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INVISIBLE: CONVERSATION on Practice

Alan Balfour is educated at Edinburgh and Princeton, He is Emeritus Professor and former Dean of the College of Architecture (now called the College of Design) at Georgia Tech. He was formerly architecture dean at Rensselaer, chairman of the Architectural Association in London and architecture dean at Rice University. Since 2014 he has held the position of advisory professor to the CAUP Faculty of Tongji University, Shanghai.

Alan Balfour writes on architecture and the cultural imagination. His books include ROCKEFELLER CENTER, Architecture as Theater, (McGraw-Hill, 1978); BERLIN: The Politics of Order: 1737-1989 (Rizzoli 1990)); and three books in Wiley/Academy’s World Cities series, BERLIN, 1995; (This and the earlier book on the city, received AIA International Book Awards); SHANGHAI, 2000; and NEW YORK in 2001.  In 2005 he published CTREATING A SCOTTISH PARLUAMENT (Finlay Brown) on an architecture anticipating independence. In the last decade he has published two books on the Middle East, SOLOMON’S TEMPLE, Myth, Conflict and Faith, (Wiley-Blackwell, 2013) and THE WALLS OF JERUSALEM, Preserving the Past Controlling the Future, (Wiley-Blackwell. 2019).  2023 will see the publication from Anthem Press of CLASSICAL EDONBURGH, A City Divided, previously published privately as PRIDE AND POVERTY.

Balfour was the year 2000 recipient of the Topaz Medal, the highest recognition given in North America to an educator in architecture.

Michelle Hauk is an assistant professor in architectural history and theory at the Sam Fox School of Design & Visual Arts at Washington University in St. Louis. Trained in both architectural design and history, she specializes in the history of architecture, technology, and society in twentieth-century Japan. After earning her Ph.D. in Japanese History from the department of East Asian languages and cultures at Columbia University in 2023, she spent one year as a postdoctoral fellow at the Reischauer Institute of Japanese Studies at Harvard University. Hauk earned her MArch and MSAS from WashU in 2015. Her research examines the evolution of the dwelling in twentieth century Japan through the lens of water and the technologies that organize its flow. She considers the ways in which the design of water within domestic environments intersects with social relationships, cultural practices, and the natural environment.

Heather Woofter studied biochemistry as a teenager at the University of Maryland and chemical engineering at Virginia Polytechnic Institute. She received a Bachelor of Architecture from Virginia Polytechnic Institute and Master of Architecture from Harvard University Graduate School of Design. She was a project architect and manager for Bohlin Cywinski Jackson in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania, Marks Barfield in London, UK and Robert Luchetti Associates in Cambridge, Massachusetts. She is a registered architect in Commonwealth of Pennsylvania and Missouri and has a Royal Institute of British Architects Parts I and II. Heather taught at the Harvard Graduate School of Design Career Discovery Program, Boston Architectural College and Roger Williams University. She was an Assistant Professor at Virginia Polytechnic Institute, Visiting Professor at Aristotle University of Thessaloniki in Greece and Konkuk University in Seoul, Korea. She was an endowed Sam and Marilyn Fox Professor and Director of College of Architecture and Graduate School of Architecture & Urban Design at Washington University in St. Louis. Currently, she is the Dean at the School of Architecture at University of Texas in Austin. Heather is a founding Co-Director and Owner of Axi:Ome llc with Sung Ho Kim since 2003. 

Sung Ho Kim studied drawing and sculpture as a teenager at the Art Students League of New York and Harvard Graduate School of Design Career Discovery Program. He received a Bachelor of Fine Arts and Bachelor of Architecture from Rhode Island School of Design and an AA Diploma from Architectural Association of London, UK with Royal Institute of British Architects Part I and II. He also received his Master of Science in Architecture Studies from Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He was a project designer for Nasrine Seraji in Paris, France and Wellington Reiter in Cambridge, Massachusetts. He served as a principal researcher for the Interrogative Design Group at Center for Advanced Visual Studies at MIT. Sung Ho taught at Rhode Island School of Design and was an Assistant Professor at Northeastern University. He was a Visiting Professor at Aristotle University of Thessaloniki in Greece and Konkuk University in Seoul, Korea. He was an endowed Raymond E. Maritz Professor of Architecture and engaged in research with Biology and Computer Science at Washington University in St. Louis. Currently, he is the Director of Architecture Program at Kent State University. Sung Ho is a founding Co-Director of Axi:Ome llc with Heather Woofter since 2003.