Books.

Andrzejewski, Elizabeth and Marcus Shaffer. Konrad Wachsmann’s Architecture Machine: The Location Orientation Manipulator. (Basel: Birkhäuser, 2026).

Shaffer, Marcus. Reality Spectacularly Transformer-ed: Observations on the Machine in an Architectural Context. (Barcelona: Actar). Forthcoming.

Shaffer, Marcus. Rise Tectonic Machines! Construct the Exigent City! (Providence: RISD Architecture, 2013). This book is distributed by ORO through their Advanced Research & Design imprint.

Book Chapters.

Shaffer, Marcus. "Novel Machine Development for Rammed Earth Construction: Addressing Labor Intensiveness and Access to Earthen Construction through Rotational Tamping." Digital Earth Construction: From Materials to Scalable Technologies, edited by Lola Ben Alon and Olga Beatrice Carcasi, Springer Nature, 2026

Articles

Shaffer, Marcus. "Probing The Machine with (Earthen) Architecture." TAD Journal: Soil, vol. 10, no. 2, 2026, pp. XXX.

Shaffer, Marcus."Enhancing Rammed Earth’s Accessibility Through Novel Tectonic Machines: Developing and Testing a Rotational Tamper." Architecture into the Unknown: Proceedings of the 2024 EAAE/ARCC Conference, Aarhus,23-26 May, edited by Claus Peder Pederson, Nanna Hagedorn Olsen, Anders Kruse Aagaard, European Association of Architecture Education, 2026, pp. 592-599.

Leung, Tiffanie and Marcus Shaffer. "Re-Fashioning Earthbag Construction: Engaging Textile Waste Through Flexible-Formed Modular Rammed Earth Construction." TAD Journal: Innovation, vol. 9, no. 2, 2025, pp. 438-453.

Shaffer, Marcus. “Derived from the (Japanese) Tea House: Exploring and Recontextualizing Modularity, Materiality, Resourcefulness, and Craft through Design/Build.” The Power of Reciprocity: Symposium Text of the 3rd Building Beyond Borders Symposium, 2025, forthcoming.

Shaffer, Marcus. "Probing the Machinery Gap in Rammed Earth Technologies: Developing and Testing a Rotational Tamper." Earth USA 2024: Proceedings of the 12th International Earthbuilding Conference, Santa Fe, 13-15 September, edited by Kurt Gardella and Cornelia Theimer Gardella, Adobe in Action, 2025, pp. 226-233. 

Motalebi, Mahan and Marcus Shaffer. "Graded Durability in Earthen Structures: Strategizing Earthen Construction Based on Vernacular Wisdom and Resourcefulness of Iranian Pigeon Towers.” Earth USA 2024: Proceedings of the 12th International Earthbuilding Conference, Santa Fe, 13-15 September, edited by Kurt Gardella and Cornelia Theimer Gardella, Adobe in Action, 2025, pp. 52-58.

Leung, Tiffanie. "Re-stitching the Bag: Upcycling Waste as Alternative Earthbag Containers." Earth USA 2024: Proceedings of the 12th International Earthbuilding Conference, Santa Fe, 13-15 September, edited by Kurt Gardella and Cornelia Theimer Gardella, Adobe in Action, 2025, pp. 52-58.

Diarte Almada, Julio and Marcus Shaffer. "Experimenting with Cardboard Formwork for Precast Concrete Building Components." Journal of Architectural Engineering, vol.31, no. 3, 2025. 

Maalej, Esmael. Developing the MLJ: A Variable and Scalable Alternative to Conventional Bent Wood Lamination Formworks. Master's Thesis,The Pennsylvania State University, 2025. https://etda.libraries.psu.edu/?search_field=all_fields&q=esmael+maalej 

Motalebi, Mahan and Marcus Shaffer. “Graded Durability in Earthen Construction: A Sample-informed Approach for Planning Buildings’ Obsolescence.” Urban Futures - Cultural Pasts: AMPS Proceedings Series 40.1, Barcelona, 15-17 July, edited by Racel Isaac-Menard, Graham Cairns, Pere Fuertes, et. al, AMPS, 2024, pp. 195-205. 

Andrzejewski, Elizabeth, with Marcus Shaffer and Esther Obonyo. "Automated Building Assembly: Developments toward Automated Building Machines." Computing in Civil Engineering 2023: Data, Sensing, and Analytics - Selected Papers from the ASCE International Conference on Computing in Civil Engineering 2023, edited by Y. Turkan et al., American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE), 2024, pp. 716-723.

