Jin Baek

Department of Architecture, Pennsylvania State University

128 Stuckeman Family Building, University Park, PA 16802
Phone: 814-863-5581, 813-727-0009 (Cell), Email: jinbaek@psu.edu, jinbaek10@hotmail.com

Affiliation
Assistant Professor, Department of Architecture, Pennsylvania State University (Aug. 2008 to the
present)
Visiting Associate Professor, Graduate Program in Sustainability Science, University of Tokyo
(January 2010 to August 2010)
Assistant Professor, School of Architecture and Community Design, University of South Florida
(August 2004 to June 2008)

Education
University of Pennsylvania Philadelphia, Pennsylvania (September 1998 - May 2004)
Doctor of Philosophy (History and Theory of Architecture), Department of Architecture, School of Design
Yale University New Haven, Connecticut (September 1996 - May 1998)
Master of Architecture (Post-Professional Program), School of Architecture
Seoul National University Seoul, Korea (March 1993-February 1995)
Master of Science in Engineering (Architecture Major), School of Engineering
Seoul National University Seoul, Korea (March 1988-February 1992)
Bachelor of Science in Engineering (Architecture Major), School of Engineering

Research Interests
Cross-cultural Issues between East Asia and the West in Modern and Contemporary Architecture
and Urbanism
Japanese and Western Phenomenology
Intersection between Phenomenology and Contemporary Discourses of Sustainability and Digital
Practice
Different Conceptions of Nature and Ecology

Publication (Book)
Nothingness: Tadao Ando’s Christian Sacred Space
New York; London: Routledge, 2009

Publications (Peer-Reviewed Journals)

“Shintai and the Empty Cross: Tadao Ando’s Church of the Light”
Accepted for Publication with minor revision in The Architectural Theory Review, vol. 14, no. 1 (April 2009), pp.
55-70
“Kitaro Nishida’s Philosophy of Emptiness and Its Architectural Significance”
Journal of Architectural Education, vol. 62, no. 2 (November 2008), pp. 37-43
“Mujo, or Ephemerality: the Discourse of the Ruins in Post-War Japanese Architecture”
The Architectural Theory Review, vol. 11, no. 2 (2006, published in Spring 2007), pp. 66-77.
“From ‘the Topos of Nothingness’ to ‘The Space of Transparency’: the Influence of Kitaro
Nishida’s Notion of the Body on Art and Architecture (1)”
Philosophy East and West, vol. 58, no.1 (January 2008), pp. 83-106
“The Sublime and the Azuma House by Tadao Ando”
Architectural Research Quarterly, vol. 8, no. 2 (2004, published May 2005), pp. 149-57.
“Infinity and a Wooden Cross” On Site, Issue 9 (April 2003)
“Quality in the dialectics of opposites: ‘Sense-equipped ego’ in Richard Neutra’s residential
architecture”
Accepted for publication in Architectural Research Quarterly (volume number and issue number not yet notified)
““Emptiness and Empty Cross: Tadao Ando’s Church of the Light”
Accepted for publication in Center 15 (Austin: The University of Texas Press, Fall 2007)

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 Publications (Book Chapters)
“The Perception of Self-Negation in the Space of Emptiness: The Primitive of Tadao Ando’s
Azuma House”
in Primitive: Original Matters in Architecture, eds. Jo Odgers, Flora Samuel and Adam Sharrs, London:
Routledge, 2006, pp. 183-193

Publications (Non-peer Review Journals)

“The Spatiality of Nothingness” Outer Horizons (Theme of the issue: “The Concept of Space in
21st Century Art”) Galeria d'Art Horizon, 2009, Spain (English,
Castilian Spanish and Catalan)
“Spatial Emptiness and Empty Cross: Church of the Light by Tadao Ando” 2A–Architecture
and Art Magazine, vol. 13, Fall 2009, published in Dubai, UAE
“Empty Cross and Shintai: Tadao Ando’s Church of the Light” in ed. Iris Aravot and Eran
Newman, Invitation to ArchiPhen, Some Approaches and interpretations of Phenomenology in Architecture, Haifa:
Technion, I.I.T. (to be published in Winter 2008)

Publications (Exhibition Pamphlet)

"Structuring Emptiness: Modernity in Korean Architecture, the Works of Hyun-Sik Min and
H-Sang Seung"
Pamphlet for the Exhibition on Contemporary Korean Architecture (held at the University of
Pennsylvania in September 2003)

