EcoClosure 

EcoClosure is a clean-tech, university spin-off founded by Kyoung Hee Kim PhD AIA NCARB, focusing on the design, engineering, and implementation of regenerable building enclosures for commercial, industrial, and residential applications. EcoClosure has been funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF) to carry out R&D and initial commercialization of microalgae windows. EcoClosure is a finalist of the 2020 Blue Diamond Cool Innovation Award that exemplifies creativity, execution, and applied invention and addresses a new approach to an old problem for lasting and far-reaching changes.

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Kyoung Hee Kim, PhD, AIA, NCARB, is a practicing architect, engineer, and entrepreneur. Dr. Kim, a registered architect in North Carolina, is the founder of Ecoclosure, a UNCC spin-off, and a design principal at Hui Kim Design and Architecture (HK DNA) based in Charlotte, NC, and Fort Mill, SC. She is a Professor of Architecture and the Director of the Integrated Design Research Lab at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte. She has developed sustainable, regenerative building technologies toward net zero energy architecture funded by NSF, American Institutes of Architects, and institutional grants. As a facade consultant at Front Inc (2007–2017), Dr. Kim engaged in over 50 institutional, cultural, residential, commercial, and governmental projects around the world. She recently published her book Microalgae Building Enclosures: Design and Engineering Principles (Routledge).