Brian Lee

Brian K. Lee joined the College of Architecture Planning and Design as an Assistant Professor of Architecture in 2022. Originally from Iowa, Brian holds a professional architecture degree from Iowa State University and received a Master of Architecture from Cranbrook Academy of Art. He is a registered architect and has worked for several firms in Iowa, focusing primarily on multi-family residential and adaptive re-use projects. During his graduate study, Brian began fabricating interactive elements that operate at the intersection of architecture, furniture, body scale, and urban scale. His graduate thesis project Kinetic Pergola was included in Implementing Technology Towards Active Public Space “How To” Guide, produced by the Institute for Advanced Architecture of Catalonia (2017). After completing his post-professional degree, Brian continued to develop his work through fabrication. He received a patent for his design of an Articulated Seating System that gained global attention via a viral video with a life of its own receiving 39 million views.

Before joining the Department of Architecture, Brian was a founding faculty member in the Department of Architecture at South Dakota State University (SDSU), where he helped establish the first architecture program in the state. As a Lecturer at SDSU, Brian taught courses in building technology, professional practice, and fabrication as well as first through sixth-year design studios. Brian also served one year as the Program Coordinator at SDSU and was involved in developing a new Building Technology Sequence within the architecture curriculum implemented in 2021.

As an architecture faculty member at KSU, Brian teaches design studios, fabrication-based seminars, and Fundamentals of Architectural Technology. His research and creative activity is fabrication-focused with an interest in material quantity-based design limits, the coordination of fabrication workflows, and the development of introductory fabrication exercises.