LECTURE: “Some Work” by Mark Mueckenheim
Graduate Director AAU School of Architecture
& Principal MCKNHM & PMCKM
The School of Architecture at the Academy of Art University invites you to a lecture by our Graduate Director Mark Mueckenheim, Monday, April 28th at 6:00pm. Following the Academy’s philosophy, that the university maintains a faculty of practicing professionals, the lecture is entitled “Some Work” and will show the recent work of his practices MCKNHM.com and PMCKM.com which he maintains together with his business partner and former AAU faculty member Brazilian architect Maria Paz De Moura Castro (RIZOMA). He will speak about his architectural philosophy, showcasing recent projects of the office, and also showing some of his work as a student.
Join in person on campus at 601 Brannan Street Room 211 or on Zoom at this link https://art.zoom.us/my/school.of.architecture
Mark Mückenheim is a licensed architect in Germany and the European Union, the principal of MCKNHM Architects (www.mcknhm.com), and co-principal of PMCKM Architects (www.pmckm.com) together with Brazilian architect Maria Paz de Moura Castro (RIZOMA). With over 25 years of experience in planning, teaching, and academia across Europe and the United States, his work includes completed and ongoing building projects in Germany, the United States, and Brazil. He is the co-author of the book “Inspiration – contemporary design methods in architecture” released by BIS Publishers, Amsterdam and PageOne Publishers Singapore. His award-winning work has been featured in various international book and journal publications, and has also gained reputation through a number of exhibitions in Germany and abroad – among them the House of Architecture in Lille, France, the German Architecture Center in Berlin, and the 12th Architecture Biennale in Venice.
Mark Mückenheim has lectured and acted as a guest critic at numerous institutions in Europe and the United States. Among other schools, he taught for more than six years at the distinguished RWTH Aachen before being appointed as a visiting professor and department chair at the TU Munich from 2009 to 2012. Since 2013, he has been appointed as the Graduate Director of the School of Architecture at the Academy of Art University in San Francisco.
Educated in Germany, the United States, and England, sponsored by a Fulbright scholarship and a DAAD Merit-Based Grant from the federal German government, Mückenheim received his Master of Architecture from Parsons School of Design, New York, and his Graduate Diploma in Architecture at the Bartlett School of Architecture, University College London.
Mark Mückenheim is a contextual architect whose work bridges academic research and professional practice. His critical, design-led investigations focus on questions of methodology, typology, building systems, and resilient architectural integration across scales. He approaches the built environment as a lasting cultural artefact, shaped by and shaping our collective values. For him, architectural design is a cultural act; one that must engage with contemporary humanistic, societal, and environmental challenges. He argues that architecture can only maintain and expand its relevance when it actively responds to these dynamic and interconnected conditions.
2013-2025 – Graduate Director School of Architecture Academy of Art University San Francisco, California
Since 2022 – Honorary Adjunct Professor, School of Architecture, Art &Design, ITM (sls), Baroda University, India
Since 2017 – Collaboration with Brazilian Architect Maria Paz de Moura Castro (RIZOMA Arquitetura) and founding of the joint office PMCKM. Projects and buildings in Brazil, the US, and other countries
2012 – International book publication “Inspiration – contemporary design methods in architecture” together with Juliane Demel by BIS Publishers Amsterdam and PageOne Publishers Singapore (for the Asian market)
2009-2012 – Guest Professor and Acting Department Chair for Architectural Design and Methodology at the Faculty of Architecture at the Technical University of Munich (TUM), Germany
2002-2008 – Assistant Professor at the Department of Building Theory and Design, Faculty of Architecture, under Austrian Architect Chair Prof. Klaus Kada at RWTH Aachen University, Germany
2001-2002 – Assistant Professor at the department for Integrated Architectural Design at the Bergische Universität Wuppertal Faculty of Architecture, Germany
2001– Founding of own office Urban Environments Architects (2001-2008) FRAMA Architects (2008-2012), since 2012 MCKNHM Architects
Since 1999 – Different teaching appointments, guest critiques, workshops, charrettes, and lectures, in Europe and the US. Including the Architectural Association, the Bartlett School of Architecture, the University of Arts Vienna, Austria, Syracuse University, Georgia Tech, University of Houston, University of Illinois, and the Aalto University, School of Architecture Helsinki, Finland
Different prizes and awards inter alia: MACEF international design award Milan, Arch+ Prize, Top 10 Architects under 40 – by NIB Italy, prize of the state of North Rhine-Westphalia Germany for most promising artist in the field of architecture, several placements and prizes in architectural competitions
Since 1996 – Publications in magazines, books, the internet and other media – among them Actar publishers, Taschen, Linksbooks Barcelona, Rihan China, Pace Books Huazhong, Damdi Publishers Korea, DOM Publishers, L’ARCA Italy, FRAME Magazine, H.O.M.E. Magazine, AMC/ le moniteur architecture France, Detail Magazine Germany, Beaux Arts Magazine France, D+A Chile, WDR Television special, Designboom, Dezeen, ArchDaily, Divisare
Exhibitions in Germany and abroad – among them the Kunsthalle Düsseldorf, University of Tokyo, the House of Architecture in Lille, France, Salone Internazionale del Mobile in Milan, the German Architecture Center in Berlin, and the 12th Architecture Biennale in Venice
1993-2001 – Architecture studies in Germany, the United States, and England, sponsored by a Fulbright scholarship and a DAAD Merit-Based Grant from the federal German government. M.Arch at Parsons school of Design (1998) Dip.Arch. at the Bartlett School of Architecture University College London (2001)
1986-2000 – Collaborated with architecture firms across Germany, the USA, and England, gaining extensive experience in all project phases—from concept to realization—on works recognized for their international design excellence
