Jia Yi Gu
I am a Los Angeles-based architectural scholar, curator, and designer whose research explores the materiality of buildings and the history of cultural techniques in architecture. I develop research and curatorial projects, publications, and programs about architecture and its wide-ranging practices. I’m Assistant Professor of Architecture in the Department of Humanities, Social Sciences, and the Arts at Harvey Mudd College and one-half of the architecture and research studio Spinagu. For over a decade, I served as director and curator of two small and unusual architecture institutions MAK Center for Art and Architecture at the Schindler House and Materials & Applications, a Los Angeles-based project space for experimental architecture. I am a Board member of the Feminist Center for Creative Work.
My scholarly research centers on the history of material experimentation, cultural techniques in architecture, and the history of museums and exhibitions. My doctoral project examines modeling and testing procedures in Eero Saarinen & Associates, asking how working procedures in the office became representations for material thinking. I teach courses on the histories of architectural knowledge production through the development of tools and techniques, history of art and architecture exhibitions and spaces, Los Angeles art and architecture, and material experimentation in design.
In 2024, I co-directed the Getty PST ART project Material Acts, an interdisciplinary research initiative, exhibition, publication, and symposium exploring material experimentation in design and architecture at the intersections of architecture, craft, and science, presented at Craft Contemporary. I am co-curator of the exhibition Unknowing Los Angeles, a history of postmodern Los Angeles architecture with Gary Riichirō Fox and Aurora Tang. Alongside my historical scholarship, I work with, support, and advocate for small art and architecture organizations. I’m working on The Institution is a Proposition, a publication on the mission, histories, and labor economies of small and unusual architecture institutions.
My work has been generously supported by the National Endowment for the Arts, Getty Foundation, California Council of Arts, Canadian Center for Architecture, and the Graham Foundation for Advanced Studies in the Fine Arts.
My scholarly research centers on the history of material experimentation, cultural techniques in architecture, and the history of museums and exhibitions. My doctoral project examines modeling and testing procedures in Eero Saarinen & Associates, asking how working procedures in the office became representations for material thinking. I teach courses on the histories of architectural knowledge production through the development of tools and techniques, history of art and architecture exhibitions and spaces, Los Angeles art and architecture, and material experimentation in design.
In 2024, I co-directed the Getty PST ART project Material Acts, an interdisciplinary research initiative, exhibition, publication, and symposium exploring material experimentation in design and architecture at the intersections of architecture, craft, and science, presented at Craft Contemporary. I am co-curator of the exhibition Unknowing Los Angeles, a history of postmodern Los Angeles architecture with Gary Riichirō Fox and Aurora Tang. Alongside my historical scholarship, I work with, support, and advocate for small art and architecture organizations. I’m working on The Institution is a Proposition, a publication on the mission, histories, and labor economies of small and unusual architecture institutions.
My work has been generously supported by the National Endowment for the Arts, Getty Foundation, California Council of Arts, Canadian Center for Architecture, and the Graham Foundation for Advanced Studies in the Fine Arts.
︎
Current
Assistant Professor of Architecture (tenure-track) Department of Humanities, Social Sciences and the Arts, Harvey Mudd College, 2024—present
courses:
Architecture and Its Media
Campus Architecture
Architecture on Display
Material Acts
Postmodern Los Angeles
Board of Directors: Feminist Center for Creative Work
July 2024—present
Advisory Board: homeLA
May 2024—present.
courses:
Architecture and Its Media
Campus Architecture
Architecture on Display
Material Acts
Postmodern Los Angeles
Board of Directors: Feminist Center for Creative Work
July 2024—present
Advisory Board: homeLA
May 2024—present.
Activities
Selected
Selected
Unknowing Los Angeles
Exhibition on Los Angeles architecture in the 1980s with Gary Riichiro Fox, Getty Research Institute, 2030.
When Wood Became Technical
Presentation at the Society of Architectural Historians; abbreviated essay contribution in Beyond Provenance (forthcoming), edited by Erin Besler and Sarah Hearne
Major Repairs: A Conference on Reparative Practices, exploring spatial and architectural responses to wildfire. Organizer, presented by LA Forum for Architecture and Urban Design, hosted by Metabolic Studio, April 26, 2025.
