Jin Baek

School of Architecture and Community Design, Univ. of South Florida

Phone: 813-974-6015

 
Affiliation

Assistant Professor

School of Architecture and Community Design, University of South Florida (August 2004 - present)

 
Education

University of Pennsylvania Philadelphia, Pennsylvania  (September 1998 - May 2004)

Doctor of Philosophy (history and Theory of Architecture), Department of Architecture, School of Design

Yale University New Haven, Connecticut (September 1996 - May 1998)

Master of Architecture (Post-Professional Program), School of Architecture

Seoul National University Seoul, Korea (March 1993-February 1995)

Master of Science in Engineering (Architecture Major), School of Engineering

Seoul National University Seoul, Korea (March 1988-February 1992)

Bachelor of Science in Engineering (Architecture Major), School of Engineering

 

Dissertation

Title Empty Cross: Nothingness and the Church of Light

Committee Members

Dr. Joseph Rykwert (Supervisor), Department of Architecture, University of Pennsylvania

Dr. David Leatherbarrow, Department of Architecture, University of Pennsylvania

Dr. William LaFleur, Japanese Studies, University of Pennsylvania

 

Research Interests

History and Theory of the Nineteenth and Twentieth Century Architecture

Cross-cultural Issues in Modern and Contemporary Architecture

Post-War Urbanism in East Asia

 

Research and Travel Grants

New Researcher Grant University of South Florida, January 2006 to December 2006

European Science Foundation Travel funding for the paper presentation in the “Art History in Ideological Contexts: The Development of National Historiographies,” Conference held at the University of Brussels, Brussels, Belgium, June 2005

Matlock Travel Fellowship Award University of Pennsylvania, Travel Grant for the 57th Annual Meeting of the Society of Architectural Historians, Session: Modernism and Sacred Architecture, Providence, Rhode Island, U.S.A. April 2004

Graduate Student Associations Council University of Pennsylvania, Travel grant for the paper presentation in a conference sponsored by Popular Culture Association, Session: Popular Culture and Architecture, New Orleans, U.S.A., March, 2003 

Matsushita International Foundation Funding for Research at the University of Tokyo, Japan (March 2003 - August 2003)

Kajima International Foundation Funding for Research at the University of Tokyo, Japan (March 2001 - September 2001)

 

Research Activities

University of Tokyo Tokyo, Japan (March 2003 - August 2003)

Foreign Researcher, Department of Architecture

University of Tokyo Tokyo, Japan (March 2001 - September 2001)

Research Fellow, Department of Architecture, Institute of Environmental Studies, Graduate School of Frontier Sciences

 

Publications (Peer-Reviewed Journals)

Mujo, or Ephemerality: the Discourse of the Ruins in Post-War Japanese Architecture

Forthcoming in The Architectural Theory Review (Theme call: Temporary Contemporary)

“Emptiness and Empty Cross: Tadao Ando’s Church of the Light”

Forthcoming in Center 15 (Austin: The University of Texas Press), Spring 2007

“From ‘the Topos of Nothingness’ to ‘The Space of Transparency’: the Influence of Kitaro Nishida’s Notion of the Body on Art and Architecture (1)”

Forthcoming in Philosophy East and West, vol. 58, no.1 (January 2008)

“The Sublime and the Azuma House by Tadao Ando”

Architectural Research Quarterly, vol. 8, no. 2 (2004), pp. 149-57.

“Infinity and a Wooden Cross” On Site, Issue 9 (April 2003)

 

Publications (Book and Book Chapters)

Fudo and the Perception of Self-Negation: The Primitive of Tadao Ando’s Azuma House”

in Primitive: Original Matters in Architecture, Eds. Jo Odgers, Flora Samuel and Adam Sharrs, London: Routledge, 2006, pp. 183-193

 

Publications (Pamphlet)

"Structuring Emptiness: Modernity in Korean Architecture, the Works of Hyun-Sik Min and H-Sang Seung,"

Pamphlet for the Exhibition on Contemporary Korean Architecture (held at the University of Pennsylvania in September 2003) 

 

Publications (Conference Proceedings)

“Richard Neutra’s “sense-equipped ego” and the womb cosmology of Esoteric Buddhism”

Forthcoming in the Proceedings for 2006 ARCC/EAAE International Conference on Architectural Research, Philadelphia, Temple University

“Adjustability, Climate and Dwelling Praxis: the Urban Typology of Ybor City in Tampa, Florida

Proceedings for the iNTA (International Network for Tropical Architecture) 2nd International Conference on Sustainable Architecture and Urban Design in Tropical Regions, Department of Architecture, Duta Wacana Christian University in Jogjakarta, Indonesia, 2006, pp. D11-1 to D11-8

 

Symposia and Conferences

“Heterogeneous purity and pure heterogeneity: Bruno Taut’s interpretation of Japanese traditional architecture and its response by Arata Isozaki”

Forthcoming in 60th Annual Meeting of the Society of Architectural Historians, Session: One World or Many? The Conundrum of Singularity or Multiplicity in the History (Histories) of Architecture, Landscape Architecture, and Urbanism, Providence, Rhode Island, U.S.A. April 2004

