AAU Architecture

12/09/2025

https://www.nytimes.com/2025/12/05/arts/design/frank-gehry-dead.html

He designed some of the world’s most recognizable buildings, notably the spectacular Guggenheim Museum Bilbao, his masterpiece.

06/07/2025

Mark Mueckenheim Concludes 12 Years of Visionary Leadership

On June 3rd, Graduate Director Mark Mueckenheim stepped down from his position at his own request, after nearly twelve years of transformative leadership at the Academy of Art University’s School of Architecture.

Since assuming the role in August 2013, Mark has played a central part in shaping the graduate program into a rigorous, forward-thinking, and highly respected academic environment both nationally and beyond. Under his guidance, the program has experienced substantial growth, defined by a refined and structured curriculum, an accomplished and internationally recognized faculty, and a student body engaged in purposeful, high-level design inquiry.

While we are truly sorry to see him go, we are also deeply grateful for Mark’s twelve years of outstanding leadership, accomplishments, and unwavering dedication to the School of Architecture. His impact on the University and on the many students and faculty he has supported over the years has been both meaningful and lasting.

Mark made the decision to step down voluntarily, believing that the school is now in a strong and stable position for new leadership. With a solid NAAB accreditation plan in place and the graduate program well-positioned midway through its current eight-year accreditation cycle, he felt this was the right moment for transition. We sincerely appreciate his offer to assist during this period.

In his farewell message, Mark expressed heartfelt thanks to his many colleagues and collaborators, including Nicole Lambrou, David Gill, Eric Reeder, Ben Rice, Peter Suen, Dora Epstein Jones, Aurgho Jyoti, and Maria Paz de Moura Castro, as well as Karen Seong, Eric Lum, Jennifer Asselstine, Sameena Sitabkhan, Eva Chiu, Braden Engel, and Doron Serban.

He also extended his appreciation to the broader faculty and to the many students whose talent and commitment have defined his time at the University.

As he steps into the next phase of his career, Mark will be dedicating more time to his architectural practice, together with Brazilian architect and former faculty member Maria Paz de Moura Castro, and their current international projects; including a major art pavilion for the Inhotim Art Foundation in Brazil; as well as returning to long-postponed research and writing. He also looks forward to spending more time with his young family.

We thank Mark Mueckenheim for his extraordinary contributions to the School of Architecture. The program moves forward in capable hands under the leadership of Undergraduate Director Karen Seong, who will guide the school through this transitional chapter.

Mark’s future activities can be followed at:

www.pmckm.com and www.mcknhm.com

He maintains the following Instagram channels for his practices:

https://www.instagram.com/mcknhm_architects/

https://www.instagram.com/pmckm_architects/

https://architecture.academyart.edu/portfolio-item/graduate-director-mueckenheims-departure/
https://architecture.academyart.edu/portfolio-item/graduate-director-mueckenheims-departure/

Leadership Transition at the School of Architecture On June 3rd, Graduate Director Mark Mueckenheim stepped down from his position at ...

05/21/2025

After almost 12 years as Director of the Graduate School of Architecture at the Academy of Art, I am leaving the University at my own request at the end of May. Together with an exceptional faculty, I have been able to build a rigorous and forward-thinking program that engages in relevant curricular issues and realizes student work at the highest level. The school has come a long way and has experienced significant progress in the past 12 years. Today, the curriculum is refined and well-structured, we attract and retain a faculty of internationally recognized and highly accomplished architects, and most students are now making an informed and deliberate decision when choosing to join our academic community. The respect we have locally among our peers and the architecture community, as well as the reputation we have gained far beyond, speaks to these achievements. Since we are in the middle of an 8-year accreditation cycle, and a clear path is mapped out to move forward in the next years through a solid NAAB accreditation plan, I believe the graduate school is well-positioned for a leadership transition at this time.

I extend my deepest gratitude to the many exceptional collaborators who have supported me in my work; without them these achievements would not have been possible. I am particularly thankful to my close team over the years: Nicole Lambrou, David Gill, Eric Reeder, Ben Rice, Peter Suen, Dora Epstein Jones, Aurgho Jyoti, and Maria Paz de Moura Castro, as well as my colleagues Karen Seong, Eric Lum, Jennifer Asselstine, Sameena Sitabkhan, Eva Chiu, Braden Engel, and Doron Serban. I would also like to express my sincere appreciation to all the truly amazing, gifted, and highly accomplished faculty members I had the pleasure and privilege to work with over the years, and of course, our wonderful students, whose dedication and talent have made this journey truly rewarding. It has been a profound honor to collaborate with each of you. I sincerely appreciate your time, perseverance, and commitment, as well as the trust you have placed in me through all these years.

