Jongwan Kwon
Jongwan Kwon is an Assistant Teaching Professor at Carnegie Mellon Architecture.
Jongwan is an architectural designer and educator. His research, teaching and professional practice examine the intersections of material culture and infrastructure with a focus on regional sustainability. Before joining CMU, he held academic appointments at Kansas State University as an assistant professor (2021-23) and at RISD (2017-21), where he served as the graduate studio coordinator and was nominated for the Frazier Teaching Award. He was the recipient of the SOM Prize and MIT Architecture Teaching Fellowship (2016-17), and his work and writing have been published in journals such as Pidgin, Lunch, Room One Thousand, On Site, and others.
Jongwan received his Master of Architecture and a Certificate in Urban Design from MIT and a Bachelor of Architecture from Hanyang University with Summa Cum Laude and a Thesis Prize. He gained professional experience in Boston, New York, San Francisco, Seoul, Singapore and Tokyo.
Spring 2025 Teaching
This studio introduces integrated architectural design as the synthesis of disparate elements, demands and desires. It situates architecture as a technological, cultural and environmental process that is inherently contingent and entangled yet tethered to a historical project of autonomy.
The current energy crisis and climate change have impelled architects to challenge many standing assumptions in material culture and rethink the relationship between materials, the environment, construction methods, and labor. To address the urgent need for climate protection, architects should scrutinize the enduring material system, and practices and seek simple, adaptive, and constructive solutions that enable ongoing change.
Fall 2024 Teaching
We may learn to develop architecture that enriches the context from which it arises by conceptually recognizing the built/natural environment as a complex web of interacting parts constantly exchanging energy and resources.
The course introduces contemporary urbanism, offering a comprehensive exploration of how cities and urban systems are made, remade, and even unmade.
Keyword: Design Ethics