Leighton Beaman is a designer, writer and educator. His design work, research and writing focus on the history, discourse, and speculative future of spatial material culture and its implications for environmental responsibility, and socially conscious design practices.

Leighton is an Associate Professor of Practice at Cornell University, focusing on spatial material culture, advanced technologies for design and fabrication, as well as environmental and social responsibility in design. Prior to his appointment at Cornell, he taught at Harvard University, Rhode Island School of Design, the University of Virginia, and the University of Texas.

Leighton is the Co-founder of General Architecture Collaborative (GAC), a design-based nonprofit working in East Africa and North America. GAC was named a design Game Changer by Metropolis Magazine in 2020, and Small Practice of the Year by the Architects Newspaper in 2021. GAC and has received a number of awards and recognitions for their work, including from the American Institute of Architects, Society of American Reistered Architects, Dezeen, Architizer, EDRA, and the Architectural League of NY. Their work has been featured at installations and exhibitions at the Venice Biennale, Yale University, Pinakothek de Morderne, Goethe Institute, the University of Texas, and the Seoul Biennale. 

He is also the Founder of Alterior Office, a research-based design studio working across scales, systems, and processes. The work of Alterior Office has been featured in exhibitions and installations at the American Institute of Architects, Harvard University, Rhode Island School of Design Art Museum, NYCxDESIGN, the Boston Society of Architects, University of Virginia, the University of Cincinnati, and the American Academy in Rome. 

As a writer, Leighton has contributed to a number of publications including Architectural Record, Cite, II Journal, IntAR Journal, Issue, and the Technology Architecture + Design Journal. He is currently a guest editor for the International Journal of Architectural Computing.

Leighton has been named a MacDowell Fellow, an American Institute of Architects Emerging Practitioner, a University of Virginia Teaching Fellow in Architecture, and was recently a visiting artist at the American Academy in Rome.