Kenneth Kao
Lecturer in Architecture
Department of Architecture
Kao researches and teaches topics in Building Construction Materials & Methods, Component Prototype, Frank Lloyd Wright, Experiments in the Art of Building. With visiting engineers from Arup, he offered research seminars on Architects & Engineers collaborations on low energy buildings, facade engineering, and advanced structures. Kao is a co-author of Digital Design and Manufacture: CAD/CAM in Architecture and Design. He has also taught at ETH-Zurich and MIT. Kao serves as a faculty advisor for Harvard's Green Campus Initiative, and assisted in the drafting of the University's Sustainability Principles. Founded in 1995, Kao Design Group's recent projects include numerous environmentally sensitive site planning and residential projects in California, New England, British Virgin Islands; an Environmental Education Museum in DC, Modular exhibition pavilions. The studio has undertaken research in building components. They won the group award for Harvard's Vision of Sustainability competition. Kao joined Sim Van Der Ryn in an Eco Design Collaborative to develop Green Campus Design and master plan Guideline for College of Marin, and other environmentally sensitive design initiatives. From 1985-94, Kao's designs included a Jung/Brannen Associates' joint venture with Ove Arup & Partners on Adma-Opco Tower in Abu Dhabi. Other JBA projects included MIT South Lab, Kuwait University, and Owens Corning China Pavilion. His research and designs have been published in Modulus, SPACE-Art & Architecture, and Arts & the Islamic World. Kao received a Doctor of Technical Sciences from the ETH-Zurich, M.Arch from the Harvard Design School, and BA from University of Pennsylvania.