Visiting Faculty Join UTSOA

Several visiting faculty members will join the UT School of Architecture this semester, bringing with them a wealth of knowledge and expertise that will diversity and enhance our academic research, leadership, and curriculum. Two new visiting fellows—Andy Bako, the school’s 2024-2026 Emerging Scholar in Design, and Michael Moynihan, our 2024-2026 Land, Space, and Identity in the Americas Fellow—will join us for two academic years, while Karel Klein will be here for the Fall 2024 term.

We are so excited about the conversation and work they will bring to the school. Learn more about them and stay tuned for more in-depth profiles on each of them throughout the semester. 

Andy Bako, 2024-2026 Emerging Scholar in Design

Andy Bako is a licensed architect in Ontario, Canada, and the founder of ABAD Co., a multidisciplinary design practice based in Toronto. Before joining UTSOA, he served as the 2023-2024 Schidlowski Emerging Faculty Fellow and Visiting Assistant Professor at the College of Architecture and Environmental Design at Kent University. Andy has also held teaching positions at the John H. Daniels Faculty of Architecture, Landscape, and Design at the University of Toronto and the Azrieli School of Architecture and Urbanism at Carleton University. He holds a Master of Architecture with Distinction from the Harvard Graduate School of Design, where he was awarded the 2019 Digital Design Prize for his thesis project, “Normal House,” which explored the intersections of image culture, suburbia, and the limitations of contemporary design software.

Michael P. Moynihan, 2024-2026 Land, Space, and Identity in the Americas Fellow

Michael Moynihan’s research focuses on the global history of housing during the Cold War/development era and broader questions about politics, technology, and expertise in architectural practice. He is currently working on a book manuscript titled Systems Will Prevail: Global Housing and the Decline of the Professional Architect, which contextualizes how a shift in expertise related to international housing policy has shaped the education, careers, and salaries of architects in the past five decades. With the support of this fellowship, Michael is working on a second book project focused on the relationship between architectural practice and artificial intelligence. Before coming to Texas, Michael taught architectural history and theory at Cornell University and Syracuse University.

Karel Klein, Eugene McDermott Centennial Visiting Professor

Karel Klein is an architect and educator who has been working with various artificial intelligence technologies since 2016. Her ongoing project is an investigation into crossbred image-objects produced using atypically trained GANs and their capacity for contemporary mythmaking in architecture. With these tools, Karel is interested in the re-enchantment of the architectural body—one that both foments and succumbs to sensual perceptions, and one that discovers new and unexpected relations to the world beyond the realm of the rational. Her work in this domain has been exhibited at the Venice Biennale, 2021, the FRAC Institute, Orleans, France, Des Lee Gallery, St. Louis, and SCI-Arch Gallery, Los Angeles. A recent lecture, “Sing, Goddess,” was given at UT Austin in May 2023. Karel currently teaches at SCI-Arc, Washington University, and University of Pennsylvania.