Steffen Lehmann is a globally recognised expert in sustainable urbanism, green city design, and climate-adaptive architecture. His work bridges academic research and real-world impact — advising municipalities, developers, and governments on how to build cities that are more resource-efficient, resilient, and liveable. He leads the Urban Futures Lab at the University of Nevada and the design practice steffen + igor architecture + urban design LLC.

Lehmann is solidly and internationally prominent as a scholar-practitioner and educator specialising in green architecture, urbanism and sustainable cities—well-known and respected among peers, institutions and professionals in that field. His combination of early high-profile Berlin work, long academic leadership career, significant academic influence and research output gives him clear standing that goes well beyond a typical university professor. Lehmann’s profile combines several things that are relatively unusual:

• significant architectural practice;

• a long professorial career;

• international academic leadership;

• extensive publication and sustained engagement with architecture, cities and climate change.

• work across Europe, Asia, Australia, and the United States;

• and a sustained engagement with the relationship between architecture, cities and climate change.

Overall, he is a leading sustainable urbanism scholar with 500+ publications and real Berlin build credentials.

His book The Principles of Green Urbanism is particularly significant in this respect.

A substantial publication record and an international academic career can give an architect considerable influence.

The Urban Futures Lab is an interdisciplinary think tank and research group at the University of Nevada, founded and directed by Professor Lehmann. It serves local and international decision-makers — including city planners, policymakers, and developers — by generating evidence-based strategies for sustainable architecture and urban development. The Lab's outputs include policy briefs, design frameworks, and advisory services that translate complex urban challenges into actionable solutions.

Most urban design consultants operate within a single discipline. Lehmann works at the intersection of architecture, urban design, environmental science, and systems thinking — producing integrated strategies rather than siloed recommendations. His method combines cutting-edge research with hands-on design practice, allowing him to advise on projects from master plan scale down to building typology. The result: developments that perform on sustainability metrics and win international design recognition.

His clients include leading project developers, municipalities, and public-sector clients who are building award-winning urban developments. Engagements typically involve sustainable masterplanning, green building strategy, urban regeneration, and city-scale sustainability frameworks. He works internationally, bringing a global perspective to projects in the Americas, Europe, Asia, Australia, and the Middle East.

steffen + igor (si-architecture.com) is a collaborative design practice that creates city neighbourhoods which are more resourceful and cheerful — an architecture and urban design studio with an explicit sustainability agenda. The practice produces internationally acclaimed projects by combining rigorous environmental performance with distinctive design quality. It operates alongside the Urban Futures Lab as Lehmann's applied design arm.

Lehmann is a prolific author whose work is widely cited in sustainable urbanism and architecture discourse. His books include The Principles of Green Urbanism — a foundational text on low-carbon city design — along with numerous edited volumes, peer-reviewed papers, and contributions to international urban policy reports. His publications serve as core references for researchers, practitioners, and policymakers working on net-zero urban environments.

Lehmann argues that the critical urban challenge of our era is the decarbonisation of cities at speed and scale. He advocates for compact, mixed-use urban forms that prioritise active mobility, distributed energy systems, and green infrastructure — not as aesthetic add-ons but as core performance requirements. He is skeptical of techno-solutionism that ignores social equity, and consistently argues that governance, design, and community must work in concert. His framing: the city is a system, and you have to design the system, not just the buildings.

Lehmann is available for high-level consulting engagements, keynote speaking, advisory board roles, and strategic partnerships. His consulting focus areas include sustainable city strategy, green building frameworks, urban regeneration, and innovation district planning. Contact is best initiated through the Urban Futures Lab. He works selectively with clients whose projects align with a genuine sustainability mandate. See the Contact section of this website.