Material Acts is an interdisciplinary research initiative, exhibition, publication, and symposium exploring the intersections of architecture, craft, and science through material experimentation. Initiated as part of Getty PST ART: Art and Science Collide and co-organized Craft Contemporary, with co-curator Kate Yeh Chiu, Hilary Huckins-Weidner and strat coffman, with support from Getty Foundation, Graham Foundation and the National Endowment for the Arts.
On Transliterations: Helen Liu Fong on PaperPaper presented at Bright Constellations: WDA Conference at Princeton University, February 28, 2025.
Living Systems: From the Geologic to the MetabolicEssay for More Than Human at the Design Museum, London. Thank you Justin McGuirk for the invitation, 2025.
Subject Studies: Reorientations attends to administrative and care-taking practices of the institution and its publics. Initiated with Rosario Talevi and takk architecture. The program was awarded the PICE A/CE Grant and California Council for Arts Grant, Winter 2022.
The Budget, an essay on the politics, poetics and pragmatics of exhibition budgets e-flux architecture’s Solicited: Proposals, edited by Nick Axel and James Taylor-Foster.
A Conversation on Open Letters & Spreadsheets, exploring the formats of open letters, spreadsheets, and list-making as sites of digital vigilantism unfolding in architecture.
In MAS Context: Digital Vigilantism, 33
Schindler House: 100 Years in the Making investigates the fabrications of a modernist house.
With Gary Riichirō Fox and Sarah Hearne, MAK Center for Art and Architecture, September 2022—January 2023.
Architecture as Cultural Exchange with Gilly Karjevsky, Rosario Talevi, and Aurora Tang, a curatorial exchange with support from Checkpoint Charlie Fund, 2021.
Minor Spaces/Major Repairs
Presentation, CARE-WORK: Space, Bodies, and the Politics of Care, on institutional practices through data-rich details, including spreadsheets, exhibition budgets and systems of accounting. Invited by Brittany Utting, Assistant Professor, Rice Architecture, March 2, 2021.
Backstage of the Global Histories Survey: Slow Looking, Translating, Listening, ActivatingCo-organized with Esra Akcan, Associate Professor, Cornell University, and Rafico Ruiz, Director of Research, Canadian Center for Architecture, SAH/GAHTC Teacher-to-Teacher Workshop. March 20, 2021.
Method Acts: techniques for graduate students Co-organized Jonah Rowan and Jessica Varner, SAH Graduate Student Advisory, January - February 2021.
Can We Teach an Anti-racist Architectural History?
Co-organized with Irene Cheng, Charles L. Davis II, Ana María León, and Mabel O. Wilson. GAHTC Workshop and Roundtable.
Cardboard Knowledge: Problem Solving and Perception in Saarinen's TWA Simulations Paper presentation in the panel Utopias of the Self. Session chairs: Victoria Bugge Øye, Princeton University, and Larry Busbea, University of Arizona, April 14, 2021.
Problem Solving in Saarinen's OfficePresented at the Doctoral Colloquium organized by gta Institute for the History and Theory of Architecture at ETH Zürich in September 28, 2021.
Formats of Care
Log 48: Expanding Modes of Practice, edited by Bryony Roberts, Winter 2020.
Analogue Models and Cardboard Cutters in Eero Saarinen & Associates, 1956-1959Doctoral Talks, ETH Zürich, Institute for the History and Theory of Architecture (July 23, 2020).
Understanding the Architectural ModelInvited participant in the Getty Research Institute working group. Organized by Maristella Casciato, Gary Fox, Emily Pugh at the Getty Research Institute, March 10-11, 2020.
Staging Construction
With M&A Program Board. Materials & Applications, 2019.
Formats of Care: Reclaiming Feminist Social Practice Working SymposiaInvited Speaker, Universität der Künste, Berlin, June 14, 2019.
Privacies Infrastructure, a public program interrogating the physical structures of privacy and privatization in Los Angeles.With Aurora Tang. Materials & Applications, July 21-September 2018
Exhibition on Los Angeles architecture in the 1980s with Gary Riichiro Fox, Getty Research Institute, 2030.
