Floornature

Michele Saee received his Master of Art in Architecture degree in 1981 at the University of Florence School of Architecture and his post graduate degree in Technical Urban Planning at the Polytechnic of Milan.
He began his professional career working with Superstudio in Florence, Italy, and then joined Morphosis in Santa Monica, California, after moving to Los Angeles in 1982. He started his own design firm, Building Inc., in 1985. Michele joined the design faculty at Otis College of Art and Design in 1986, and in 1990 he began teaching at the Southern California Institute of Architecture (SCI-Arc), where he is currently a design faculty member.
Michele Saee exhibits and lectures on architecture in many countries around the world. His exhibitions include: the Venice Architectural Biennial 2002, Italy; Busan Biennial, Korea 2002; Venice Architectural Biennial 2004; and the First Architectural Biennial Beijing China 2004. In the past 25 years he has completed over 100 projects and built more than half of them. His recent national and international work includes:
The “Template House” design for the first Chinese Architectural Biennial was Michele Saee’s introduction to the People’s Republic of China, where he harnessed the principals of the ancient practice of Feng Shui to guide him in his design process with the hope of creating a space that would be suitable to the Chinese nature.
Michele Saee’s designs for two aquarium projects in the People’s Republic of China with Straco Corporation clearly reflect his sensitivity to the projects’ sites, contexts and programs. In his design for the Shanghai Ocean Aquarium, in Pudong, next to the Oriental Pearl TV Tower, his creative composition interacts with the tectonic complexities of the site, making a strong statement. By contrast, in Xiamen Underwater World in Gulang Island, he attempted to fuse the new building into its natural setting. Its state-of-the-art facilities boast more than 30 exhibit areas for over 12,000 sea creatures from all continents.  
Michele Saee’s versatility and design skills were well tested in his design for Publicis Drugstore on the Champs Elysees in Paris, steps away from the Arch of Triumph. He transformed an existing headquarters of the world famous advertising group into an international landmark with wrapping curved glass screens that reshaped the building and its connection to the site. In Michele Saee’s work, every project represents a unique opportunity for exploration and creative innovation regardless of its scale or location. In his design of Café Nescafe for the international group Nestle, Michele Saee challenged a century-old tradition of Paris street cafes with his curved glass terrace addition.   
The new “Sky” exhibition center in Beijing for the Zhongguancun Technological Park development is nestled in 25 landscaped acres; a perfect glass ring hovers above a lake and gardens creating a new window into the sky.
In the Linnie House, of Los Angeles, aspiring to transcend the physical limitations of its small 10 m X 30 m lot, the building gestures towards the canal, transforming as it moves through harnessing uncertainty as a generator of form. The habitable spaces of the house were formed with the inertia of un-programmed surface elements and areas converging, diverging and layering. Once defined, those areas were programmed to meet the needs of the house’s occupants.  
In the design for the Museum of Antiquity in Beijing, Michele Saee was approached to create a building using some of the oldest Standing structures in China from the Qing Dynasty and adapt them to their new program. As in life, unending layers of time, memories and history are omnipresent in Michele Saee’s work.
The Museum of Modern Art in San Francisco and the FRAC collection in France both contain Michele Saee’s work in their permanent collections and Rizzoli International published a monograph of his projects in 1997. Magazine publications include Architectural Record, A+U and GA Japan, Domus International Italy, Progressive Architecture, Blueprint, The Los Angeles Times, New York Times,  Metropolitan Home and many more.
He has been the recipient of the following prestigious awards:
- Interarch 2009, Special Prize of the Mayor of Strasbourg Silver medal
- Interior Design China, Hall of Fame Award, 2007
- LA 12 Award, 2000
- American Institute of Architects Design Award, 1997
- American Institute of Architects, "next LA" Design Award, 1997
" Emerging Voices" 1997 selection by: The Architectural League of New York
-"40 under 40" (honoree in 1995 of the most promising American architects
under the age of 40)
-"Young Architects Forum Design Award," The Architectural League of New York, 1987

Building Inc. Michele Saee
999 North Doheny Drive # 201
West Hollywood, California
90069, USA
www.michelesaee.com