M. Laboy

Michelle Laboy is a designer and educator with degrees in architecture, urban planning and engineering. She is co-founder of FieLDworkshop, a research-based firm focused on design at the intersection of the cultural and ecological, heightening the experience of place and natural phenomena in the built environment. Michelle is Assistant Professor of Architecture at Northeastern University in Boston, where she teaches Integrated Design, Building Systems, Urbanism and advanced design studios, often in collaboration with Engineering and Landscape Architecture. Her research and teaching are focused on the integration and adaptation of a building’s tectonic with a changing cultural and ecological landscape. Her design work and writing brings ecological thinking into architecture—including life cycle considerations, persistence of material and human ecologies, grounding strategies for building adaptability and continuity in the public realm, and evidenced-based design that supports human health, resilience, equity, and sustainability. Her work has been funded by Autodesk, DHS, DOE, and AIA, and has been published in leading peer-reviewed journals, conference proceedings, and books. She is a two-time a recipient of the Latrobe Prize, as part of two teams awarded by the AIA College of Fellows in 2017 and 2022.