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Faculty

Kiel Moe, AIA

Assistant Professor

MOE_cv.pdf
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M O E

Kiel Moe is a registered architect and an assistant professor of design and building technologies. He is a Fellow of the American Academy in Rome. He received his B.Arch from the University of Cincinnati, his M.Arch from University of Virginia, and his M.DesS from Harvard University Graduate School of Design Advanced Studies Program. He taught previously at Syracuse University where was also associated with the Syracuse Center of Energy and Environmental Excellence. Before that, he was the Herbert S. Greenwald Visiting Professor at the University of Illinois, Chicago. At Northeastern, Moe teaches design studios and lectures on the topic of Integrated Design and Energy Systems. Moe has worked for WW, Doug Garofalo, Hargreaves Associates, The Salk Institute for Biological Studies, among other offices. He has a range of built work, from his active design/build practice for smaller projects to integrated design strategies consulting work based on his research for larger projects for a range of building types and practices. These projects have received ACSA Faculty design awards, AIA state and regional awards, and North American Wood Design Awards.

Area of Research: Moe writes about problems of knowledge related to integrated design: material, energy, and construction practices.

His current research focuses on Thermally Active Surfaces in Architecture. In this transformation of energy and building practices, the thermal conditioning of a building is decoupled from the ventilation system by using the mass of the building itself as the thermal system. This method of heat transfer is physiologically and thermodynamically optimal. It also reinvests the fabric of the building itself with a more a poignant role: the structure is also the primary mechanical system. As the basis of energy and construction strategies, it yields a cascading set of advantages for the building design and construction industry: radically lower energy consumption, more durable buildings, more healthy buildings, and more integrated building systems and design teams. An important aspect of thermally active surfaces is that they are low-tech yet high performance and are thus equally applicable in the developed and developing worlds. As such, thermally active surfaces are central to multiple aspects of sustainability. This work has been funded with grants by the Boston Society of Architects, the AIA RFP grant program, the AIA UPJOHN grant program, and the Northeastern University Provost Faculty Development program.

His book, Thermally Active Surfaces in Architecture, will be published by Princeton Architectural Press in 2010.

His first book, Integrated Design in Contemporary Architecture, was published by Princeton Architectural Press in 2008.

His article in the Journal of Architectural Education, “Extra Ordinary Performances at the Salk Institute of Biological Studies,” was awarded the 2009 ACSA/JAE Best Scholarship of Design Award.

His essay on “The Qualities of Life in the City” won the last Chicago Institute for Architecture and Urbanism prize.