Mae-ling Lokko

Mae-ling Lokko is an architectural scientist, designer and educator focused on the intersectoral design and research of biobased materials to drive ecological health and generative justice goals. She is an Assistant Professor at Yale School of Architecture where she teaches environmental design and on the history and contemporary design of biobased building technologies. As Assistant Director of Yale’s Center for Ecosystems in Architecture, she directs doctoral research on the whole life cycle development, distributed infrastructures design and policy around non-toxic, low-carbon materials.

Given biobased building materials are poised to become part of the rapidly growing 21st century building materials economy, Lokko’s current research and writings aim to understand both the historical patterns, risks and opportunities around biobased material technologies. Her research has been funded by the re:arc Institute, Yale’s MacMillan Center (Edward J. and Dorothy Clarke Kempf Memorial Fund), Yale’s ASCEND Program, the United Nations Environment Program (UNEP), the SOM Foundation, the British Council, MIT’s Global Architectural History Teaching Collaborative, the Luma Foundation, Housing the Human 2019 and NYSERDA. Her work and writings have been featured in the New York Times, Blueprint, ICON Magazine, eFlux, Blueprint, Wallpaper, MOLD, Frieze Magazine, RIBA Journal, DOMUS, Dezeen, DAMN Magazine, and other global design publications. Her research on low-carbon, renewable building materials policy has led contributed to 2022 Global Status Report for Buildings and Construction (chapter author); UNEP Building Materials and Climate: Constructing a New Future (report co-lead author) and 2027 IPCC Special Report on Climate Change and Cities (contributing author).

Recent awards include the 2026 Architectural Record Women in Architecture Award. In 2025, her project Vena Cava earned a Special Mention at the 19th Venice Architecture Biennale as part of ‘s British National Pavilion, and she was named to the Eames Institute’s inaugural Curious 100 list. Metropolis Magazine named her a 2024 Design Visionary.

Lokko is also the founder of Willow, based in Ghana, aimed at developing academic-community research partnerships to implement and scale demonstration architectural projects. Through public exhibitions, Lokko’s work aims to explore new aesthetics associated with plant-based building material technologies that address deeply seated, social and cultural barriers to their adoption. Her recent work has been exhibited at the Museum of Modern Art, New York; the 19th Venice Architecture Biennial; the Humboldt Forum, Berlin; House of World Cultures, Berlin; the Nobel Prize Museum, the Museum of the Future, Dubai, Stedelijk Museum, Netherlands; Serralves Foundation, Portugal; Z33 House for Contemporary Art, Design and Architecture, Belgium; Sonsbeek Biennial, Netherlands; Triennale Milano, Italy; and Somerset House, London.

Lokko previously taught at Cooper Union and Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, where she served as the Director of the Building Sciences Program as well as Assistant Professor at the School of Architecture and Center for Architecture, Science and Ecology (CASE). Lokko holds a Ph.D. and Master of Science in Architectural Science from the Center for Architecture, Science and Ecology, RPI, and a B.A from Tufts University. Lokko currently serves on the Board of Directors for the International Living Future Institute and the Architectural League of New York.