Ali Malkawi, Harvard University
Ali Malkawi is Director of the Doctor of Design Studies Program and Professor of Architectural Technology at the GSD. Malkawi is an international scholar and expert in 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.
Malkawi is engaged in many large-scale research initiatives, and is the recipient of several prestigious and extensive grants. In 2017, he was honored with the Jordan Star of Science by Jordan’s King Abdullah II bin Al-Hussein. He has lectured and conducted research at numerous universities, conferences, and public events. Previously he has taught at the Georgia Institute of Technology (1992–1994), the University of Michigan (1994–2001), and the University of Pennsylvania (2001–2013), 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 from 2013–2014.
Malkawi 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. Malkawi 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, 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 serves as a board member and scientific reviewer for several leading journals and conferences, and is the associate editor of Building Simulation: An International Journal, distributed by Springer Publishing.
Malkawi 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.
