Alex T. Anderson, Ph.D., Associate Professor in Architecture and Director of the MS program in Architectural History and Theory, teaches in the areas of architectural history, theory, representation, and design. Professor Anderson is also an adjunct faculty member in Landscape Architecture, and a faculty member in the the Ph.D. in the Built Environment program.
Professor Anderson received a B.S. in Civil and Environmental Engineering from Cornell University, and an M.Arch., M.S.Arch., and Ph.D. in Architecture from the University of Pennsylvania. Before assuming his position at University of Washington in the fall of 1998, Professor Anderson taught architectural history, theory, and design at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte, building structures and architectural theory at the Philadelphia College of Textiles and Science, and architectural drawing at the University of Pennsylvania.
Professor Anderson’s book, The Problem of the House: French Domestic Life and the Rise of Modern Architecture (University of Washington Press, 2006) examines domestic interiors and their role in shaping modern architecture as it developed in France during the early 20th century. Professor Anderson’s translation with commentary of Le Corbusier’s 1912 Étude sur le mouvement d’art décoratif en Allemagne (A Study of the Decorative Art Movement in Germany) expands this study of domestic architecture’s influence on modernism into Germany (with Mateo Kries, Vitra Design Museum, 2008). Professor Anderson’s other publications include “Table Settings: The Pleasures of Well-Situated Eating,” in Eating Architecture (MIT Press, 2004) and “On the Human Figure in Architectural Representation” in the Journal of Architectural Education, May 2002. He has presented papers on architectural history, theory, representation, and pedagogy at conferences in the United States and Europe and has contributed book reviews to journals in architecture and aesthetics.
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.
Ken Tadashi Oshima is Professor in the Department of Architecture at the University of Washington, where he teaches in the areas of trans-national architectural history, theory, representation, and design. He has also been a visiting professor at the Harvard Graduate School of Design and taught at Columbia University and the University of British Columbia. He earned an A.B. degree, magna cum laude, in East Asian Studies and Visual & Environmental Studies from Harvard College, M. Arch. degree from U. C. Berkeley and Ph.D. in architectural history and theory from Columbia University. From 2003-5, he was a Robert and Lisa Sainsbury Fellow at the Sainsbury Institute for the Study of Japanese Arts and Cultures in London.
Dr. Oshima’s publications include Kiyonori Kikutake: Between Land and Sea (Lars Müller/Harvard GSD, 2015), Architecturalized Asia (University of Hawaii Press/Hong Kong University Press, 2013), GLOBAL ENDS: towards the beginning (Toto, 2012), International Architecture in Interwar Japan: Constructing Kokusai Kenchiku (University of Washington Press, 2009) and Arata Isozaki (Phaidon, 2009). He curated “Tectonic Visions Between Land and Sea: Works of Kiyonori Kikutake” (Harvard GSD, 2012), “SANAA: Beyond Borders”” (Henry Art Gallery 2007-8), and co-curator of “Crafting a Modern World: The Architecture and Design of Antonin and Noemi Raymond” (University of Pennsylvania, UC Santa Barbara, Kamakura Museum of Modern Art, 2006-7). He served as President of the Society of Architectural Historians from 2016-18 and was an editor and contributor to Architecture + Urbanism for more than ten years, co-authoring the two-volume special issue, Visions of the Real: Modern Houses in the 20th Century (2000). His articles on the international context of architecture and urbanism in Japan have been published in The Journal of the Society of Architectural Historians, Architectural Review, Architectural Theory Review, Kenchiku Bunka, Japan Architect, L’Architecture d’Aujourd’hui, and the AA Files.
Brian McLaren’s teaching and scholarship are influenced by a background in cultural history and an ongoing interest in Marxist and contemporary critical theory, as well as postcolonial studies. The broad focus of his concerns have been on the relationship between architecture and politics during the Fascist period in Italy, with particular attention to the tensions that linked modernism and regional expression.
McLaren’s dissertation research and initial publications concentrated on the colonial context of Libya, in particular the relationship between modern architecture and local culture under the auspices of tourism. These publications include an edited collection with D. Medina Lasansky, Architecture and Tourism: Perception, Performance and Place, and a completed major book project, Architecture and Tourism in Italian Colonial Libya: An Ambivalent Modernism. More recently, this research has appeared in the Journal of Architecture and Giovanni Arena.
McLaren’s current research is related to a new book project, Modern Architecture, Colonialism and Race in Fascist Italy, 1935-1945, which was presented at the Annual Conference of the College Art Association in New York (February 2015) and Society of Architectural Historians in Chicago (April 2015). It is also published in abbreviated form in a themed issue of Architectural Theory Review (Fall 2015). McLaren is a member of the Race and Modern Architecture Project, a research collaborative co-directed by Professors Mabel Wilson (Columbia University), Charles Davis (University of North Carolina – Charlotte) and Irene Cheng (California College of the Arts).
Roark Congdon is an instructor of technology, drawing, and art history at several colleges and universities in Seattle. He has taught 3D modeling, rendering, sculpture, drawing, art history, and design at the university and high school levels in both in the U.S. and China for over 15 years.
Congdon is a McNeel certified Rhinoceros trainer, and the author of Architectural Model Building, Tools, Techniques, and Materials.