Kathy Velikov

Associate Dean for Research and Creative Practice, Professor of Architecture
Teaching Areas
Architectural Design, Urbanism, Material Systems
Connect
Office: Liberty Research Annex

Kathy Velikov is Professor and Associate Dean for Research and Creative Practice at the University of Michigan Taubman College of Architecture and Urban Planning. She is a licensed Architect and founding partner of the research-based practice rvtr (www.rvtr.com), and the Vice President of ACADIA (Association for Computer Aided Design in Architecture). Her work investigates and experiments with the intertwinements across architecture, the environment, technology, and sociopolitics through design methods that mobilize systems-based approaches and computational design. Her work ranges from material prototypes that explore environment-aware behavioral building skin assemblies, to high-performance building design, to research on urbanism, infrastructure, and territorial practices explored through techniques of mapping and analysis, speculative design propositions, installations, and writing. Most recent work has focused on material ecologies and on social infrastructure and environmental justice in multiscalar urban design. Her academic research has been funded by U.S. Department of Energy’s National Renewable Energy Laboratory, National Science Foundation, U.S. Department of Transportation, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, the National Research Council of Canada, the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada, the Ontario Power Authority, Guardian Industries, and Ford Motor Company.

She is co-editor of Ambiguous Territory: Architecture, Landscape, and the Postnatural (Actar, 2021) and co-author of Infra Eco Logi Urbanism (Park Books, 2015). Both projects have been developed as traveling exhibitions co-curated and co-produced by Velikov and exhibited in galleries in New York City, Ithaca, Charlottesville, Toronto, Montreal, New Haven, Knoxville, and Ann arbor. Her work and writing has been published in numerous journals and book chapters. Honors include the ACSA/AIA Housing Design Education Award (2020), the Technology + Architecture Design (TAD) Journal Research Contribution Award (2020), two R&D Awards from Architecture Magazine (2010, 2016), a Journal of Architectural Education Best Design as Research Article (2013), the Architizer A+ Award Program’s Architecture + Sound Jury Award (2013), the Association of Collegiate Schools of Architecture Faculty Design Award (2012, 2014), a Royal Architectural Institute of Canada Award of Excellence for Innovation in the Practice of Architecture (2011), the Canadian Professional Prix de Rome (2009), the Architectural League of New York’s Young Architect’s Forum Award (2008), and the Oberdick Fellowship at Taubman College (2006-07)

At Taubman College, Kathy teaches Architecture design studio, thesis, ecology and technology seminars, and in the Master of Science in Digital and Material Technologies.

Projects

Mar 17, 2022
M_NEX comprises a research and design framework that evaluates the Food Energy Water (FEW) Nexus across scales from Region (Great Lakes Megaregion), to State (Michigan), to the City of Detroit […]
Mar 16, 2022
Farish Street Landing is an ephemeral intervention motivated by a simple inquiry: how can the…

Courses

ARCH 660, Section 1
Fall 2024
Instructors: Thomas Moran, Robert Adams, McLain Clutter, Adam Fure, Perry Kulper, Steven Mankouche, Jose Sanchez, Mireille Roddier, Anya Sirota, Kathy Velikov
ARCH 672
Fall 2020
Instructors: Sharon Haar, Christina Hansen, Craig Borum, Claudia Wigger, Kathy Velikov, Jonathan Rule, Kit McCullough, Ellie Abrons, Meredith Miller
ARCH 701
Fall 2020
Instructors: Kathy Velikov
ARCH 562
Winter 2021
Instructors: Craig Borum, Jen Maigret, María Arquero de Alarcón, El Hadi Jazairy, Roy Strickland, Geoffrey Thün, Kathy Velikov
ARCH 509, Section 6
Winter 2021
Instructors: Kathy Velikov
UD 722
Winter 2021
Instructors: María Arquero de Alarcón, Kathy Velikov, Geoffrey Thün, Roy Strickland, El Hadi Jazairy
ARCH 552
Fall 2021
Instructors: Julia McMorrough, Matias del Campo, Dawn Gilpin, Peter Halquist, Perry Kulper, Ann Lui, Steven Mankouche, Neal Robinson, Jonathan Rule, Christian Unverzagt, Kathy Velikov
ARCH 701
Fall 2021
Instructors: Kathy Velikov
ARCH 701
Fall 2022
Instructors: Kathy Velikov
ARCH 562
Winter 2023
Instructors: Sharon Haar, Craig Borum, Lars Gräbner, Christina Hansen, Kit McCullough, Adam Miller, Laura Marie Peterson, Jonathan Rule, Kathy Velikov, Claudia Wigger

Articles

Books