I have enjoyed my time as a faculty member and department chair at AAU, and I am very proud about what we were able to build over the years, but I am ready for a different role. I look forward to dedicating more time to pursuits that have been long neglected due to the demands of my directorship, particularly my own research and publication activity, as well as several building projects that my office is currently executing in the US and overseas, among them, an art pavilion for the artist Michael Heizer at the Inhotim Art Foundation in Brazil that I am building with my business partner Maria Paz, an important project that I would like to be more involved in than my responsibilities as director would have allowed. Finally, I am looking forward to spending more time with my family, especially my two wonderful kids, who are still small enough that they want to hang out with their dad.

I have offered the president my full support in ensuring a smooth transition to new leadership. I extend my best wishes for the continued success and prosperity of both the University and the School of Architecture. It is my sincere hope that the strong foundation we have built over the years will not only be preserved but further expanded upon in the years to come. The school is in great hands under the leadership of my valued and distinguished colleague, Undergraduate Director Karen Seong, who is more than capable of leading the transition to a new and exciting era for the school.

Mark Mueckenheim
Graduate Director AAU School of Architecture 2013-2025
Principal MCKNHM & Managing Principal Partner PMCKM
Architekt AKNW | AIA Associate | NOMA International Architect

If you wish to follow our activities, you can do so at:

www.pmckm.com and www.mcknhm.com

Follow our Instagram channels at:

https://www.instagram.com/mcknhm_architects/
https://www.instagram.com/pmckm_architects/

05/10/2025

Faculty member Aurgho Jyoti’s architecture firm’s exhibit at the Center for Architecture in New York City is starting.

05/07/2025

The video of the lecture “Some Work” by Mark Mueckenheim
Graduate Director AAU School of Architecture
and Principal MCKNHM & PMCKM is available here

04/23/2025

LECTURE: “Some Work” by Mark Mueckenheim
Graduate Director AAU School of Architecture
& Principal MCKNHM & PMCKM

The School of Architecture at the Academy of Art University invites you to a lecture by our Graduate Director Mark Mueckenheim, Monday, April 28th at 6:00pm. Following the Academy’s philosophy, that the university maintains a faculty of practicing professionals, the lecture is entitled “Some Work”, and will show the recent work of his practices MCKNHM.com and PMCKM.com which he maintains together with his business partner and former AAU faculty member Brazilian architect Maria Paz De Moura Castro (RIZOMA - cargocollective.com/rizomaarq). He will speak about his architectural philosophy, showcasing recent projects of the office, and also showing some of his work as a student.

Join in person on campus at 601 Brannan Street Room 211 or on Zoom at this link https://art.zoom.us/my/school.of.architecture

Mark Mückenheim is a licensed architect in Germany and the European Union, the principal of MCKNHM Architects (www.mcknhm.com), and co-principal of PMCKM Architects (www.pmckm.com) together with Brazilian architect Maria Paz de Moura Castro (RIZOMA). With over 25 years of experience in planning, teaching, and academia across Europe and the United States, his work includes completed and ongoing building projects in Germany, the United States, and Brazil. He is the co-author of the book “Inspiration – contemporary design methods in architecture” released by BIS Publishers, Amsterdam and PageOne Publishers Singapore. His award-winning work has been featured in various international book and journal publications, and has also gained reputation through a number of exhibitions in Germany and abroad – among them the house of architecture in Lille, France, the German Architecture center in Berlin, and the 12th Architecture Biennale in Venice.

Mark Mückenheim has lectured and acted as a guest critic at numerous institutions in Europe and the United States. Among other schools, he taught for more than six years at the distinguished RWTH Aachen before being appointed as a visiting professor and department chair at the TU Munich from 2009 to 2012. Since 2013, he is appointed as the graduate director of the School of Architecture at the Academy of Art in San Francisco.

