Skip to content

Wyly Brown



Wyly Brown is a founding partner of Leupold Brown Goldbach Architekten (LBGO architects), where he oversees all projects in North America. He holds a Bachelor of Art in anthropology, and he spent a number of years researching the connection between cultures and monuments through the reconstruction of full-scale, functional objects, often using historically accurate methods. Past projects include the reconstruction of Finnish reindeer-pulled sledges, Egyptian obelisks, British siege-engines, and medieval man-powered cranes. He is a licensed architect in both Germany and in the United States.

After earning a Master of Architecture from Harvard University in 2006, Brown spent two years conducting research at the Institute of Lightweight Structures and Conceptual Design at the University of Stuttgart on the topic of rapidly deployable disaster relief structures. In 2008, he was hired at Behnisch Architekten for his expertise in innovative approaches to structural optimization. In his four years at the firm, he developed parametric optimization design tools that were implemented on several award-winning projects, including the Max-Aicher Speed Skating Arena in Inzell, the “Spider’s Web” of the Spinnereipark in Kolbermoor, and a High School in Ergolding. In 2014, he founded LBGO architects in Munich with Andreas Leupold and Christian Goldbach. He approaches design through a process of analysis and optimization, searching for simple, unified solutions to complex, and often contradictory, requirements.

In addition to his professional practice, Brown has taught parametric design and fabrication methods as the chair for architectural informatics of the Technical University Munich in Germany. He returned to the U.S. in 2016 to open a Boston branch of his architectural practice, and he also taught at the Massachusetts College of Art and Design, focusing on design-build community service courses, which combined his academic pursuits with his professional experience.


Select Articles, Chapters, and Publications

Select Exhibitions and Presentations

  • “St. Louis Bamboo: Urban forestry of timber bamboo to produce fast growing, carbon positive, and renewable architectural materials,” Wyly Brown; presented at Washington University in St. Louis Living Earth Collaborative Lecture Series, 2022, St. Louis.

  • “Informing Form: Learning from Outside Architecture,” Wyly Brown; presented at Massachusetts College of Art Tuesday Talks, 2017, Boston.

Select Awards and Grants

  • 2024 — William H Danforth St Louis Confluence Award – Here and Next (nominated)

  • 2023 — Sam Fox School Faculty Creative Activity Research Grant

  • 2023 — William H Danforth St Louis Confluence Award – Here and Next (nominated)

  • 2022 — $50,000 WashU Office of the Provost COVID Faculty Support Grant

  • 2022 — $25,000 McDonnell International Scholars Academy Global Incubator Seed Grant

  • 2021 — Boston Society or Architects Sustainability Design Awards

News