Michelle Lee

Michelle Lee researches the relationship between energy, form, materials, and culture in the age of climate change with a focus on adaptive reuse, healthy materials, intergenerational living, solar geometry, and facades.

Working with leading industrial fabricators of metal, glass, architectural membranes, mass timber, and architectural terra cotta, Michelle specializes in the integration of climate-driven strategies with material research. For over a decade, Lee practiced at Behnisch Architekturbüro in Boston, where she led the design and construction of building envelopes for Harvard University and the University of Pennsylvania. Prior to Behnisch, she worked in Paris and Los Angeles where she worked on large cultural projects such as the Louvre Abu Dhabi, Foundation Louis Vuitton, and the Broad Museum.

Born in Hong Kong, Lee grew up in Maryland and studied art and history at Swarthmore College, and earned her Master of Architecture and Master in Urban Planning at the Harvard Graduate School of Design. She has taught digital design and fabrication workshops at the University of Applied Arts in Vienna, École nationale supérieure d'architecture Paris‑Malaquais, and Northeastern University in Boston, and has been a guest critic at Harvard, MIT, and the Massachusetts College of Art and Design.