James Kitchin

CEng MICE , EDGE Expert

Director of Engineering and Performance & Provenance

Bozeman, MT, USA

James Kitchin is a structural and civil engineer with deep expertise in designing with natural and healthy materials. He has led research and policy change around building materials and embodied carbon. James strives to minimize the negative footprint of the built environment through intimate knowledge of place and process, and to maximize the maker's handprint through collaboration. As the lead of the Performance & Provenance department and Director of MASS’s Abundant Futures Design Lab, he is committed to imagining, advocating, and implementing regenerative practices. He resides in Bozeman, MT.

James joined MASS as an Engineers Without Borders UK Fellow in 2017 and has led the structural design of projects from The Ellen DeGeneres Campus of the Dian Fossey Gorilla Fund in Rwanda to the Haven’s disclosed domestic violence shelter in Montana, US. He has also led research and policy change, across the US and Africa, around the environmental and social impact of building materials. As lead of the Performance & Provenance department at MASS, he is committed to imagining, advocating for, and implementing regenerative practices.

James has represented his work through speaking engagements, such as “The True Cost of True Zero in Our Building Environment” at the AIA Conference on Architecture, and articles, including “RICA – climate-positive design using locally sourced materials” in The Structural Engineer magazine.

Beyond his contributions at MASS, James has designed schools for UNICEF in Malawi and volunteered as an Engineer in Nepal following the Gorkha earthquake. He is particularly proud of his work in leading and project managing the adaptive reuse of the University of Cambridge’s David Attenborough Building in the UK. 

James graduated from the University of Sheffield with a First Class postgraduate degree in Civil Engineering. He is a Chartered Member of the Institution of Civil Engineers and an EDGE Expert.