“Nothingness and architecture, a methodological re-orientation based upon an East Asian phenomenological perspective”

Forthcoming in Architecture and Phenomenology Conference, Technion, Israel Institute of Technology, May 2007

“Negating the Eternal Poetics of Architecture: Arata Isozaki’s Idea of the Ruins”

The Southeast Chapter of the Society of Architectural Historians (SESAH), Auburn University, September 2006

“Richard Neutra’s “sense-equipped ego” and the womb cosmology of Esoteric Buddhism”

2006 ARCC/EAAE International Conference on Architectural Research, May 31, 2006 to June 4, 2006, Philadelphia, Temple University

 “Adjustability, Climate and Dwelling Praxis: the Urban Typology of Ybor City in Tampa, Florida

iNTA (International Network for Tropical Architecture) 2nd International Conference on Sustainable Architecture and Urban Design in Tropical Regions, Department of Architecture, Duta Wacana Christian University in Jogjakarta, Indonesia, April 2006

 Mujo, or Ephemerality: the Discourse of the Ruins in Post-War Japanese Architecture”

The Hawaii International Conference on Arts and Humanities, Honolulu, Hawaii, January 2006

 Ma, or In-Between: from Aesthetics with a Nationalist Tinge to Religio-Ethics”

“Art History in Ideological Contexts: The Development of National Historiographies” Conference held at the University of Brussels, Brussels, Belgium, June 2005

“Womb Cosmology in Esoteric Buddhism and Richard Neutra’s Space of Stereognosis

The Hawaii International Conference on Social Sciences, Honolulu, Hawaii, June 2005

"Fudo and The Perception of Self-Negation: The Primitive in Tadao Ando's Architecture"

“The Primitive" conference held at Welsh School of Architecture, Cardiff University, Cardiff, Great Britain, September 2004

"The Philosophy of Nothingness and the Spatial Emptiness of the Church of Light"

57th Annual Meeting of the Society of Architectural Historians, Session: Modernism and Sacred Architecture, Providence, Rhode Island, U.S.A. April 2004

"Architecture and Mass Culture: Romanticization and Popularization of Christianity in East Asian Wedding Chapels"

Conference sponsored by Popular Culture Association, Session: Popular Culture and Architecture, New Orleans, U.S.A., March, 2003

"A Seeing in the Expanded Field: the Strip Window of the Villa on Lake Leman by Le Corbusier"

in Space Tactics: Modern Mediations on the Third Dimension, symposium held at the History of Art, Yale University, New Haven, Connecticut, U,S.A. February 2001

 

Scholarly Activities

Symposium on Latin American Architecture Moderator (Discussion on Material, Culture and Technology in contemporary Latin American architecture)

Held at the School of Architecture and Community Design, University of South Florida on October 3, 2006

Participating Architects: Mathiaz Klotz, Felip Asadi

Exhibition on Contemporary Korean Architecture Curator

held at the University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, U.S.A., (September 29, 2003 to October 10, 2003)

Sponsoring: (1)The Korean Culture and Arts Foundation, (2)Department of Architecture, University of Pennsylvania, (3)Graduate School of Design, University of Pennsylvania, (4) Korean Studies, University of Pennsylvania

 

Invited Talks

“Phenomenal Light, Metaphysical Light: the Quality of Light in Tadao Ando’s Architecture”

Forum Arsitek Muda Indonesia (Indonesian Young Architects Forum), Jakarta, Indonesia, April 5, 2006

 

Fellowships, Scholarships, Honors and Awards

Participation Award for 2005 Summer Workshop for Grant Writing by the Office of Research, September 2005

Y.H.Park Fellowship for Korean Studies Sept. 2002 – May 2003, Sept. 2003 – May 2004

University Fellowship University of Pennsylvania, September 1998 – May 2001

Everett Victor Meeks Graduate Fellowship Yale University, 1998

SOM Traveling Fellowship – Finalist, Yale University, 1998

 

Areas of Teaching

Design Studio

General Survey of the History of Western Architecture

Theory of Architecture

History of East Asian Modern Architecture

Cross-cultural Issues between East Asian Modern Architecture and Western Modern Architecture

 

Professional Experience

Studio for Painter Moon-Seon Yeom (Kongju, Korea)

Project Design and General Supervision (3,200 sq. ft)

Schematic and Conceptual Design Stage with the Collaboration of an Artist Client

Taegu Commercial Building (Taegu, Korea)

Responsible for the Whole Stages of Schematic Design and General Supervision (30,500 sq. ft, Construction Document in collaboration with Youngkoo Park, Dyne Architects' Association)

Under Construction, to be completed in December 2004

Korea Branch of Nikon Precision Co. Ltd. (Kiheung-Up, Korea)

Project Designer

Construction Completed in July, 1997, Heerim Architects' Associates (October 1995 - July 1996) Honorable Mention by Korea Institute of Architect, 1997

Competition for Konkuk University Hospital (Chungju, Korea)

Site Planning and Concept Design

Heerim Architects' Associates (June 1995 - August 1995)

 

Professional Membership

Society of Architectural Historians

South East Chapter of the Society of Architectural Historians

Association of Collegiate Schools of Architecture

International Network for Tropical Architecture

Docomomo