Julie Ju-Youn Kim, FAIA
William H. Harrison Professor and School Chair; Director, Flourishing Communities Collaborative
Contact
Julie Ju-Youn Kim, FAIA
William H. Harrison Professor and School Chair; Director, Flourishing Communities Collaborative
Education
Master of Architecture, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 1994
Bachelor of Arts (Architectural Studies major), Wellesley College, 1989
Keywords
Design, Culture, Architecture, Urban, Post-Industrial Landscapes, Tectonics
Biography
Julie Ju-Youn Kim, FAIA, is a licensed architect, educator, and researcher whose work bridges material innovation, public interest technology, and community-centered design. As Chair and William H. Harrison Professor at the Georgia Tech School of Architecture, her teaching and research advance architecture as both a creative practice and a civic instrument, linking the academy, practice, industry, and communities in pursuit of more equitable and resilient futures.
Professor Kim is also the founder and director of the Flourishing Communities Collaborative (FC2). Using Public Interest Technology, FC2 merges data-driven research with participatory design to address social and cultural issues in our built environment. The lab’s projects, supported by multiple PIT-UN Challenge Grants, the Georgia Smart Community Challenge, and the ACSA Collaborative Practice Award, demonstrate how architecture can authentically center community expertise while generating actionable, place-based design strategies.
Across her work, Professor Kim cultivates a design culture rooted in empathy, technical rigor, and creative experimentation. Her teaching and research share a common aim: to empower the next generation of architects to see design not only as a professional pursuit, but as a platform for innovation, agency, and meaningful social impact.
Statement of Teaching Interest
Professor Kim's teaching centers on connecting design, research, and civic engagement to prepare students for the evolving role of architecture in society. Julie sees architectural education as a platform for collaboration, linking the academy, practice, and industry to foster innovation grounded in social responsibility. Professor Kim currently teaches advanced Design + Research studios in the Master of Architecture degree program. She has also taught in advanced design studios in the Bachelor of Science in Architecture degree program in the past.
Statement of Research Interest
Professor Kim's research bridges design, technology, and social equity, advancing architecture as both a material practice and a civic instrument. She investigates how design innovation - rooted in collaboration between academia, industry, and communities - can address systemic challenges in housing, infrastructure, and urban resilience. Her recent research expands inquiry into how material performance and cultural identity intersect in post-industrial contexts.
Parallel to this work, Professor Kim's research and design lab, Flourishing Communities Collaborative (FC2), explores Public Interest Technology as a framework for community-based design. FC2 combines data-driven and participatory methods to address inequities in housing, health, and mobility - earning national recognition from ACSA and PIT-UN for its innovative integration of data-driven methods towards social and cultural conditions in our built environment, and for its exemplary civic and community engagement.
Together, these research trajectories pursue architecture as an agent of material intelligence, social justice, and collective transformation.
- Smart 20 Awards (Thomasville Heights: building strategies for energy efficiency retrofits / one of top twenty most transformative smart projects internationally), 2025
- College of Fellows, The American Institute of Architects, 2025
- AIAS National Educator Impact Honor Award, 2024
- AIA Georgia Educator of the Year Award, 2023
- The ACSA Collaborative Practice Award (Building a Sustainable Community through Design and Technology) recognizing up to four scholars nationally, 2023
Books
- Kim, J. J-Y, ed. Interdisciplinary Design Thinking in Architecture Education. London: Routledge (2023)
- Kim, J. J-Y. Intervening in the Urban Palimpsest: Design, Equity, and Community Agency. London: Routledge (under contract, expected 2026)
- Kim J. J-Y, ed. Dialogues in Design Thinking: reconsidering the interdisciplinary studio experiment in the School of Architecture at Georgia Tech (School of Architecture - Georgia Tech, Atlanta, 2021)
Book Chapters
- Kim, J. J-Y. “Expanding Equity and Empowering Communities: Lessons from the Field” in Puttock, R., ed. Teaching Carbon-Neutral Design in North America: Award-winning Architectural Design Studio Methodologies London: Routledge (March 2025)
- Kim, J. J-Y. “Setting the Table.” in J. J-Y Kim, ed. Interdisciplinary Design Thinking in Architecture Education. London: Routledge (2023)
- Kim, J. J-Y. “Re-thinking Architecture Education.” in J. J-Y Kim, ed. Interdisciplinary Design Thinking in Architecture Education. London: Routledge (2023)
- Kim, J. J-Y. “Learning from Practice – or Practice learning from Education.” in J. J-Y Kim, ed. Interdisciplinary Design Thinking in Architecture Education. London: Routledge (2023)
- Kim, J. J-Y. “Expanding Interdisciplinary Fields: reflections on the science of design.” in J. J-Y Kim, ed. Interdisciplinary Design Thinking in Architecture Education. London: Routledge (2023)
- Vogel, S and Blume, L, eds., Kim, J. J-Y. Teaching and Designing in Detroit: Ten Women on Pedagogy and Practice. “Reclaiming and Revealing Detroit: A City Disrupted” New York: Routledge (2020)
- Vogel, S and Blume, L, eds., Kim, J. J-Y and Vogel, S. Teaching and Designing in Detroit: Ten Women on Pedagogy and Practice. “Conclusion” New York: Routledge (2020)
Published and Accepted Journal Article (Refereed)
- Kadam, A., Sherif T., Mustafa, K., Doersam, M., Morton, S., Rollins, L., Kim, J. J-Y., Rakha, T. Advancing retrofit assessment in disadvantaged communities: A multimodal framework for evaluating low-budget weatherization programs, in Energy and Buildings, 2025, 115634, ISSN 0378-7788, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.enbuild.2025.115634. (https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0378778825003640)
- Kim, J. J-Y, Rethinking Architecture Education (Learning from Practice). DesignIntelligence (February 28, 2024)
- Kim, J. J-Y, Radical Good Trouble: Amplifying Spaces of Appearance. Charrette 8(1): Race and Space: Changing the Architectural Narrative. Guest Editors: Ann de Graft-Johnson, and Renée Tobe (06/14/2023): 15-35