Matt Kleinmann is currently a doctoral student in architecture with a focus on public health at the University of Kansas. With a background in urban design and videography, Matt's work is focused on using community-based participatory research to help neighborhoods tell stories that promote greater access to healthy food and active living. Matt leverages narrative design as a democratic tool that can help shape public policy in order to reduce health disparities in the built environment through community engagement and participatory design. He believes that people should have the basic human right of living in a healthy neighborhood, and that architectural designers can use their skills to promote greater health access for all.
Previous to his doctoral studies, Matt was an adjunct professor in architecture and urban design at KU. From 2011 - 2014, Matt worked for Helix Architecture + Design in Kansas City on adaptive reuse and campus master planning projects. In 2014, he served as the inaugural Community Engagement Research Fellow at the architecture firm of Eskew+Dumez+Ripple in New Orleans, Louisiana. He also currently serves as a board member for the non-profit Historic Green, which works to sustainably restore homes in Kansas City and the Lower 9th Ward. He is an architecture graduate of the KU School of Architecture, Design and Planning as well as an urban design graduate from Sam Fox School of Design at Washington University in St. Louis.
Matt's Professional Blog on Archinect:
Dotte Agency (University of Kansas School of Architecture, Design, and Planning), Kansas City, KS, Co-Director
Research, class instruction, urban design, & videography
Community Health Council of Wyandotte County, Kansas City, KS, Researcher
Researching food access and community health outcomes through the CDC's 1422 Grant.
Washington University in St. Louis, St. Louis, Masters, Architecture and Urban Design
ACSA Collaborative Practice 2017, Award
The ACSA Collaborative Practice Award honors the best practices in school-based community outreach programs.
This award recognizes programs that demonstrate how faculty, students, and community/civic clients work to realize common objectives.