Symposia and Conferences

The Second International Architecture and Phenomenology Conference
Keynote speech on contemporary architecture from the perspective of East Asian phenomenology,
Kyoto Seika University, Kyoto, Japan, June 2009
“Between fire and an open corner: Richard Neutra’s idea of ecology”
26th Annual Meeting of the Southeast Chapter of the Society of Architectural Historians
Greensboro, North Carolina, October 1-4, 2008
“Between material sensuousness and thingness: the significance of the structural glass in
Kengo Kuma’s Water/ Glass Residence from the perspective of phenomenology”
Conference entitled Tectonics: Making Meaning, Eindhoven University of Technology, December
2007
“Quality in the dialectics of opposites: The living body and Richard Neutra’s idea of the
“Sense-equipped ego”
“Quality” conference held at Welsh School of Architecture, Cardiff University, Cardiff, Great Britain,
July 2007
“Nothingness and architecture, a methodological re-orientation based upon an East Asian
phenomenological perspective”
Architecture and Phenomenology Conference, Technion, Israel Institute of Technology, May 2007
“Heterogeneous purity and pure heterogeneity: Bruno Taut’s interpretation of Japanese
traditional architecture and its response by Arata Isozaki”
Forthcoming in 60th Annual Meeting of the Society of Architectural Historians, Session: One World
or Many? The Conundrum of Singularity or Multiplicity in the History (Histories) of Architecture,
Landscape Architecture, and Urbanism, Providence, Rhode Island, U.S.A. April 2007
“Negating the Eternal Poetics of Architecture: Arata Isozaki’s Idea of the Ruins”
The Southeast Chapter of the Society of Architectural Historians (SESAH), Auburn University,
September 2006
“Richard Neutra’s “sense-equipped ego” and the womb cosmology of Esoteric Buddhism”
2006 ARCC/EAAE International Conference on Architectural Research, May 31, 2006 to June 4,
2006, Philadelphia, Temple University
“Adjustability, Climate and Dwelling Praxis: the Urban Typology of Ybor City in Tampa,
Florida”

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iNTA (International Network for Tropical Architecture) 2nd International Conference on Sustainable
Architecture and Urban Design in Tropical Regions, Department of Architecture, Duta Wacana
Christian University in Jogjakarta, Indonesia, April 2006
“Mujo, or Ephemerality: the Discourse of the Ruins in Post-War Japanese Architecture”
The Hawaii International Conference on Arts and Humanities, Honolulu, Hawaii, January 2006
“Ma, or In-Between: from Aesthetics with a Nationalist Tinge to Religio-Ethics”
“Art History in Ideological Contexts: The Development of National Historiographies” Conference
held at the University of Brussels, Brussels, Belgium, June 2005
“Womb Cosmology in Esoteric Buddhism and Richard Neutra’s Space of Stereognosis”
The Hawaii International Conference on Social Sciences, Honolulu, Hawaii, June 2005
"Fudo and The Perception of Self-Negation: The Primitive in Tadao Ando's Architecture"
“The Primitive" conference held at Welsh School of Architecture, Cardiff University, Cardiff, Great
Britain, September 2004
"The Philosophy of Nothingness and the Spatial Emptiness of the Church of Light"
57th Annual Meeting of the Society of Architectural Historians, Session: Modernism and Sacred
Architecture, Providence, Rhode Island, U.S.A. April 2004
"Architecture and Mass Culture: Romanticization and Popularization of Christianity in East
Asian Wedding Chapels"
Conference sponsored by Popular Culture Association, Session: Popular Culture and Architecture,
New Orleans, U.S.A., March, 2003
"A Seeing in the Expanded Field: the Strip Window of the Villa on Lake Leman by Le
Corbusier"
in Space Tactics: Modern Mediations on the Third Dimension, symposium held at the History of Art, Yale
University, New Haven, Connecticut, U,S.A. February 2001

