Katharina Kral

Katharina Kral

Lecturer
Department

Architecture
Contact

240B E. Sibley Hall
(607) 255-5236
kmk334@cornell.edu

Katharina Kral is a licensed architect, researcher, and educator examining the intersections of health and emerging material technologies to challenge persistent housing paradigms and develop concepts for sustainable, healthy, affordable, and adaptive living environments. She teaches undergraduate and graduate design studios, visual representation classes, and elective seminars in the fields of timber and concrete construction.

Prior to teaching at Cornell, she led the development of a large-scale housing project for Buchner Bründler Architekten in Switzerland. For this project, her team developed an innovative, sustainable, and fully recyclable timber facade system that fulfills the strict Swiss fire code while significantly reducing the building's carbon footprint. At the point of completion, this was the largest all-timber facade in Europe. In her own practice, Kral explores design tactics of adaptive reuse in small-scale housing projects in Germany and the U.S.

Kral holds a Dipl. Ing. with distinction from TU Darmstadt, Germany.

Related News

Classes (Selected)

ARCH 4605/6605 Timber Tectonics
ARCH 4101/4102/5101/5116/7113 Minimax: Polyvalent housing

Awards, Grants, and Fellowships (Selected)

Jakob Wilhelm Mengler Award for the project Zukunft Osthafen (2010)
Jakob Wilhelm Mengler Award for the project Eins40 (2009)
Scholarship Studienstiftung des Deutschen Volkes e.V. (2008-11)

Publications (Selected)

Kral, K. (2021). AutoFrame: "A Novel Procedure to Auto-Convert Architectural Massing Models into Structural Simulation Models to Streamline Embodied and Operational Carbon Assessment and Daylight Evaluation in Early Design," Journal of Technology | Architecture + Design.
Bernett, A., Kral, K., & Dogan, T. (2021). "Sustainability Evaluation for Early Design (SEED) Framework For Energy Use, Embodied Carbon, Cost, and Daylighting Assessment," Journal of Building Performance Simulation. https://doi.org/ 10.1080/19401493.2020.1865459.