Lydia Kallipoliti

Lydia Kallipoliti is an architect, engineer, scholar, and an Associate Professor directing the MS in Advanced Architectural Design at Columbia University GSAPP. Prior to Columbia, Kallipoliti was an Associate Professor at the Irwin S. Chanin School of Architecture of the Cooper Union in New York, where she also served as a Senior Associate at the Institute for Sustainable Design, and as the Feltman Chair in Lighting. She also taught at Princeton University, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Syracuse University, the University of Technology Sydney and served as a Visiting Fellow at the Canadian Center of Architecture and the University of Queensland in Australia.

Kallipoliti’s research focuses on the intersections of architecture, technology and environmental politics and more particularly on recycling material experiments, theories of waste and reuse, as well as closed and self-reliant systems and urban environments. Her work is presented in a variety of media including online digital platforms, lexicons, databases and archives, exhibitions and holographic animations, with the scope of engaging a wide audience in what she calls ‘immersive scholarship.’

Kallipoliti is the author of The Architecture of Closed Worlds, Or, What is the Power of Shit (Lars Muller Publishers, 2018), Histories of Ecological Design; An Unfinished Cyclopedia (Actar Publishers, 2024), the History of Ecological Design for Oxford English Encyclopedia of Environmental Science (2018) and the editor of EcoRedux, a special issue of Architectural Design magazine (AD, 2010). She is also the author of more than fifty articles and research papers published in magazines and books including Log, Architectural Design, Praxis: Journal of Building + Writing, Domus, Volume, ArchPlus, Future Anterior, The Cornell Journal of Architecture, Thresholds, 306090, Pidgin, TJE, Architecture in Greece, Buildings and Landscapes, The Journal of Architectural Education and several books.

Her design work has been widely exhibited in the Venice Biennial, the Istanbul Design Biennial, the Shenzhen Biennial, the Oslo Architecture Trienalle, the Onassis Cultural Center, the Lisbon Triennale, the Royal Academy of British Architects, the Storefront for Art and Architecture in New York and the London Design Museum. It has also been featured and reviewed by Wired, Wallpaper, HBO Max, VICE, ArchDaily, Dezeen, The Atlantic, The Architect’s Newspaper, BBC, La Republica, Domus and many other media outlets. Kallipoliti is the recipient of awards including a silver medal in the W3 international awards for digital innovation in environmental awareness, an honor at the 14th Webby Awards from the International Academy of Digital Arts and Sciences, Grants from the Graham Foundation, an Honorable Mention from the Shenzhen Biennale, the Marvin E. Goody award for the creative use of materials, a Fulbright scholarship, various awards for research from the Architect’s Newspaper, the Lawrence Anderson Award for the creative documentation of architectural history, NYSCA grants, the Woodrow Wilson Fellowship, the High Meadows Sustainability Fund and the ACSA award for creative achievement. Her design and research thinktank ANAcycle was recognized as a Leading Innovator in Sustainable Design in BUILD’s design Awards, Design Educates awards and the World Architecture Festival. In 2022, she was Head Co-Curator (with Areti Markopoulou) of the Tallinn Architecture Biennale with the theme “Edible, Or, The Architecture of Metabolism.”

Kallipoliti holds a Diploma in Architecture and Engineering from the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki in Greece, a Master of Science [SMArchS] in design and building technology from MIT and a PhD in history and theory of architecture from Princeton University.