College of Built Environments at the University of Washington.
Graduate Profiles
Information about Program Graduates:
Ph.D. in the Built Environment Graduates
B.S. Architectural Engineering, Kyung Hee University, Korea (1998)
M.S. Construction Management, University of Washington (2003)
Ph.D. in the Built Environment, University of Washington (2009)
Dissertation: A Framework for Developing New Visualization Schemes for Construction Project Performance Monitoring
Currently: Assistant Professor, East Carolina University
What convinced me to join this Ph.D. program is its interdisciplinary nature. I believe that major advances in research and discovery will be made at the interfaces between disciplines. I am interested in information visualization that applies the HII (Human-Information Interaction) concept. Information visualization in construction management provides better understanding of ongoing construction projects to the construction domain. With such visualization, the people within the domain are able to better analyze project status in the dynamic construction environment and take timely corrective actions to complete a project successfully. My research focuses on ontology for construction data, visualization techniques for construction information, and user interface design.
B.Arch. School of Planning and Architecture, New Delhi, India (1999)
M.A. École Nationale Supérieure d'Architecture de Paris-Belleville, Paris, France (2003)
Ph.D. in the Built Environment, University of Washington (2008)
Dissertation: Re-locating modernism: Chandigarh, Le Corbusier and the global postcolonial
Currently: Assistant Professor, Chitkara School of Planning and Architecture
I have written extensively on histories of architecture in South Asia prior to starting my Master's program in Paris, France. My Master's dissertation linked the processes of national identity and architectural modernity in the Le Corbusian city of Chandigarh, India. Exploring archives at the Fondation Le Corbusier, Paris and at the City Museum, Chandigarh, I constructed a syncretic narrative of postcolonial modernism at Chandigarh that drew influences from histories of modern architecture as well as critical and theoretical understandings of postcolonial thought.
From 2000 to 2003, I guest lectured at schools of architecture in India, served as an invited jury member on architectural design theses in France, and built several architectural projects in Chandigarh, India.
My doctoral dissertation at the University of Washington lies within the architectural history canon that posits a multi-centered conception of architectural that conceptualizes modernity as a fragmented narrative Within this conceptual framework the dissertation analyses Le Corbusier's Chandigarh by tracing/extending the roots of the city's history into the 19th century, by positing alternate and equally valid modernisms that develop concurrently with Le Corbusier's CIAM plan, and finally by chronicling the city's leap "beyond" modernism into the 21st century. To this effect my theoretical investigation is grounded in scholarship as varied as the Subaltern studies project, Gayatri Spivak's critiques of postcolonial thought, and Claude Lévi-Strauss's structuralism, Roland Barthes and Joseph Campbell's re-invention of modern mythologies.
I have presented my doctoral research in professional conferences at the University of Paris (2005), the University of Berkeley, CA (2006), the University of British Columbia, Vancouver (2007, 2008), at the Association of Collegiate Schools of Architecture Annual Meeting (2008), and at the University of Washington (2005, 2008).
At the University of Washington I have taught a history/theory section to Graduate students in Architecture, led a pre-architecture section on Design Drawing, and guest lectured in the Architecture, South Asia, and Art Departments on topics ranging from the architecture of the Indus Valley Civilization to the Modernist City.
In 2007 I was part of a research team on urban studies funded by the Simpson Center for the Humanities, University of Washington In 2008 we are applying for increased funding with a more ambitious agenda that includes a two-day conference and publication.
B.F.A. (photography), University of Utah (1992)
M.Arch., University of Washington (2003)
Ph.D. in the Built Environment, University of Washington (2009)Dissertation: The Architecture of the Poetic Image: the visible and the invisible in the sacred architecture of Sigurd Lewerentz.
My research examines the poetic image as found in the sacred architecture of Swedish architect Sigurd Lewerentz in relation to the late writings of Maurice Merleau-Ponty. Lewerentz was born in 1885 and practiced architecture in Sweden from 1911 until his death in 1975. His work is largely comprised of cemeteries and funerary chapels and is most noted for two churches; St. Mark's (1960) and St. Peter's (1966), realized in the final years of his life. Together with Gunnar Asplund, he submitted the winning proposal for the 1914-1915 competition for a new cemetery to be built outside of Stockholm on the site of a former gravel quarry. In 1994, Skogskyrkogården, or Woodland Cemetery as it is has come to be known internationally, was named a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Lewerentz went on to complete some eighteen proposals for cemeteries throughout Sweden, nearly half of which were realized.
My dissertation is theoretically grounded in phenomenology, a movement within Continental Philosophy contemporary with Lewerentz's work that was motivated by a desire to show that our experience of concrete phenomena lies at the center of our knowledge and understanding of the world. Its specific focus is the argument made by Merleau-Ponty in The Visible and the Invisible (1964) that meaning and ideas are given only through concrete phenomena. This runs counter to notions favored throughout the history of Western Philosophy that traditionally give eidos or ideas priority over phenomena. Lewerentz's approach to architecture manifests a remarkable affinity for the ideas set forth by Merleau-Ponty and together their work offers a compelling body of evidence for the argument that imagination plays an essential role in the generation of meaning.
B.S. Vertebrate Zoology, Eastern Washington University (1996)
M.L.A. Landscape Architecture, University of Washington (2002)
Ph.D. in the Built Environment, University of Washington (2007)
Dissertation: Urban habitat assessment project: an analysis of the existing instream habitat conditions of Seattle's urban streams.
Currently: Assistant Professor, Landscape Architecture, University of Washington
My current work analyzes the interactions between natural processes and urbanizing environments. More specifically, I study the environmental impacts of development on water resources from an historical perspective. I believe in looking to the actions of the past to understand the patterns and processes of the present and future. In the Pacific Northwest, the past century of development has drastically altered the quantity, quality, and timing of natural hydrologic regime. Consequently, current development patterns are inadequate for the viable co-existence of humans and sensitive salmon populations, and there is a dire need to create alternatives that mediate impacts on salmon and stream infrastructure. I am attempting to quantify these changes over distinct periods of development to further understand the patterns and forms of human habitation. My studies are grounded in science and history, providing a basis for informing design and management alternatives.