When Wood Became Technical
Presentation at the Society of Architectural Historians; abbreviated essay contribution in Beyond Provenance (forthcoming), edited by Erin Besler and Sarah Hearne
Major Repairs: A Conference on Reparative Practices, exploring spatial and architectural responses to wildfire. Organizer, presented by LA Forum for Architecture and Urban Design, hosted by Metabolic Studio, April 26, 2025.
Material Acts is an interdisciplinary research initiative, exhibition, publication, and symposium exploring the intersections of architecture, craft, and science through material experimentation. Initiated as part of Getty PST ART: Art and Science Collide and co-organized Craft Contemporary, with co-curator Kate Yeh Chiu, Hilary Huckins-Weidner and strat coffman, with support from Getty Foundation, Graham Foundation and the National Endowment for the Arts.
On Transliterations: Helen Liu Fong on PaperPaper presented at Bright Constellations: WDA Conference at Princeton University, February 28, 2025.
Living Systems: From the Geologic to the MetabolicEssay for More Than Human at the Design Museum, London. Thank you Justin McGuirk for the invitation, 2025.
Subject Studies: Reorientations attends to administrative and care-taking practices of the institution and its publics. Initiated with Rosario Talevi and takk architecture. The program was awarded the PICE A/CE Grant and California Council for Arts Grant, Winter 2022.
The Budget, an essay on the politics, poetics and pragmatics of exhibition budgets e-flux architecture’s Solicited: Proposals, edited by Nick Axel and James Taylor-Foster.
A Conversation on Open Letters & Spreadsheets, exploring the formats of open letters, spreadsheets, and list-making as sites of digital vigilantism unfolding in architecture.
In MAS Context: Digital Vigilantism, 33
Schindler House: 100 Years in the Making investigates the fabrications of a modernist house.
With Gary Riichirō Fox and Sarah Hearne, MAK Center for Art and Architecture, September 2022—January 2023.
Architecture as Cultural Exchange with Gilly Karjevsky, Rosario Talevi, and Aurora Tang, a curatorial exchange with support from Checkpoint Charlie Fund, 2021.
Minor Spaces/Major Repairs
Presentation, CARE-WORK: Space, Bodies, and the Politics of Care, on institutional practices through data-rich details, including spreadsheets, exhibition budgets and systems of accounting. Invited by Brittany Utting, Assistant Professor, Rice Architecture, March 2, 2021.
Backstage of the Global Histories Survey: Slow Looking, Translating, Listening, ActivatingCo-organized with Esra Akcan, Associate Professor, Cornell University, and Rafico Ruiz, Director of Research, Canadian Center for Architecture, SAH/GAHTC Teacher-to-Teacher Workshop. March 20, 2021.
Method Acts: techniques for graduate students Co-organized Jonah Rowan and Jessica Varner, SAH Graduate Student Advisory, January - February 2021.
Can We Teach an Anti-racist Architectural History?
Co-organized with Irene Cheng, Charles L. Davis II, Ana María León, and Mabel O. Wilson. GAHTC Workshop and Roundtable.
Cardboard Knowledge: Problem Solving and Perception in Saarinen's TWA Simulations Paper presentation in the panel Utopias of the Self. Session chairs: Victoria Bugge Øye, Princeton University, and Larry Busbea, University of Arizona, April 14, 2021.
Problem Solving in Saarinen's OfficePresented at the Doctoral Colloquium organized by gta Institute for the History and Theory of Architecture at ETH Zürich in September 28, 2021.
Formats of Care
Log 48: Expanding Modes of Practice, edited by Bryony Roberts, Winter 2020.
Analogue Models and Cardboard Cutters in Eero Saarinen & Associates, 1956-1959Doctoral Talks, ETH Zürich, Institute for the History and Theory of Architecture (July 23, 2020).
Understanding the Architectural ModelInvited participant in the Getty Research Institute working group. Organized by Maristella Casciato, Gary Fox, Emily Pugh at the Getty Research Institute, March 10-11, 2020.
Staging Construction
With M&A Program Board. Materials & Applications, 2019.
Formats of Care: Reclaiming Feminist Social Practice Working SymposiaInvited Speaker, Universität der Künste, Berlin, June 14, 2019.
Privacies Infrastructure, a public program interrogating the physical structures of privacy and privatization in Los Angeles.With Aurora Tang. Materials & Applications, July 21-September 2018