Lydia Kallipoliti

Lydia Kallipoliti is a Greek architect, engineer, architectural historian, action researcher, and scholar. Her work examines interdisciplinary studies involving architecture, technology, and environmental politics. Her research has contributed to the way architecture engages with ecological pedagogies, by confronting waste, recycling, and closed-loop systems.

Early life and education Kallipoliti grew up in Thessaloniki where she graduated from Anatolia College in 1994. She studied at Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, and graduated with a diploma in architecture and engineering. She has a Master of Science in architecture studies from MIT, a Master of Arts and a PhD from Princeton University.

Career Lydia Kallipoliti is currently the Director of the Master of Science degree in Advanced Architectural Design and an Associate Professor at Columbia Graduate School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation in New York. Additionally, she directs ANAcycle a design studio and thinktank in New York. Kallipoliti was a visiting fellow at the Canadian Centre for Architecture, the University of Queensland, and a visiting critic at the University of Technology Sydney. Additionally, she was an assistant professor at the Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art, and an assistant professor at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute and Syracuse University.

Exhibitions In 2016, she curated the Closed Worlds exhibition at the Storefront for Art and Architecture in New York, supported by grants awarded by the Graham Foundation and the New York State Council on the Arts in 2015. Other editions of the exhibition were held at Woodbury University School of Architecture's WUHO Gallery, and at the University of Technology Sydney's Art Gallery.

+ List of Exhibitions Curated by Lydia Kallipoliti Year Title Place 2011 Ecoredux 02: Design Manuals for a Dying Planet Disseny Hub, Barcelona, Spain 2016 Closed Worlds Storefront for Art and Architecture, New York 2019 Closed Worlds Cooper Union, New York In 2022, Kallipoliti was appointed head co-curator or the Tallinn Architecture Biennale with Areti Markopoilou, following an international competition by the Estonian Museum of Architecture. Their exhibition, "Edible, or, The Architecture of Metabolism," was consequently selected as the winner of the year in universal design in 2023 by the Design Educates Awards. In 2024, she curated the exhibition "Histories of Ecological Design" at Cooper Union in New York in relation to her published book "Histories of Ecological Design: An Unfinished Cyclopedia". Honorable Mention by the independent jury of the Shenzhen Bi-City Biennale.

2022 Lisbon Architecture Triennale (Cycles). Received Bronze Prize in Design Educates Awards, in the Universal Design category, 2023. Lisbon, Portugal 2023 Shanghai Urban Space Art Season (METro-BIOSIS). Shortlisted for The World Architecture Festival 2024 - Temporary Uses. Shanghai, China 2025 La Biennale Di Venezia, Biennale Architecttura (Intelligens. Natural. Artificial) Venice, Italy 2025 Trienalle di Milano (We, the Bacteria) Milan, Italy

Awards 2010: Webby Awards. 2014: Graham Foundation Production and Presentation Grant for her Closed Worlds exhibition project. 2017: Creative Achievement Award from the Association of Collegiate Schools of Architecture. 2019: Best of Design Award for Unbuilt Interiors, The architects Newspaper. 2020: Tallinn Architecture Biennale 2022. 2023: Design Educates Awards, Winner of the Year in Universal Design. 2023: Graham Foundation Publication Grant for Edible, or, The Architecture of Metabolism.