Ryan Otterson is an architect, researcher and educator based in Boston, USA, who explores architecture and design as tools for constructing ecology, climate, and novel environmental typologies.

Ryan is also co-founder of Ji Otterson Studio, a practice based in Boston and Seoul, together with his partner Yewon Ji. The office received the inaugural Seoul Biennale Award in 2023, placed 2nd in Seoul Metropolitan Government’s International Competition for the Banpo River Connection-Park Facilities together with collaborators BCHO Architects and Transsolar, and received a tied top-prize in Seoul’s International Ideas Competition for Seoul Station.

Ryan’s research at the GSD investigates how the spatial deployment of thermally massive materials influences building thermal performance, with attention to thermal comfort, energy consumption, and embodied carbon. He works as a researcher at the Harvard Center for Green Buildings and Cities  at HouseZero.

Ryan graduated with Distinction from the Harvard University Graduate School of Design with a Master in Architecture II degree in Architecture in 2014 and received a Master of Architecture degree from the University of Kansas in 2012, earning the Thayer Medal for design. He has held teaching positions at universities including Cornell University AAP and Northeastern University and has given lectures at universities internationally. He is registered as an architect in Massachusetts.