Michael Carlos Kleiss

Michael Kleiss comes from a multidisciplinary background trained in Architecture, Engineering, Computer Science, Music, Film and Fine Arts. He received a Master of Architecture from Pratt Institute with a focus on Structural Morphology and worked in New York city designing skyscrapers. He earned a Doctor of Philosophy in Architecture with a concentration in Design and Computation from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology with minors in engineering and computer science. Dr. Kleiss research is at the intersection of these three disciplines. He has done collaborative work on computational models for design patterns, structural morphology, generative design of skyscrapers, and shape grammars. His recent work on the architecture of diplomacy and the design of embassy buildings has earned him national awards from the Precast Concrete Institute. He is also interested in creativity and computation. In 2017 he gave a TED talk “Toys are for Grownups” showing his ideas on the role of toys in creativity, and shared some anecdotes on how toys inspire his work. Parallel to these academic pursuits he is interested in other disciplines such as art, music, film and theater. Michael is an avid sculptor with more than 10,000 original designs and has showcased some of this work in several venues in New York city, Washington DC, and Orlando. Michael is very passionate for the outdoors and extreme sport activities. He is a paraglider pilot, a scuba diving instructor, an avid photographer and enjoys cooking and chess.

Research interests

• Computational Design
• Structural Morphology
• Shape Grammars
• Morphogenetic Design