Jia Yi Gu is an architectural designer and historian with research interests in the history and politics of architectural knowledge production and display, through the lens of media histories, material cultures, and feminist ethics of care. She is Assistant Professor in Architecture in Humanities, Social Science and the Arts at Harvey Mudd College and co-director of the architecture research and design studio Spinagu. She develops exhibitions, texts, public programs and experimental projects.
Over the past decade, she has developed a pedagogical and curatorial practice centering on transdisciplinary and inquiry-based exhibitions, alongside the critique and transformation of institutional work.Previously, she was director and curator at the MAK Center for Art and Architecture at the Schindler House, and curated Schindler House: 100 Years in the Making, Subject Studies: Reorientations, VALIE EXPORT: Embodied, and Entourage. From 2014-2020, she served as director of Materials & Applications, a Los Angeles based project space for experimental architectur. She is currently a Board member of the Feminist Center for Creative Work.
She holds a B.A. in Visual Arts from the University of California San Diego with Honors and a Master of Architecture degree from the University of California Los Angeles where she graduated with distinction and received the Alpho Rho Chi medal. She is currently completing her dissertation in the UCLA Critical Studies in Architecture. Her doctoral research investigates the use of models for research and development in the postwar architecture office of Eero Saarinen. She has presented her research at colloquiums and conferences at ETH Zurich, Society of Architectural Historians, and The Temple Hoyne Buell Center for the Study of American Architecture. Her scholarship has received support from UCLA, Bentley Library, Canadian Center for Architecture and Society of Architectural Historians.
She has taught graduate and undergraduate programs nationally as Visiting Artist in Experimental History Theory program at the California College of Arts, D. Kenneth Sargent Visiting Critic at Syracuse University, and Eugene MacDorman Visiting Professor at UT Austin School of Architecture. She has held teaching positions at UCLA, USC, SCI-Arc, University of Toronto, and Cal Poly San Luis Obispo. Prior to Los Angeles, she has worked internationally in Berlin, Barcelona, and Anyang with raumlaborberlin, Something Fantastic, and Kyong Park.
She has contributed written work to LOG, e-flux Architecture, Offramp and MAS Context. Her projects have been recognized and supported by UCLA, Getty Foundation, Graham Foundation for Advanced Studies in the Fine Arts, Checkpoint Charlie Foundation, Los Angeles Department of Cultural Affairs, Los Angeles County Arts Commission, Pasadena Arts Alliance, Bentley Library at the University of Michigan, and the Canadian Center for Architecture.
Over the past decade, she has developed a pedagogical and curatorial practice centering on transdisciplinary and inquiry-based exhibitions, alongside the critique and transformation of institutional work.Previously, she was director and curator at the MAK Center for Art and Architecture at the Schindler House, and curated Schindler House: 100 Years in the Making, Subject Studies: Reorientations, VALIE EXPORT: Embodied, and Entourage. From 2014-2020, she served as director of Materials & Applications, a Los Angeles based project space for experimental architectur. She is currently a Board member of the Feminist Center for Creative Work.
She holds a B.A. in Visual Arts from the University of California San Diego with Honors and a Master of Architecture degree from the University of California Los Angeles where she graduated with distinction and received the Alpho Rho Chi medal. She is currently completing her dissertation in the UCLA Critical Studies in Architecture. Her doctoral research investigates the use of models for research and development in the postwar architecture office of Eero Saarinen. She has presented her research at colloquiums and conferences at ETH Zurich, Society of Architectural Historians, and The Temple Hoyne Buell Center for the Study of American Architecture. Her scholarship has received support from UCLA, Bentley Library, Canadian Center for Architecture and Society of Architectural Historians.
She has taught graduate and undergraduate programs nationally as Visiting Artist in Experimental History Theory program at the California College of Arts, D. Kenneth Sargent Visiting Critic at Syracuse University, and Eugene MacDorman Visiting Professor at UT Austin School of Architecture. She has held teaching positions at UCLA, USC, SCI-Arc, University of Toronto, and Cal Poly San Luis Obispo. Prior to Los Angeles, she has worked internationally in Berlin, Barcelona, and Anyang with raumlaborberlin, Something Fantastic, and Kyong Park.
She has contributed written work to LOG, e-flux Architecture, Offramp and MAS Context. Her projects have been recognized and supported by UCLA, Getty Foundation, Graham Foundation for Advanced Studies in the Fine Arts, Checkpoint Charlie Foundation, Los Angeles Department of Cultural Affairs, Los Angeles County Arts Commission, Pasadena Arts Alliance, Bentley Library at the University of Michigan, and the Canadian Center for Architecture.