"I can think of no one better to learn from –and learn with– than Wyly Brown. I had the extraordinary fortune to work with Wyly as a research assistant in bamboo architecture at WashU. During that time, I not only learned about bamboo construction, but how to overcome doubt, how to embrace failure, how to harness my other interests and skills through bamboo construction, and how to be a mentor and a leader through the example Wyly sets. He will not teach you— he will guide you through the learning process. He doesn’t give lessons— he undertakes bold experiments. And more than any other teacher I have met, he invests in your future and your opportunities. Because of him, I am now interning at Bamboo U in Bali and my career in bamboo is taking off. I cannot recommend more strongly that you take the opportunity to learn with him."

Wyly Brown, AIA

Wyly Brown is practicing architect and is a principal and founding partner of Leupold Brown Goldbach Architects, with offices in Germany and the US. Wyly holds a Bachelors of Art in Anthropology, and 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.

After receiving a Masters of Architecture from Harvard University in 2006, he spent two years conducting research at the Institute of Lightweight Structures and Conceptual Design, University of Stuttgart, Germany, on the topic of rapidly deployable disaster relief structures. In 2008, due to Wyly’s experience in innovative approaches to structure, he was hired at Behnisch Architekten. In the four years at Behnisch, Wyly 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 contradicting, requirements. In addition to his professional practice, Wyly teaches and researches bamboo architecture as faculty at the Washington University in St. Louis, integrating indigenous building practices with contemporary design and construction capabilities and techniques.