Assistant Professor or Associate Professor without Tenure (tenure track) - Position in Design

Description

The Department of Architecture at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) located in Cambridge, Massachusetts, seeks candidates to fill a tenure-track faculty position (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 position is envisioned as a hire to focus research, design, and pedagogical efforts on forms of architectural response to this critical, multi-disciplinary topic. The candidate will be positioned in Architecture Urbanism area of the department as outlined below. The expected hiring date is July 1, 2025, or on a mutually agreed date thereafter.

The faculty position is 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. The successful candidate in this search will contextualize their work within this framing and make fundamental scholarly contributions while engaging across disciplinary cultures.

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 climate change, environmental justice, and sustainability. Interest and capacity to work and teach within a rigorous research environment that is addressing contemporary critical, practical, and social issues within the field will be desirable. Faculty duties would include teaching graduate and undergraduate courses in design at the architectural and/or urban scale, as well as related topics, potentially including building technology.  A particular area of focus would be the intersection of design and building technology as taught through studios, workshops and/or seminars, across undergraduate and graduate programs. Candidates who show a strong promise of creative achievement towards a more equitable and sustainable future within their design work, research, professional practice, community engagement, or a combination thereof are particularly welcome.

Teaching commitments will include classroom teaching, student advising and mentorship, with a particular focus on graduate and undergraduate studios and seminars, and supervision of graduate research and thesis work. The successful candidate will be expected to engage and contribute across these activities in some way. Candidates should demonstrate evidence of commitment to their work at the highest scholarly level. This evidence may include works of research, scholarship, and design; they may include peer-reviewed papers in journals and conference proceedings, sole-authored books, exhibitions in culturally influential venues, impactful software modules, built prototypes, community engagement projects, or professional work.

In keeping with MIT's culture of faculty self-governance and the Department's expectations of its faculty, the candidate will be expected to participate in the intellectual life and administrative functioning of the Department, and to contribute to the Department's research and pedagogical agendas. The candidate should enjoy collaborating with colleagues, be articulate communicators, and be dedicated to helping steer and support the rich, diverse culture of the Department. In pursuing research, teaching or practice, the candidate should also be an effective representative of the Department to the external world.

Qualifications

The positions are intended for early to mid-career scholars at MIT’s pre-tenured ranks (Assistant Professor or Associate Professor without Tenure, both tenure-track). An ability to advance a teaching and research agenda in an academic environment is essential.

Candidates should hold a terminal professional degree in architecture or allied discipline (i.e. M.Arch, MLA), or a doctoral degree in Architecture, Building Science, Su