Kathryn Rogers Merlino is an Associate Professor of Architecture and an adjunct Associate Professor in the Department of Landscape architecture. She teaches courses on architectural history, theories of preservation and building reuse, vernacular architecture as well as graduate and undergraduate design studios. Courses include Building REuse Seminar; Appreciation of Architecture, Public Spaces Public Life master studio with Gehl Architects (co-taught with Nancy Rottle in Landscape Architecture), Architecture in Rome (history, design studio) and design studios 400, 401 and 503.
Her current research argues that the reuse of existing buildings – both everyday ‘non- historic’ and ‘historic’ – is a critical part of our sustainable future. Informing her work are two research grants that study how building reuse and historic preservation can be sustainable both at the building and neighborhood scale. One project, funded by the Washington State Department of Archeology and Historic Preservation is looking at ways to communicate how historic preservation rehabilitation projects can be high performing, sustainable and historic. Another project, funded by the National Trust for Historic Preservation’s Preservation Green Lab, is developing metrics for measuring urban grain of existing, older neighborhoods, and seeks to illustrate how older fabric can contribute to more vibrant city neighborhoods.
After receiving a B.A. in Architecture from the University of Washington, Kathryn practiced in the Seattle area for several years and worked with Olson Sundberg Kundig Allen Architects (now Olson Kundig), where she received several awards for projects designed with the firm. She received both a Master of Architecture and a Master of Architectural History from the University of Virginia in 1999. She sits on the executive committee of the department and serves as the undergraduate program coordinator and the graduate faculty advisor. She is on the Board of Directors for the Vernacular Architecture Forum, and recently completed four years on the King County Landmarks Commission.
Gundula Proksch is a scholar, licensed architect, and Professor in the Department of Architecture and Adjunct Professor in the Department of Landscape Architecture. She is the Founding Director of the Circular City + Living Systems Lab (CCLS), an interdisciplinary research group investigating transformative strategies for sustainable urban futures. The CCLS leverages research and design methods to investigate the potential of synergetic systems to apply circular economy principles and integrate living systems in buildings and cities. These approaches produce and circulate resources within the food-water-energy nexus toward efficient, just, and sustainable urban built environments.
Professor Proksch is the Principal Investigator of the National Science Foundation (NSF) funded research project “Belmont Forum Collaborative Research: CITYFOOD.” As part of an international research consortium, with partners in Germany, Sweden, Norway, the Netherlands and Brazil, CITYFOOD investigates the potential of integration of aquaponic systems into cities on a broad scale, as an innovative solution to mitigate daunting environmental, economic, and social challenges. Her book Creating Urban Agricultural Systems: An Integrated Approach to Design (Routledge, 2017) is the first source book on how to approach urban agriculture from a systems perspective. It explores the ways urban farms provide integrated environmental systems, innovative operational strategies, and design approaches to create environmentally sound and economically viable urban agricultural operations.
Professor Proksch’s interdisciplinary sustainability research builds on her professional experience spanning fifteen years of practice in Europe and the United States. She practiced with renowned architects, David Chipperfield in London and Richard Meier, Stan Allen and Roger Duffy of SOM in New York. She holds a Master of Architecture from Cornell University and a master-level degree from the Technical University Braunschweig in Germany. She received a DAAD scholarship for independent studies at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, ETH Zurich in Switzerland.
Dr. Vikramaditya “Vikram” Prakash is an architect, architectural historian and theorist. He is Professor of Architecture at the University of Washington with adjunct appointments in Landscape Architecture and Urban Design and Planning. He received his B. Arch. from Chandigarh College of Architecture, India and his M.A. and PhD in History of Architecture and Urbanism from Cornell University.
Vikram works on issues of modernism, postcoloniality, global history and fashion & architecture. His books include Chandigarh’s Le Corbusier: The Struggle for Modernity in Postcolonial India, A Global History of Architecture (with Francis DK Ching & Mark Jarzombek), Colonial Modernities (co-edited with Peter Scriver), The Architecture of Shivdatt Sharma and Chandigarh: An Architectural Guide. A Global History is widely used as a textbook and being translated into five languages. His next book, One Continuous Line: Art, Architecture and Urbanism of Aditya Prakash, is due in summer 2020.
Vikram is Associate Dean for Academic Affairs in the College of Built Environments. He previously served as Associate Dean for External Affairs, Chair of Architecture and Director of Undergraduate Interdisciplinary Programs. His public service includes terms on the Boards of Seattle Center and the Seattle AIA. He also directed Chandigarh Urban Lab, a series of interdisciplinary international studios.
Vikram is co-PI (with Mark Jarzombek, MIT) of three successive grants of $1.0 million (2014), $1.5 million (2016) and $1.0 million (2019) awarded by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation. These resulted in the creation of GAHTC – a collective of over 200 teachers of global architectural history.
Vikram is host of ArchitectureTalk – a bi-weekly podcast based on curated conversations with invited guests. In its first two years, ArchitectureTalk received over 60,000 unique downloads and has been independently reviewed in The American Scholar.
The 2020 Annual meeting of the Association of Collegiate Schools of Architecture recognized Vikram with the title of ACSA Distinguished Professor.
Robert B. Peña, Associate Professor and Graduate Program Coordinator in the Department of Architecture, teaches in the areas of architectural design and building science with an emphasis on ecological design and high-performance buildings. Professor Peña is also an adjunct faculty member in the Landscape Architecture department. He received a B.S. in Architectural Engineering from the University of Colorado and an M.Arch. from the University of California, Berkeley. Professor Peña has over a decade of professional experience gained while working as a principal at Van der Ryn Architects and the Ecological Design Institute in Sausalito, California; EHDD Architects in San Francisco; Mazria Architects in Santa Fe, New Mexico; and in private practice in Washington, Idaho, Montana and Oregon. Professor Peña has held teaching appointments at Montana State University, The University of Oregon, and Cal Poly San Luis Obispo, and has taught as a lecturer at the University of California, Berkeley.
Professor Peña’s academic and professional work can be characterized by three interconnected themes: critical practice in the architecture sub-discipline of ecological design; teaching through the development of the knowledge and methods for sustainable design; and service in the university and community aimed at ecological literacy, environmental health, and resource conservation. In partnership with the UW Center for Integrated Design, Professor Peña works regionally with design teams on the development of high performance and net-zero energy buildings. Since the inception of the Bullitt Center, he worked with the Bullitt Foundation, the Miller Hull Partnership, and Schuchart Construction on the design and development of this groundbreaking high performance building.