Andrzejewski, Elizabeth. Wachsmann, Bollinger, and Mendoza's Location Orientation Manipulator: Revisited, Reconstructed, and Re-imagined. PhD dissertation, 2024. https://etda.libraries.psu.edu/?search_field=all_fields&q=elizabeth+andrzejewski

Motalebi, Mahan and Marcus Shaffer. “Tectonics and the Illogic of Durability for Earthen Structures.” TAD Journal: Tectonics, vol. 7, no. 1, 2023, pp. 83-91.

Motalebi, Mahan. Planning Building Obsolescence Through Material Strategy: Formulating Decay-Informed Earth Blocks. Master's Thesis,The Pennsylvania State University, 2023. https://etda.libraries.psu.edu/?search_field=all_fields&q=mahan+motalebi. 

Andrzejewski, Elizabeth, with Marcus Shaffer, and Esther Obonyuo. “Assembling the Assembler: Reanimating the 'Lost' Motion MAchine of Wachsmann, Bollinger, and Mendoza.” TAD Journal: Histories, vol. 6, no. 1, 2022, pp. 90-99.

Andrzejewski, Elizabeth, with Marcus Shaffer, and Esther Obonyo"Re-Engaging the Kinematics of Building Assembly: An Exploration of Konrad Wachsmann's Architecture Machine through a Technological Dialog with the LOM." Computing in Civil Engineering 2021: IT for Smart Infrastructure and Communities, American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE), 2022, pp. [Page Range], https://doi.org/10.1061/9780784483893.131. 

Leung, Tiffanie. Re-crafting the Earthbag Wall: Addressing Safety, Labor, Construction, and Aesthetics Throgh Novel Machine-sewn Bags. Master's Thesis,The Pennsylvania State University, 2022. https://etda.libraries.psu.edu/?search_field=all_fields&q=Tiffanie+LEung

Diarta Almada, Julio, and Marcus Shaffer. "Cardboard Architecture: Eight Decades of Exploration in Academic Research and Professional Practice, 1940-2019." Enquiry: The ARCC Journal for Architectural Research, vol. 18, no. 1, 2021 pp. 17-40. ARCC Journal, doi:10.17831/enq:arcc.v18i1.1103.

Shaffer, Marcus, with Julio Diarte Almada, and Elena Vazquez. “Waste Cardboard Formwork Workflow” in Crossroads: Building the Resilient City, Vincent Ahn, Ed., Seoul, Republic of Korea, Seoul Metropolitan Government, September 2, 2021.

Andrzejewski, Elizabeth, with Marcus Shaffer, and Esther Obonyo. "Catalyzing Equitable Access to Building Construction Through Advancements in Global Building Machine Technology." 2021 AIA/ACSA Intersections Research Conference: Communities, Virtual Conference, 2021. Association of Collegiate Schools of Architecture, www.acsa-arch.org/proceeding/communities/. 

Diarte, Julio. Tapping into Urban Recylcing for Low-Cost Building Materials: Exploring a Craft/Digital-based Workflow for a Building System with Waste Cardboard and Wood. PhD dissertation, The Pennsylvania State University, 2021. https://etda.libraries.psu.edu/?search_field=all_fields&q=Julio+Diarte

Shaffer, Marcus, with Julio Diarte Almada, and Elena Vazquez. "Tooling Cardboard for Smart Re-use: A Digital and Analog Workflow for Upcycling Waste Corrugated Cardboard as a Building Material." CAAD Futures 2019: Hello Culture! Proceedings of the 18th Annual CAAD Futures Conference, 2019, Daejeon, Republic of Korea.

Diarte Almada, Julio, with MArcus Shaffer, and Esther Obonyo. “Developing a Panelized Building System for Low-cost Housing Using Waste Cardboard and Repurposed Wood.” Proceedings of The 18th Annual Conference on Non-Conventional Materials and Technologies / Construction Materials & Technologies for Sustainability. IC-NOCMAT 2019, Nairobi.

Shaffer, Marcus. "Developing Mechanized Formwork: An Alternative to Single-use Concrete Formwork Systems.” No Cradle, No Grave: Proceedings of the 10th International Conference on the Environmental and Technical Implications of Construction with Alternative Materials, Tampere, 6-8 June, 2018.

