Meet Matthew

Matthew Teismann is a registered architect for 20+ years whose work bridges professional practice and architectural theory, with a particular focus on the history and philosophy of design and the spatial ontology of the built environment. He earned his professional education at Kansas State University and the Harvard University Graduate School of Design, and has taught design studios and history-theory courses at Kent State University, The Ohio State University, University of Technology Sydney [UTS], and the Rhode Island School of Design [RISD].

Teismann’s research interrogates the intersection of space, perception, and culture—examining how architecture both reflects and conditions human experience. His writing has appeared in Joelho, Fabrications, KTISMA, Lantern Journal, and other international publications, with recent conference presentations delivered in the United States, Europe, and Southeast Asia. His work engages themes of metaphenomenology, the geopolitics of space, and the philosophical foundations of architectural form. Before joining MKC Architects, Teismann co-founded LIONarchitecture, a studio dedicated to exploring architecture’s existential and social dimensions.

A recipient of the AIA National Young Architect Award (2024), the AIA Ohio Charles J. Marr Citation (2022), and multiple design honors from AIA Columbus, Teismann also serves on the Dean’s Advisory Council for Kansas State University CAPD, and is a Genoa Township Zoning Commissioner. Across practice, research, and teaching, his work seeks to align architectural production with broader questions of social engagement, historical continuity, and human meaning in the built world. Teismann joined MKC in 2016 as Director of Design and has since become President & CFO, serving as Principal-in-charge on numerous projects across the United State of varying scale and type, including K-12 / higher education / civic / housing.

Honors & Awards

AIA National Young Architect Award [2024]

AIA Columbus Honor Award - Large Project [2024]

AIA Columbus Honor Award - Best Detail [2024]

AIA Columbus Merit Award - Large Project [2023]

AIA Ohio Charles J. Marr Citation [2022]

AIA Ohio Emerging Professionals Award [2021]

Aurora Building Awards - Best on the Boards Custom Home [2020]

AIA Columbus Merit Award - Project Innovation [2019]

AIA Columbus Merit Award - Unbuilt Project [2017]

Harvard Kennedy School Indonesia Program: Research Grant Award [2014]

Monsters of Design: Best Unbuilt Project [2012]

PUBLICATIONS

‘An Ideological City: Koolhaas’ Exodus in the Second Ecumene,’ in Jorge Figueira, Gonçalo Canto Moniz (eds.) Ideas and Practices for the European City, Joelho 08 [Combria: 2017) pp. 52-65

‘An Emerging International: The Imperial Gaze of the Monster Globe in 1851,’ Fabrications 27:1, Taylor & Francis, (London: 2017)

‘The Inverted View: Of Crystals, Mirrors, & Globes,’ Radical Space in Between Disciplines conference proceedings, University of Novi Sad, (Novi Sad: 2015) pp. 33-40

'The Impossible Friendship,' PLOT Revista_30, (Buenos Aires: August/September 2014) p. 74

'Futureless,' KTISMA: University of Oregon Department of Architecture Journal' 1.1 (Eugene: University of Oregon Press, 2012) pp 13-16.

'Imagination's Shadow: perception, conception, and (un)known in architecture' Lantern Journal_Volume I, Issue4 - online journal, www.lanternjournal.org. ISSN 2166-3793 (2012)

'Anti-Haptic Experience: Critical Analysis of the Role of the Sense of Touch,' Oz Architecture Journal_vol 30. (Kansas State University Press, 2008) pp. 34-35

CONFERENCES

ArchTheo ‘25 XIX. International Conference on Theory and History of Architecture [Istanbul, Turkey 2025]

‘EDGE OF invisible: Geometry and Metaphenomenology of Space’

Association of Independent Colleges and Universities of Ohio [Columbus, Ohio 2025]

‘Lease-Back Model Development: How and Why it Works for Small Colleges and Universities’

Vernacular Architectural Forum Annual Meeting [Plymouth, Massachusetts 2023]

‘Architecture Without Origins: Cultural and Spiritual Estrangement in Postcolonial Bawomataluo’

Displacement & Domesticity since 1945 Conference | EAHN & KU Leuven [Brussels, Belgium 2019]

‘Living Within the Absurd: Albert Camus and Social Estrangement’

Society of Architecture Historians [SAH] Annual Conference [St. Paul, Minnesota 2018]

‘The Inverted Sphere: Birth of the Georama’

Le Corbusier: What Moves Us? Conference [Aarhus, Denmark 2015]

‘Closed Hands: Disembodiment in Le Corbusier’s Postwar Paintings’

Radical Space In Between Disciplines Conference | Scen Centre for Scene Design, Architecture and Technology [Novi Sad, 2015]

‘The Inverted View: Of Crystals, Mirrors, & Globes’

APDesign | AIAS Special Lecture [Manhattan, Kansas 2014]

‘Non-Operational Architecture: Meta-Phenomenology and the (Un)known’

Redesigning Cities: Well-being, Identity and History | Harvard University Kennedy School of Government [Cambridge, Massachusetts 2014]

‘Architecture Without Origins’

[in]Arch Conference: Interiority and Interior Architecture | Universitas Indonesia [Jakarta, Indonesia 2014]

'Inner Territories: Capacious Geometries in Space and Mind'

What Criticism? Symposium | Harvard University Graduate School of Design [Cambridge, Massachusetts 2014]

Panel Moderator, 'Impossible Friendship' Panel, Research and Communication

COMMITTEES & MEMBERSHIPS

Kansas State University Dean’s Advisory Council [2024-Present]

AIA Columbus | Treasurer [2022-2023]

AIA Columbus | Board of Directors [2019-Present]

AIA Columbus | Co-Chair Committee on Design [2017-2019]

University of Technology Sydney | Design, Architecture, and Building Faculty Board Member [2015-2016]

University of Technology Sydney | Academic Administration Committee