Research Grants, Fellowships and Awards

Northeast Asia Council (NEAC), 2009 (3,000 US. Dollars)
Institute for the Arts and Humanities, Pennsylvania State University, 2009 (2,500 US Dollars)
School of Architecture and Landscape Architecture Faculty research Grant, Pennsylvania State
University, 2009 (7,265 U.S. Dollars)
New Researcher Grant University of South Florida, January 2006 to December 2006 (9,855.00 U.S.
Dollars)
European Science Foundation Travel funding for the paper presentation in the “Art History in
Ideological Contexts: The Development of National Historiographies,” Conference held at the
University of Brussels, Brussels, Belgium, June 2005
Matsushita International Foundation Funding for Research at the University of Tokyo, Japan
(March 2003 - August 2003) (500,000 Yen)
Kajima International Foundation Funding for Research at the University of Tokyo, Japan (Host
researcher: Hidetoshi Ohno, March 2001 - September 2001) (1,000,000 Yen)
Matlock Travel Fellowship Award University of Pennsylvania, Travel Grant for the 57th Annual
Meeting of the Society of Architectural Historians, Session: Modernism and Sacred Architecture,
Providence, Rhode Island, U.S.A. April 2004
Graduate Student Associations Council University of Pennsylvania, Travel grant for the paper
presentation in a conference sponsored by Popular Culture Association, Session: Popular Culture and
Architecture, New Orleans, U.S.A., March, 2003
Y.H.Park Fellowship for Korean Studies Sept. 2002 – May 2003, Sept. 2003 – May 2004
University Fellowship University of Pennsylvania, September 1998 – May 2001
Everett Victor Meeks Graduate Fellowship Yale University, 1998
SOM Traveling Fellowship – Finalist, Yale University, 1998

Research Activities
University of Tokyo Tokyo, Japan (March 2003 - August 2003)
Foreign Researcher, Department of Architecture

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University of Tokyo Tokyo, Japan (March 2001 - September 2001)
Research Fellow, Department of Architecture, Institute of Environmental Studies, Graduate School of Frontier
Sciences

Scholarly Activities
The Second International Architecture and Phenomenology Conference
Organizer
Kyoto Seika University of Arts, June 2009
Symposium on Latin American Architecture Moderator (Discussion on Material, Culture and
Technology in contemporary Latin American architecture)
Held at the School of Architecture and Community Design, University of South Florida on October
3, 2006
Participating Architects: Mathiaz Klotz, Felip Asadi
Exhibition on Contemporary Korean Architecture Curator
held at the University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, U.S.A., (September 29, 2003 to October 10,
2003)
Sponsoring: (1)The Korean Culture and Arts Foundation, (2)Department of Architecture, University
of Pennsylvania, (3)Graduate School of Design, University of Pennsylvania, (4) Korean Studies,
University of Pennsylvania

Professional Affiliation
BASHO Design Studio (2007–present)
Partner
Heerim Architects' Associates and Engineers Seoul, Korea (January 1995-July 1996)
Project Designer

Professional Experience
Dr. Cho’s Summer Residence (Cashiers, North Carolina)
In collaboration with Youngsun Sonn (5,200 sq. ft)
Currently in the stage of Construction Document
Fellowship Hall for Tampa Korean Methodist Church
Schematic Design in collaboration with Youngsun Sonn (8,000 sq. ft)
The remaining stages by Halflants & Pichette, Studio for Modern Architecture
Studio for Painter Moon-Seon Yeom (Kongju, Korea)
Project Design and General Supervision (3,200 sq. ft)
Schematic and Conceptual Design Stage with the Collaboration of the Artist Client
Taegu Commercial Building (Taegu, Korea)
Responsible for the Whole Stages of Schematic Design and General Supervision (30,500 sq. ft,
Construction Document in collaboration with Youngkoo Park, Dyne Architects' Association)
Completed in December 2004
Korea Branch of Nikon Precision Co. Ltd. (Kiheung-Up, Korea)
Project Designer
Construction Completed in July, 1997, Heerim Architects' Associates (October 1995-July 1996)
Honorable Mention by Korea Institute of Architect, 1997
Competition for Taegu Convention Center (Taegu, Korea)
1st Prize, Site Planning and Concept Design
Heerim Architects and Engineers (August 1995 - October 1995)
Competition for Konkuk University Hospital (Chungju, Korea)
Site Planning and Concept Design
Heerim Architects' Associates (June 1995 - August 1995)
Namchun Oriental Hospital (Seoul, Korea)
Site Planning and Concept Design
Heerim Architects' Associates (April 1995 - June 1995)

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Competition for Jinro Tower (Seoul, Korea)
1st Prize, Site Planning and Concept Design for Apartment and Office Complex
Heerim Architects' Associates (January 1995 - March 1995)
Extension Project for School of Engineering (Seoul, Korea)
Research and Site Planning
Engineering Center of Seoul National University (January 1993 – November 1993)

Professional Membership
Society of Architectural Historians
South East Chapter of the Society of Architectural Historians
International Network for Tropical Architecture
Docomomo US

Languages
Mother tongue: Korean
Secondary: English (fluent), Japanese (communicative)
Reading ability: English, French, Japanese

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