Michael Ulrich Hensel

Michael Ulrich Hensel is a German architect, researcher and writer.

His primary areas of interest and inquiry include performance-oriented architecture, embedded architectures - architecture and environment integration, and advanced data-driven design.

His work is located in the intersection between architecture, landscape architecture, urban design, micro-climatology and ecology.

Hensel was born in Celle, Germany in 1965, and lived during his early years in Cologne.

He gained his diploma in architecture from Cologne University of Applied Sciences in 1992, his graduate diploma from the Architectural Association School of Architecture in London in 1993, and his PhD from the University of Reading School of Construction Management and Engineering in 2012.

Hensel has developed a theoretical and methodological approach to architectural design entitled "Performance-oriented Architecture" that incorporates notions such as non-discrete architecture and non-anthropocentric architecture and "Embedded Architectures".

Performance-oriented architecture focuses on architecture and environment interaction, while the embedded architectures approach takes this further and focuses on architecture and environment integration.

Hensel taught at the Architectural Association School of Architecture in London (1993 to 2009), where was Unit Master of Diploma Unit 4 and where he co-founded and directed the Emergent Technologies and Design Program (EmTech).

In this context he directed experimental design and construction of projects in environmentally sensitive sites in Chilean Patagonia.

In 1994, Hensel co-founded the interdisciplinary design network OCEAN.

Works of OCEAN are included in the Prints and Photographs Division of the Library of Congress in the United States and the FRAC Centre (Fonds Regional d'Art Contemporain) in Orléans, France and were exhibited in various Venice Architectural Biennials and other high-profile venues.

1999. Hensel, M. and Verebes, T. Urbanisations.

London: Serial Books Architecture & Urbanism 3.

2006. Hensel, M. and Menges, A. Eds.

From 2007 to 2011, Hensel served as board member of BIONIS, the Biomimetics Network for Industrial Sustainability.

BIONIS was located at the University of Reading.

Its mission was to promote the application of Biomimetics in products and services and its use in education and training.

From 2008 to 2018, Hensel served as founding and acting chairman of the OCEAN Design Research Association OCEAN which was an international not-for-profit association registered in Norway.

From 2008 to 2018, he was Professor for Architecture at Oslo School of Architecture and Design in Norway.

From 2008 to 2016, he was frequent contributor to Arch+ Journal, Aachen Office.

Authored Books:

2010. Hensel, M., Menges, A. and Weinstock, M. Emergent Technologies and Design: A Biological Paradigm for Architecture.

London: Routledge.

ISBN 978-0-415-49344-4

From 2011 to 2015, Hensel served as founding and acting chairman of SEA – Sustainable Environment Association an international not-for-profit association in Norway.

SEA was an interdisciplinary expert network that pursued systematic, integrative and interdisciplinary inquiry into the human-influenced and built environment and its interaction with the natural environment and local ecosystems with the aim to develop alternative approaches to architectural design and sustainability.

From 2011 to 2018, he directed the Research Centre for Architecture and Tectonics together with the Advanced Computational Design Laboratory at the Oslo School of Architecture and Design.

2013. Hensel, M. Performance-oriented Architecture – Rethinking Architectural Design and the Built Environment.

London: AD Wiley.

ISBN 978-0-470-97331-8

In 2015, SEA fused with the OCEAN Design Research Association.

2015. Hensel, M. and Turko, J. Grounds and Envelopes - Reshaping Architecture and the Built Environment.

London: Routledge.

ISBN 978-0-415-63917-0

Edited Books:

Since 2018, he directs OCEAN Architecture | Environment, a practice located at the intersection of architecture, landscape architecture, urban design, climatology and ecology.

Since 2018, he is professor at TU Wien Vienna University of Technology where he heads the department for digital architecture and planning and where he serves as a board member of GCD the Center for Geometry and Computational Design.

Hensel's wife and one of his key collaborators is Turkish-born progressive architect and researcher Dr. Defne Sunguroğlu Hensel.

Michael U. Hensel has authored and edited numerous influential books, edited journals, and authored numerous book chapters, peer-reviewed and invited scientific journal articles and popular journal articles.

He is editorial board member of numerous peer-reviewed journals and Springer book series, and advisory board member of TAD journal.