Educated in Germany, the United States, and England, sponsored by a Fulbright scholarship and a DAAD Merit-Based Grant from the federal German government, Mückenheim received his Master of Architecture from Parsons School of Design, New York, and his Graduate Diploma in Architecture at the Bartlett School of Architecture, University College London.
Mark Mückenheim is a contextual architect whose work bridges academic research and professional practice. His critical, design-led investigations focus on questions of methodology, typology, building systems, and resilient architectural integration across scales. He approaches the built environment as a lasting cultural artefact, shaped by and shaping our collective values. For him, architectural design is a cultural act; one that must engage with contemporary humanistic, societal, and environmental challenges. He argues that architecture can only maintain and expand its relevance when it actively responds to these dynamic and interconnected conditions.

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04/21/2025

GUEST LECTURE: HUMA SAHIN & ADRIAN HARRISON OF RRO

The School of Architecture
at the Academy of Art University invites you to a guest lecture by Huma Sahin and Adrian Harrison of RRO on Monday, April 21st at 6:00pm. Join in person on campus at 601 Brannan Street  Room 211 or on Zoom at this link https://art.zoom.us/my/school.of.architecture

RRO
is a studio for architecture based in San Francisco, California. It places emphasis on change as an essential value of architecture and it believes in embracing architecture as a process of becoming rather than a static being.

Hüma SAHIN
is an architectural designer and urban planner from Istanbul. She received her Master in Architecture Degree from the Harvard Graduate School of Design, where she was awarded the Department of Architecture Faculty Design Award. Before that, she received dual Bachelor’s Degrees in Architecture and in Urban and Regional Planning at Istanbul Technical University. For both degrees she received the Faculty Prize for two separate theses. She is interested in exploring “subtraction” in architecture as a tool to defamiliarize form and its relationship to program, and to understand the anatomy of publicness in urban spaces.

Adrian HARRISON
is an architectural designer from California. He holds a Master in Architecture Degree with Distinction from the Harvard Graduate School of Design. Prior to that, he graduated from Stanford University Civil Engineering with a concentration in Architectural Design and a minor in Computer Science. His main area of interest is in the relationship between craft and architecture, focusing on the way that experience of material can be heightened through formal defamiliarization. He has worked at a range of architecture offices including SOM, Johnston Marklee, Machado Silvetti, Herzog & de Meuron and Atelier Peter Zumthor in Switzerland.

https://r-r-o.com/

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04/19/2025

GUEST LECTURE: HUMA SAHIN & ADRIAN HARRISON OF RRO

The School of Architecture at the Academy of Art University invites you to a guest lecture by Huma Sahin and Adrian Harrison of RRO on Monday, April 21st at 6:00pm. Join in person on campus at 601 Brannan Street Room 211 or on Zoom at this link https://art.zoom.us/my/school.of.architecture

RRO is a studio for architecture based in San Francisco, California. It places emphasis on change as an essential value of architecture and it believes in embracing architecture as a process of becoming rather than a static being.

Hüma SAHIN is an architectural designer and urban planner from Istanbul. She received her Master in Architecture Degree from the Harvard Graduate School of Design, where she was awarded the Department of Architecture Faculty Design Award. Before that, she received dual Bachelor’s Degrees in Architecture and in Urban and Regional Planning at Istanbul Technical University. For both degrees she received the Faculty Prize for two separate theses. She is interested in exploring “subtraction” in architecture as a tool to defamiliarize form and its relationship to program, and to understand the anatomy of publicness in urban spaces.

Adrian HARRISON is an architectural designer from California. He holds a Master in Architecture Degree with Distinction from the Harvard Graduate School of Design. Prior to that, he graduated from Stanford University Civil Engineering with a concentration in Architectural Design and a minor in Computer Science. His main area of interest is in the relationship between craft and architecture, focusing on the way that experience of material can be heightened through formal defamiliarization. He has worked at a range of architecture offices including SOM, Johnston Marklee, Machado Silvetti, Herzog & de Meuron and Atelier Peter Zumthor in Switzerland.

https://r-r-o.com/

03/13/2025

Our Brannan Architecture Book Collection as a branch of the main university library is open again in a new room on the second floor with a cool student lounge, come check it out! .lab_artu .artu

02/19/2025

Faculty member Aurgho Jyoti‘s firm AUR – Architecture Urbanism Research is one of the 6 architecture firms granted the prestigious “New York New Practice” award by The American Institute of Architects New York. They will exhibit their work at the Center for Architecture (AIANY) in Manhattan from May 8, 2025 – September 2, 2025, and participate in a public lecture series over the summer. Past winners include firms that have established themselves as international names in architecture.

