Building Technology, Architecture + Urbanism Faculty Search – Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Jan 10, 2024

Building Technology, Architecture + Urbanism Faculty Search
Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT)
Cambridge, MA

Positions:
Assistant Professor or Associate Professor without Tenure (both tenure track)

Anticipated date of hire:
July 1, 2024

Job Description:

The Department of Architecture at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) located in Cambridge, Massachusetts, seeks candidates to fill two tenure-track faculty positions (Assistant Professor or Associate Professor without Tenure) focused on sustainability, resilience, and equity within the built environment in the context of the climate crisis. The two positions are complementary, envisioned as a strategic cluster hire to focus research, design, and pedagogical efforts on forms of architectural response to this critical, multi-disciplinary topic.

They will be positioned in the Building Technology and Architecture + Urbanism areas of the department as outlined below. The expected hiring date is July 1, 2024, or on a mutually agreed date thereafter.

The two faculty positions are intended to contend with the climate crisis, and its bearing on the discipline of architecture. The environmental impact of buildings is severe: they cause nearly 40% of global greenhouse gas emissions through their construction and operation, along with substantial resource depletion, waste production, and destruction of ecosystems. These impacts are expected to increase as cities grow to meet mounting construction needs.

The climate crisis also impacts the built environment and frontline communities acutely and unjustly, with hazards of extreme heat, flooding, and increasingly frequent natural disasters. A spectrum of methods and expertise, including innovative technologies, climate-responsive design methods, community engagement, design for climate justice, and interdisciplinary collaboration are needed to face these challenges equitably and substantively. Successful candidates in this search will contextualize their work within this framing and make fundamental scholarly contributions while engaging across disciplinary cultures.

We recognize that candidates operating in this area will likely have a focus towards Building Technology or Design, while still working across these interrelated realms. As such, we imagine multiple scenarios for a successful hire across multiple positions; the two most likely are described here in detail.

A Building Technology Focused Hire – The Building Technology (BT) group is focused on technological and science-based approaches to the design, construction, and operation of buildings, with the shared goals of improving performance, efficiency of resource use, occupant well-being, and equity in the built environment. Faculty each direct their own research groups and collaborate on projects, teaching, and outreach. Research methodologies in BT include numerical and analytical simulation, physical experimentation, algorithmic development, historical assessment, community engagement and partnership, and policy outreach.

Topics of current BT work include structures, materials, building physics, operational and embodied energy use, and urban-scale performance. Faculty duties would include teaching courses in building technology and related topics, potentially including design, at the graduate and undergraduate levels. Successful candidates with this area as a focus are likely to complement and expand the existing areas of research with inventive, high-impact research and teaching.

Candidates who advance new directions in operational performance, comfort, or well-being in buildings, cities, and communities are especially encouraged to apply.

A Design Focused Position – The Design faculty in the department (known internally as the Architecture + Urbanism group) is centered on the production and teaching of architecture, urbanism, and design at a range of scales and contexts. A successful candidate with this area as a focus would have the ability to advance teaching and research in innovative design inquiry that engages…