Emilie Taylor Welty

Director of Architecture

Design-Build Manager, Albert and Tina Small Center for Collaborative Design

Favrot III Associate Professor of Architecture

Emilie Taylor Welty is a leader in design build education whose research and practice are grounded in material explorations and expanding access to design. She is an architect and associate professor at the Tulane School of Architecture where she serves as the architecture program director. Emilie is co-founder and principal at Colectivo, a New Orleans based
architecture firm grounded in making as part of the design process. Her award winning practice has built internationally recognized projects that focus on material investigations and affordability.

At Tulane, Welty has led over thirty applied research projects, teaching design/build studios that make a positive impact in New Orleans neighborhoods. The community-based work of the Small Center includes award-winning and transformative projects such as Grow Dat Youth Farm and Parisite Skatepark. Welty recently received a national Practice and Leadership award from the AIA/ACSA as well as a Collaborative Practice Award for her work with Small Center from the Association of Collegiate Schools of Architecture (ACSA). Recent grant funded work includes
an interdisciplinary research prize from the SOM Foundation. That project, titled Public Space and Scrutiny was an interdisciplinary research project conducted with colleagues Tiffany Lin and Dr. Lisa Molix. Emilie’s teaching and practice advances community partnerships that create opportunities for faculty and students to engage real issues in the community through design—teaching students how to be better designers, makers, and citizens.

Furthermore, her work is published in a range of academic and trade publications, including a recent chapter on design-build here at Tulane co-authored with Byron Mouton in the book Digital Fabrication and the Design Build Studio. Her education includes a technical building background at the University of Southern Mississippi and a Master in Architecture at Tulane University. Prior to founding Colectivo, Emilie worked at Bild Design.