Daniel Hewett is a teacher, architect, and researcher. His work explores complex environments as sources of systemic insight and value creation.
 
He has held teaching and research appointments at The Rhode Island School of Design, MIT, and Northeastern University’s Graduate School of Architecture. He is a speaker, critic, and advisor in design, innovation, and entrepreneurship in the US and abroad.

Prior to forming OCULAR, Daniel led the Office of Academic Research + Partnerships at the Rhode Island School of Design and co-founded the Center for Complexity, leading its Strategic Design Pedagogies program in the US, Europe, and India. 

He is the founder and director of Urbanframe at MIT, a multi-year research program mobilizing youth to design and build prototype solutions to problems of spatial inequity; projects range in scale and transcend disciplines, from architecture and landscape to industrial design and graphics.

Daniel was the Director of Design at Dyer Brown and Associates, Architects in Boston. His built work includes interior and adaptive reuse projects, historic preservation, and new residential and commercial commissions.

Daniel studied at Rice University's Graduate School of Architecture. His thesis, “Architecture and the Productive Implications of Pause,” examined the spatial expression of cultural wisdom in the colonias of migrant families on the outskirts of Progresso, Texas. 

Current field research for the fairwitness project focuses on documenting the unique sensing and navigational gifts of individuals whose place-based wisdom enables them to thrive in the face of complex challenges.