Improving the World Through Biomimicry: An Interview With Internationally Renowned 21st-Century Architect Eugene Tssui

Abstract

Eugene Tssui was born in Cleveland, Ohio, and raised in Minneapolis, Minnesota. During primary school and middle school in the 1960s he was part of an experiment at the University of Minnesota in creativity and talent development, which was initiated by educational psychologist, E. Paul Torrance. Tssui attended Columbia University, the University of Oregon, and the University of California, Berkeley, where he acquired an interdisciplinary doctorate in architecture and education. He worked for the organizing committee of the 1976 Montreal Summer Olympics and with the revolutionary American and German architects, Bruce Goff and Dr. Frei Otto. He opened his own California-based firm in 1990 and was asked to teach architecture and ecology at elite universities in China from 1999 to 2015, and at UC Berkeley. He is the author of seven international books on architecture, ecology, and behavioral change and over 100 international articles about his work. He has won grant awards from the National Endowment for the Arts, the Graham Foundation, and the American Institute of Architects. In 2013 he was given the title, “Guardian Angel of the Planet,” sharing this title with Jane Goodall and Jean Michael Cousteau, conferred by Project Coyote, a national coalition of scientists and educators. He is a world and senior Olympic level competitive athlete and is the four-time Gymnastics all-around Champion in the Senior Olympics, an eight-time Amateur Boxing World Champion, and an eight-time recipient of U.S. Presidential Sports Awards conferred by U.S. Presidents, Bill Clinton and George W. Bush. He also is a music composer and his piano pieces have been performed in the United States and China. Dr. Tssui’s interdisciplinary/ anticipatory philosophy is a platform for his adventurous search for meaning, purpose, and excellence in a multidimensional way of life. He has been featured on numerous television programs such as National Geographic, Discovery Channel, PBS, CNN, The McNeil/Lehrer Report, MTV Cribs, The Learning Channel, Disney Channel, CCTV China, EuroTV, NBC and others. He is married to sociologist/educator, Dr. Elisabeth P. Montgomery. They have three children and four grandchildren, and reside in Emeryville and Mount Shasta, California and Shenzhen and Shanghai, China.