Michael McDonough is an award-winning architect, industrial designer, and author. He is the President and Principal of Michael McDonough Architect PC. He is or has been affiliated with the AIA, NCARB, USGBC, and FIGP. He specializes in zero-energy/zero carbon footprint buildings and related systems. His projects include offices, airports, galleries, multi-media environments, resort buildings, multifamily residences, shops, custom residence, zero-energy agriculture, and urban planning, as well as furniture, exhibits, and jewelry.
McDonough believes that traditional design and modern design—nature and science—can be advantageously synthesized, and that new types of buildings and a broad range of technologies will accordingly emerge. He has published over 80 articles and two books on architecture and design.
Educated at the University of Massachusetts, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and the University of Pennsylvania, and a cofounder of the experimental Bamboo Research Initiative at Rhode Island School of Design, McDonough has taught and lectured internationally. He has appeared in numerous television segments including those on Discovery Channel, Sundance, and PBS. He also designed and built e-House, a net zero-energy/zero carbon design and building science laboratory, a house the international press has termed “the most sustainable building in the world” having “the coolest rooms on the planet.”