14th Annual Phius Conference. With Robert Arlt.
Publications
2025 UTA Presidents Award for Excellence in Teaching
2023 CAPPA JEDI and Sustainability Award, Student Project
2020 Dezeen's Top 10 Student and Graduate Projects, PH01:BRK / Passive House Brookings
2019 AIA Honor Award, South Dakota chapter PH01:BRK/Passive House Brookings / Completed with Robert Arlt and DoArch students.
2019 AIA President’s Award, South Dakota chapter SDSU DoArch Passive House Studio / Awarded for “putting theory into practice and teaching all of us how we can build better for our environment.”
2019 Outstanding Researcher, Scholar, Performer, or Artist / SDSU College of Arts, Humanities & Social Sciences
2018 Brookings Mayor’s Sustainability Award / Presented for PH01:BRK, recognizing excellence in sustainable practices while promoting a culture of resiliency.
2017 Faculty Award of Excellence, SDSU Department of Architecture
2016 AIA Merit Award, South Dakota chapter, Wrigley Square, Mobridge / Completed with Brian Rex, DoArch faculty and students.
2013 AIA Merit Award, South Dakota chapter, Mobridge Riverfront Masterplan
Media
"TALKdesign with Adrian Ramsay," Podcast, January 2024.
"PhiusCON 2023," Podcast recorded at PhiusCon by Matthew Cutler Welsh for the Passive House Accelerator, November 2023.
"PH01:BRK," ARCHITECT, October 2020.
"Architecture Students Complete Passivhaus in South Dakota," Dezeen.com, April 2020.
"The South Dakota Initiatives: A Conversation with Dennis Daugaard," Passive House Accelerator, February 2020.
"2019 AIA SD Honor Award: Passive House, SDSU DoArch'," AIA South Dakota, November 2019.
"Passive house unleashes creativity, innovation," Brookings Register, October 2018.
"Are Passive Houses Part of the Conversation?" Blueprint South Dakota, October 2018.
About
Charles MacBride is an assistant professor at the University of Texas at Arlington School of Architecture, licensed architect and Certified Passive House Consultant. He has been teaching and practicing for over 20 years, with specializations in urbanism, history, housing, and building technology. His most recent work initiated a self-sustaining program for the student design and construction of certified passive houses. This cross disciplinary scholarship anchored the development and accreditation for the new professional program in architecture at South Dakota State University, where he also established curriculum, pedagogy, studio culture, and mentorship. He co-founded the department’s Public Works program connecting students to underserved communities. MacBride has earned awards for teaching, research, design and master planning, including a Sustainability Leadership and Innovation honor and an AIA SD Honor Award for PH01:BRK. He currently teaches in both the graduate and undergraduate levels at UTA. He holds degrees from Columbia and Penn State, and has previously taught at South Dakota State, Iowa State and the University of Colorado Denver.
macbridestudio is a collaborative architecture and urban design practice that provides innovative ideas and specialized services to a wide range of clients. Following in a long tradition of architects who both teach and practice, the studio pursues architecture as a discourse, an expression of craft, and as a responsibility to our culture and collective identity. We bring together talented individuals who contribute to many types of projects, including architecture, urbanism, planning, landscape architecture, and graphic design. Our portfolio includes custom residences, master planning, feasibility and historical building assessments, and all scales of commercial and housing development.
Texas Architectural Registration #28478
NCARB Certification Record Number 54430
CPHC® is used under license from the Passive House Institute US (Phius). The Passive House Building Energy Standard promoted by Phius is the most rigorous building energy standard in the world. Certified Passive House Consultants have committed themselves to design excellence and the passive house energy performance and quality criteria.