Dr. Michael Salka is a practicing architect, researcher, and educator whose work combines ecological design, mass timber construction, and regenerative urbanism. As a Director at the Institute for Advanced Architecture of Catalonia (IAAC) in Barcelona, he's led numerous co-creative design-build projects recognized by ArchDaily's Building of the Year and the Design Educates Awards, and covered by the New York Times. His experience spans entire value chains, from overseeing sustainable forest management and CLT production, to realizing digitally-prefabricated circular timber structures. While a Gates Cambridge PhD Scholar, he specialized in contemporary bioregional building practices of Europe, the USA, and Asia. As a Founding Partner of the New European Bauhaus Academy, he steers the European Commission's flagship initiative to train millions of professionals in sustainable, inclusive, and beautiful bio-based design and construction. Through the Built by Nature-funded Optoppen platform, he promotes mass timber for rooftop densification and adaptive reuse. He is also the author of biomaterial social housing reports for Latin American and the Caribbean commissioned by the World Bank and Inter-American Development Bank. Originally from Durango, Colorado — where he now serves as Head of Design for Timber Age Systems — Salka brings a worldly perspective to the North American mass timber conversation.