AUR, और in Hindi, signifies the ‘other’ and signals a ‘prompt’. AUR as a practice is invested in providing a voice for the ‘other’. Architecture is seen as a responsibility and the studio uses history as a tool to address social relevance, cultural significance, and environmental resilience. They are interested in architecture that crafts histories of the future thoughtfully excavating histories of the past. The work is embedded in narratives of cultural continuity, social equity, and material specificity. AUR is an international architecture firm with a focus on social and cultural projects. It was founded in 2019 by Aurgho Jyoti and currently operates out of New York and New Delhi. Aurgho previously worked as a Project Lead and Senior Architect for SOM, OMA/Rem Koolhaas, Gehry Technologies, Studio Fuksas, and 3Gatti Architecture Studio. He is a licensed architect in the US and India. He holds an M.Des in Architecture and Technology from Harvard and an M.Arch-II in Architecture and Urbanism from Cornell as a Tata Scholar. He has conducted research on housing and materials at MIT Media Lab and Harvard. He holds a B.Arch with distinction from SPA, New Delhi.

“New Practices New York, a biennial competition since 2006, serves as a preeminent platform to recognize and promote new and innovative architecture and design firms in New York City. Organized by the AIANY New Practices Committee, this juried portfolio competition honors designers that apply unique and innovative strategies, both in the projects they undertake and the practices they have established.”

Aurgho is a valued long term faculty member at the School of Architecture, the work of his students has often been recognized in school publications, the work of his thesis students has been awarded with Spring Show inclusions and prizes. We congratulate Aurgho and his teams in New York and New Delhi for this achievement.

https://www.aiany.org/news/6-emerging-firms-selected-as-winners-of-new-practices-new-york-2025/
https://www.aiany.org/architecture/awards/new-practices-new-york-2025-voice/
https://www.centerforarchitecture.org/exhibitions/new-practices-new-york-2025-voice/

https://www.a-u-r.co/home

11/20/2024

Tomorrow we have an exhibition opening of student work at the Center for Architecture and Design in San Francisco together with other local architecture schools UC Berkeley and CCA, this is a great chance to meet other young architecture students and mingle among your Bay Area peers, please join us!

Reprogramming the Anthropocene
Broadening Sustainable Approaches

The diverse international community at the Academy of Art University School of Architecture
addresses relevant questions about the future of our society. The exhibition shows a sampling of
student projects that gravitate around these values, mainly focusing on resilience and
sustainability, but often within a broader cultural context.

The show opens on Thursday November 21 at 6pm
At the Center for Architecture + Design
140 Sutter Street | San Francisco, CA 94104

The show is on view: November 21 – February 6

RSVP Here: https://www.aiasf.org/events/graduate-exhibition-opening
More about the exhibition: https://centersf.org/reprogramming-anthropocene/
The Center for Architecture + Design website with the other exhibition topics: https://centersf.org

10/10/2024

Juan Pablo Corvalán – Lecture

The School of Architecture at the Academy of Art University invites you to a lecture by Chilean architect Juan Pablo Corvalán at the Brannan Campus Building on Monday October 28th / 6:00pm / Brannan Street / Room 211

Juan Pablo Corvalán is an Architect from Chile, he graduated from the Ecole d'Ingenieurs de Geneve, Switzerland and the Faculty of Architecture and Urbanism of the University of Chile. He received a Master of Excellence in Architecture, from the Berlage Institute Rotterdam, The Netherlands and he is a PhD candidate at the Institute of Geography of the Pontificia Universidad Católica. Juan Pablo Corvalán is co-founder of Supersudaca, an international urban and architectural think tank and research group, and Susuka, the practical version of architecture in Chile.

Juan Pablo Corvalán has taught at several international universities, presented lectures, and conducted workshops in Lima, Buenos Aires, Chicago, Copenhagen, Guadalajara, Rotterdam, Kuala Lumpur, Tokyo, Sydney, San Diego, Mumbai, Cambridge and New York, among other cities. He was selected in Panorama Emergente Iberoamericano IV in 2004, and participated as part of the Chilean Pavilion at the 12th Venice Biennale, 2012. His work Casa Kiltro was a finalist for the Mies Crown Hall Americas Prize in 2014. He is co-affiliated with the sound and space project [Sindicato de] Urbanistas Planetarios. He is currently dean of the Faculty of Architecture, Animation, Design and Construction at the Universidad de las Américas in Santiago, Chile.

The Lecture is free and open to the public.