Associate Professor
Associate Director, CASE

212-618-3959

Doctor of Philosophy in Design and Computation, Massachusetts Institute of Technology; Master of Science in Advanced Architectural Studies, Massachusetts Institute of Technology; Diploma in Architecture with Honors, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki

Alexandros Tsamis is an architect and associate professor with tenure at the School of Architecture, RPI. He currently serves as the Graduate Program Director of the Built Ecologies MS & Ph.D. programs and as the Associate Director of CASE. He earned his Ph.D. in Architecture, Design and Computation and Master of Science (SMArchS) in Design and Building Technology at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). Previously, he served as the Post-professional Graduate Program Director in Design at Adolfo Ibanez University in Chile and has taught at MIT and the Knowlton School of Architecture, Ohio State University.

With a working definition for the built environment as the Effective Distribution of Material, Energy and Information in Space for Socio-Natural Affect, Tsamis works at the intersection of design and the architectural sciences. He focuses on next-generation composite materials, climate-adaptive and cyber-physical energy systems, and advanced manufacturing technologies as they relate to advances in computation. He investigates issues associated with Material, Energy and Information ecologies of the built environment at scales that range from that of the object to that of the territory.

During his tenure at RPI, Prof. Tsamis has published 24 peer-reviewed papers and book chapters (45 throughout his academic career). He has published his research in ASHRAE, IBPSA, Building Simulation, CAAD Futures, and ACSA, among others. He has also participated in 27 national and international conference presentations and invited lectures (41 throughout his academic career). Prof. Tsamis’s research efforts have led to three patent applications for RPI (five throughout his academic career), two of which are currently at the PCT stage and one at the provisional stage. As a researcher, Tsamis has been a Principal Investigator in one and a Co-Principal Investigator in another Department of Energy-funded research project.

His design work has received several awards in international architectural competitions, including first prize at the international architecture competition “London Architecture Gallery,” first prize in the international design competition “Gillette Landmark,” and first prize in the “Design of Ephemeral Structures” competition for the Athens Olympics. His design and theoretical work have been published internationally in Architectural Design, the Journal of Architectural Historians, Thresholds, Pidgin, 306090, and Architecture in Formation. He has participated in six national and international exhibitions (24 throughout his academic career). Most recently, his work was exhibited in the 9th Shenzhen-Hong Kong Urban & Architecture Bi-City Biennale in Shenzhen, China, representing CASE with an energy-related project, in the Tallinn Architecture Biennale; Edible; Or, The Architecture of Metabolism, in Tallinn, Estonia, at the 6th International Architecture Exhibition, representing CASE with two distinct projects, and at the Biennale of Chile.