John Ochsendorf

Director, Morningside Academy for Design; MIT-LUMA Lab Board Member

External Links: Morningside Academy for Design(opens in new tab)
MIT Architecture(opens in new tab)
MIT Civil and Environmental Engineering(opens in new tab)

John Ochsendorf is an engineer, educator, and designer whose work bridges structural engineering and architecture to advance sustainability in the built environment. A member of the MIT faculty since 2002, Ochsendorf’s research explores historical masonry, material reuse, low-carbon materials, and structural form-finding. He served as Director of the American Academy in Rome from 2017–2020 and is the founding director of the MIT Morningside Academy for Design (MAD), a position he has held since 2022.

Ochsendorf’s honors include a Fulbright Fellowship, Rome Prize, and MacArthur Fellowship, as well as MIT’s MacVicar Fellowship for exceptional teaching. His design collaborations include the Mapungubwe Interpretive Centre, Sean Collier Memorial, and projects for the Venice Architecture Biennale.