Architecture Theory Roundtable with K. Michael Hays

K. Michael Hays is the Eliot Noyes Professor of Architectural Theory at the Harvard University Graduate School of Design. Hays has played a central role in the development of the field of architectural theory and his work is internationally known. His research and scholarship have focused on the areas of European modernism and critical theory as well as on theoretical issues in contemporary architectural practice. He has published on the work of modern architects such as Hannes Meyer, Ludwig Hilberseimer, and Mies van der Rohe, as well as on contemporary figures such as Peter Eisenman, Bernard Tschumi, and the late John Hejduk. Hays was the founder of the scholarly journal Assemblage, which was a leading forum of discussion of architectural theory in North America and Europe.

Ruo Jia is an architect, artist, theorist, historian, and educator. She is the founder and director of the research-based practice IfWorks, exploring art and architecture possibilities individually or collectively. Currently an assistant professor in history and theory of architecture and affiliated faculty in the gender studies program at Mississippi State University, she has also taught at Pratt, Cornell, Harvard, CUNY, Columbia, and Princeton. Her research focuses on constructing a decolonizing postmodern materialist space through the interweaving of “Chinese Experimental Architecture” or “French Poststructuralist Theory,” which expands to envisioning the possibilities of Asian Feminist Architecture, and Posthumanist Sustainability. Her works have been published with the Journal of Architecture, Representations, Log, Brooklyn Rail among others.

Joseph Bedford is an associate professor of history and theory at Virginia Tech. He is the director of the Architecture Exchange, a platform that fosters discourse and exchange in architecture through podcasts, conferences, books, workshops, oral history projects and teaching resources. He is the author of “Is There an Object-Oriented Architecture” (Bloomsbury 2020), as well as numerous book chapters and articles in journals such as JAE, ARQ, AA Files, OASE, Log, and NYRA. He is the series editor of a new book series at Bloomsbury Press called “Architecture Exchange: Engagements with Contemporary Theory” as well as the e-flux architecture series “Theory’s Curriculum.” He was educated at Princeton University, The Cooper Union, and Cambridge University, where he earned his bachelor’s degree, master’s degree, and doctorate. He was the recipient of a one-year Rome Scholarship at The British School in Rome. His scholarship explores the intellectual history of architectural thought in the later third of the twentieth century as it lays at the intersection between philosophy, theory, and architectural education.

Matthew Allen is a visiting assistant professor at the Sam Fox School who works at the intersection of architecture, computation, and aesthetic subcultures. He is the author of “Flowcharting: From Abstractionism to Algorithmics in Art and Architecture” (gta Verlag, 2023) and the forthcoming book “Digital Postmodernism: The First Era of Parametric Architecture.” Allen has published essays in Log, e-flux, Domus, the Journal of the Society of Architectural Historians, and many other venues. His research has been supported by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council, the Canadian Centre for Architecture, and other institutions. Allen has worked for MOS, Preston Scott Cohen, and other firms at the leading edge of contemporary architectural practice.