Diarte Almada, Julio, and Marcus Shaffer. "Urban Recycling Intervention: Prototype Tooling for Transforming Waste Corrugated Cardboard into Architectural Elements and Building Components.” No Cradle, No Grave: Proceedings of the 10th International Conference on the Environmental and Technical Implications of Construction with Alternative Materials, Tampere, 6-8 June, 2018.

Vazquez, Elena Maria, and Marcus Shaffer. "Bring in the Noise: A robotic-aided framework for the indirect shape translation and molding of inexact geometries." Computing for a Better Tomorrow: Proceedings of the International Conference on Education and Research in Computer Aided Architectural Design in Europe / eCAADe 2018. ISSN: 26841843 Volume: 1 pp. 827 - 834.

Andrzejewski, Elizabeth. Fast, Low-skilled, and Flexible Building Assembly (Now!): Revisiting the Joint-based Universal Building System. Master's Thesis, The Pennsylvania State University, 2018. https://etda.libraries.psu.edu/?search_field=all_fields&q=elizabeth+andrzejewski

Shaffer, Marcus. "Developing Robotic Formwork: Enhancing Formwork Mobility and Variability through Mechanization." Construction Robotics, vol. 1, no. 1-4, 2017, pp. 77-83.

Pritz, Connor. Machine / Block / Vault: Enhancing Earth-built Architecture with Modified Construction Technology. Master's Thesis, The Pennsylvania State University, 2016. https://etda.libraries.psu.edu/catalog/pg15bd88s

Bick, Zoe. Mechanizing Rammed Earth: Making New Earth Construction Viable in the USA. Master's Thesis, The Pennsylvania State University, 2016. https://etda.libraries.psu.edu/?search_field=all_fields&q=Zoe+Bick

Wertman, Aaron, and Marcus Shaffer. "Apparatus X: Designing an Architecture for Civic Engagement." ACSA International Conference Proceedings, 2015, pp. 41-48. ACSA, ACSA Proceedings.

Wertman, Aaron. Apparatus X; Activating the Architectural Activist. Master's Thesis, The Pennsylvania State University, 2015. https://etda.libraries.psu.edu/?search_field=all_fields&q=aaron+wertman

Shaffer, Marcus. “Incongruity, Bizarreness, and Transcendence: The Cultural/Ritual Machine v. Technocratic Rationalism at Expo ’70.” Globalizing Architecture: Flows and Disruptions, edited by Marc J. Neveu and Wendy W. Fok, ACSA Press, 2014, pp.42-51.

Shaffer, Marcus. "Something from Nothing: Extreme Re-purposing and Material/Construction Processes in First Year Studio." Proceedings of the 101st ACSA Annual Meeting: New Constellations, New Ecologies, edited by Edward Mitchell and Ila Berman, ACSA Press, 2013, pp. 117-124.

Shaffer, Marcus, et al. "Integrating Engineering and Arts Through Capstone Design: Creative Campus Meets the Learning Factory." Proceedings of the 120th ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition, American Society for Engineering Education, 2013, pp. 1-15. ASEE Conferences, ASEE Paper ID 7378.

Shaffer, Marcus. "Developing Digi-mechanical Formwork for Construction in Environments of Displacement." Advanced Materials Research, Proceedings from the 4th Annual International Conference on Material and Manufacturing Technologies, edited by Thomas Wohlbier, Trans Tech Publications, 2012.

Shaffer, Marcus. "Flexible Formwork and the Displacement City: A Technology of Extreme Accommodation." Proceedings of the 2nd International Conference on Flexible Formwork, edited by John Orr, International Society of Fabric Formwork (ISFF), 2012, pp. 314-322.

Shaffer, Marcus. "High Tech / Low Tech: Tectonic Machines, Earth-Built Traditions, and Constructing the Exigent City." Proceedings of the 28th Annual International Symposium on Automation and Robotics in Construction, International Association for Automation and Robotics (IAARC), 2011, pp. 850–856.

Shaffer, Marcus. "New Machine Vernacular: Remote Building Devices, Digital/Cultural Accommodation and Technology's Renewed Humanitarian Agenda." Vernacular Futures: FARU Journal 2010, Proceedings from the Fifth International Seminar on Vernacular Settlement, edited by H. Munisinghe, 2010, pp. 201–10.

Shaffer, Marcus. "Mobile, Immediate, and Adaptable (for the People): Three Attributes of Tectonic Machines in the New Mechanical Age." Chang[e]ing Identities: Design, Culture, + Technology, proceedings of the 2009 ACSA Southwest Fall Regional Conference, edited by K. Holliday, 2009, pp. 164–73.