Caitlin Mueller

Caitlin Mueller is faculty at MIT with appointments in Architecture and in Civil and Environmental Engineering. She leads the Digital Structures research group, directs the Building Technology program, and serves as Associate Director of the MIT Climate and Sustainability Consortium. Trained in architecture, structural engineering, computation, and building technology at MIT and Stanford, she joined the MIT faculty in 2014. Mueller’s research integrates architecture, engineering, and computation to develop methods for building design and construction that are sustainable, high-performing, and architecturally expressive. Her group explores computational design and digital fabrication approaches that link structural efficiency, material circularity, affordability, and architectural expression. Recent work includes robotic assembly of optimized trusses, fabrication of low-cost earthen and concrete systems, algorithmic strategies for reusing salvaged materials, and circular engineered wood products for housing. She also develops methods that leverage artificial intelligence, machine learning and computational geometry for human-centric design processes. Through the ODDS & MODS program with architect Sheila Kennedy, Mueller engages students in climate-focused design pedagogy centered on material reuse and circularity. She has also introduced new courses at MIT in computational design and building systems integration.

Mueller contributes to the broader field through leadership in international conferences, including the 2018 IASS Symposium and the 2025 Advances in Architectural Geometry conference, both hosted at MIT. Mueller and her research group’s work has been recognized through multiple awards, including the 2021 ACADIA Innovative Research Award of Excellence, the 2022 ACSA Diversity Achievement Award, and seven best paper awards for peer-reviewed articles. Mueller was named the inaugural Innovator of the Year by Architectural Record in 2025.

Her work has been published in more than 150 peer-reviewed papers and realized through built projects such as the Sueños con Tierra y Concreto pavilion in Mexico City (2022), multiple installations at the 2025 Venice Biennale, and Remembering the Future (2025), a tensile sculpture at the MIT Museum by artist Janet Echelman supported by her team’s software. She is also co-founder of Forma Systems and Pixelframe, startups advancing computational and circular approaches to structural design.