Ali Malkawi

Professor of Architectural Technology, Harvard University Graduate School of Design and Founding Director of the Harvard Center for Green Buildings & Cities, USA

Ali Malkawi is Professor of Architectural Technology, Director of the Doctor of Design Studies Program, and Founding Director of the Harvard Center for Green Buildings and Cities, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA, USA; and was a member of the Holcim Foundation Awards 2023 jury for Middle East Africa.

Last updated: June 25, 2024 Cambridge, MA, USA

His work focuses on building simulation, energy conservation, and sustainability in buildings. He teaches architectural technology and computation and conducts research in the areas of computational simulation, building performance evaluation, and design decision support. He is also the founding director of the Harvard Center for Green Buildings and Cities (CGBC), which was founded in 2014 to transform the building industry through a commitment to design-centric strategy that directly links research outcomes to the development of new processes, systems, and products.

Holcim Awards 2023 | Jury for Middle East Africa

Ali Malkawi is Professor of Architectural Technology and Founding Director of the Harvard Center for Green Buildings and Cities, Harvard University, USA; and a member of the Holcim Awards 2023 jury for Middle East Africa. Photo courtesy: Aga Khan Development Network.

Ali Malkawi was honored with the Jordan Star of Science by Jordan’s King Abdullah II bin Al-Hussein (2017). Previously he has taught at the Georgia Institute of Technology (1992–94), the University of Michigan (1994–2001), and the University of Pennsylvania (2001–13), where he was a professor of architecture, the chairman of the graduate group in architecture, and the founder and director of the TC Chan Center for Building Simulation and Energy Studies. He also held the Velux visiting professorship at the Royal Danish Academy in Copenhagen (2013–14).

He serves as a consultant on many high-profile projects, including airport designs, super towers (LOTTE, Seoul; World Trade Center, NY), industrial factories (Ferrari factory, Italy), cities (King Abdulla Atomic and Renewable City, Riyadh), and commercial and residential showcase projects. He provided strategic guidance on building energy-related topics to senior members of the Obama Administration, including the vice president. He innovated in sustainability framework developments as he led the development of the first performance-based sustainability rating system in the Middle East for the State of Qatar.

Lead author or coauthor of over 100 scientific papers, Ali Malkawi is also the co-editor of three books: two on the subject of computationally-driven design and simulation, Advanced Building Simulation and Performative Architecture: Beyond Instrumentality, and another entitled Sustainability in Scandinavia: Architectural Design and Planning, which accumulates diverse experiences of practitioners in Norway, Sweden, and Denmark.

He received his BS in architectural engineering and environmental design from Jordan University of Science and Technology in 1989, his MArch from the University of Colorado in 1990, his PhD from Georgia Institute of Technology in architectural technology/artificial intelligence in 1994, and an honorary Master of Arts degree from Harvard University in 2013.