Dipl.-Ing. M.Arch (SCI-Arc) Jörg Rügemer, Architekt AKBW, Assoc. AIA, Associate Professor for Sustainable Design

Jörg Rügemer graduated with a master’s degree of architecture from the Southern California Institute of Architecture in Los Angeles. Additional studies include his architectural diploma at the University of Applied Sciences in Cologne, Germany, as well as meteorology at the University of Cologne. Mr. Rügemer is a licensed architect in Germany and eligible to practice in all countries of the European Union. He is an associate member of the AIA. Rügemer has taught in Germany at the University of Karlsruhe, as well as Cottbus University of Technology, where he was the chair of Architectural Design and CAD. Other assignments include the Bremen University of Applied Sciences, and Florida International University in Miami, where he served as the Director for Digital Design. He has taught traditional, virtual, interdisciplinary, and sustainable architectural and urban design studios, architectural and digital representation, multimedia and communication classes, and design fundamentals. His appointment at the School of Architecture at the University of Utah in Salt Lake City, where he teaches sustainable architecture, brought him to Utah in 2006.

         Rügemer has received numerous awards and scholarships, including the first prize in the internationally open urban design competition 6970 in Salt Lake City; a 2015 Wood Design Regional Excellence Award; a 2014 Merit Award for a 300,000 square feet Mixed-Use housing development competition in Hamburg that is entirely designed to the Passive House standard; a 2014 AIA Utah Honor Design award; a 2014 ACSA Diversity Achievement Award and Collaborative Practice Award; a 2013 Residential Design Award; a 2012 AIA Utah Design Award; a 2011 ACSA Creative Design Achievement Award; a 2010 AIA Upjohn Award; the 2009 Professor of the Year Award at the College of Architecture and Planning, University of Utah; and the 2001 Teaching Prize at Cottbus University of Technology, Germany. Furthermore he received a fellowship from both the German Academic Exchange Service DAAD in Bonn and the German Federal Ministry for Research and Education BMBF; a book grant from the Southern California Institute of Architecture; a scholarships from the Carl Duisburg Society in Cologne and the German Academic Exchange Service in Bonn, Germany, of which he was a member of the commission of the selection panel for new exchange fellows in the field of architecture between 2000-2012 and 2014-2015. Exhibitions include displays at the Natural History Museum of Utah, Salt Lake City; the Design Arts Utah 2010 exhibition in Salt Lake City; the BEA International Gallery in Miami; the Art Museum of Western Virginia; the Bauhaus University Weimar; and the Forum for Current Architecture in Cologne, Germany. Among other things, Rügemer’s portfolio includes 16 placements in international competitions, 6 completed projects, many scholarly publications, and numerous international lectures on sustainable architectural and urban design, design strategies, and virtual design.

         In the field of professional architecture, Rügemer has worked with firms like Anshen + Allen Architects, San Francisco, Frank o. Gehry and Associates, Santa Monica, and Bothe Richter Teherani Architects, Hamburg, before he started his own architectural firm in Berlin in 2001. Between 2004 and 2008, he was professionally active in China, where he maintained an office in Shanghai with partners from Berlin. The firm’s focus was on energy efficient buildings and architectural concepts that include all aspects of sustainability as part of the design process. His firm was included in the 2006 Shanghai Ecobuild, an international conference and exhibition on sustainable buildings.

         Besides other awarded projects, AJR’s realized case study of a sustainable, contemporary discount superstore in Mannheim, Germany, was distinguished with several German and U.S. architectural and design awards, including a nomination for the Deutscher Architekturpreis (German Architecture Prize); the project got widely published in Europe. The 125 Haus in Park City, Utah, which was completed in October 2011, is a research-based case study that became Utah’s most energy-efficient and cost-effective residential building. A two-year Post-Occupancy monitoring phase successfully concluded the study in late 2013. The data was compared to other research findings Prof. Rügemer is involved in at his research work at the University of Utah. The Girl Scouts of Utah Summer Cabins, which were completed in summer 2014, became another highly sustainable, visible and nationally awarded and exhibited project.

         Jörg Rügemer’s research in highly energy-efficient and cost-effective buildings, design strategies, systems, and Post-Occupancy building monitoring is funded through grants from the Department of Energy Building America Program, the Boston Society of Architects BSA, the AIA Upjohn Award program, the University of Utah, and Rio Tinto Kennecott Copper Utah. Supported by the fellowship of the DAAD and BMBF, Jörg spent the 2014/15 academic year on sabbatical from his home University in Salt Lake City at the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology KIT, which is the University of the State of Baden-Württemberg and the National Research Center of the Helmholtz Association, where he focused on net-zero and active building design strategies.

         His latest project is the Field of Dreams Eco-Community, in which he designs, in close collaboration with Habitat for Humanity in Salt Lake City, a 20-unit superefficient and cost-effective development for people in need. The overall goal of this collaboration will be to create a long-term relationship between the School of Architecture and the Community Partner, to create a Design Build Salt Lake City program for the school’s students.