Ray Kappe (August 4, 1927 – November 21, 2019) was an American architect and educator. In 1972, he resigned his position as Founding Chair of the Department of Architecture at California State Polytechnic University, Pomona and along with a group of faculty, students and his wife, Shelly Kappe, started what eventually came to be known as the Southern California Institute of Architecture (SCI-Arc). In 2003, Kappe began working with LivingHomes to design modular homes.

Kappe remained actively involved in architectural theory and practice in his later years, particularly in the areas of sustainability and the prefabrication of residences.

Kappe was born in Minneapolis on August 4, 1927, the son of Romanian immigrants. He attended high school in Los Angeles. He studied for a single semester at UCLA in 1945 before being drafted in into the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, where he served as a topographical surveying instructor.

After his discharge Kappe attended the University of California, Berkeley, and earned a B.Arch. degree in 1951. He practiced architecture on his own starting in 1954, and then became one of the principals of Kahn Kappe Lotery Boccato in 1968. The firm changed names in 1978 to Kappe Lotery Boccato and in 1985, Kappe split off to form Kappe Architects Planners.

Along with Thom Mayne and Shelly Kappe, he founded Southern California Institute of Architecture (SCI-Arc for short). This institute promoted a more well-rounded, avant-garde, and progressive approach to architecture, something Kappe always advocated for.

Kappe designed multiple houses in California and elsewhere, he put emphasis on making homes functional in their climate and site through use of technology and local materials.

Kappe died from respiratory failure on November 21, 2019.

The Ray Kappe Archive is housed at the Getty Research Institute and contains all of his drawings, models, and papers, offering comprehensive coverage of his long and varied career.