Born in Switzerland and trained as a machinist, Zollinger moved to the United States to study architecture at Rhode Island School of Design and Cranbrook Academy of Art. With his wife and fellow Cranbrook alumna, Sandra Wheeler, he founded Matter Practice, a Brooklyn-based architecture and interior design firm focused on harmonizing material and the space it inhabits.

Zollinger has always loved working in the studio and solving practical problems but admits he isn't very motivated by questions that can sometimes drive interior design, such as (as he put it), “Whether to put the toothbrush above the sink or next to the sink.” Instead, at Matter Practice, he and Wheeler create spaces that serve the public. They specialize in civic and educational projects, like the museum exhibition design for Design Art: Functional Objects from Donald Judd to Rachel Whiteread, at a show mounted at Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum. In 2018, the firm also designed Cooper Hewitt’s pavilion for the London Design Biennale.

Matter Practice often takes on more experimental projects, such as a temporary dialogue station installed in New York City’s Times Square called “Peace and Quiet,” or an exhibit at the National Building Museum in Washington, DC, that immersed viewers in the challenges of low-income renter eviction.

Since 2006, Zollinger has been an integral member of the Parsons faculty. When it comes to his philosophy within the classroom, Zollinger fervently tries to dispel the myth that architecture begins when a single designer sits down in front of a blank sheet of paper. On the contrary, he finds that the best design is born out of the resistance and friction of creative dialogue. Students in his design studio must learn to transition between being project leads and team players. In this way, Zollinger strives to nurture his students’ individual design sensibilities while preparing them for the real world, where collaboration is key.

Whether it be in his professional design work or in his teaching, Zollinger is determined to design thoughtfully and “always look for material expression.” At the core of his creative vision and his pedagogy lies the belief that “making is not just execution—you do it critically and iteratively.”