Mark Jarzombek, Professor of the History and Theory of Architecture, is the Associate Dean of MIT's School of Architecture and Planning. He teaches in the History Theory Criticism program (HTC) of the Department of Architecture. Jarzombek has taught at MIT since 1995, and works on a wide range of historical topics from the Renaissance to the modern. Jarzombek received his architectural Diploma in 1980 from the Eidgenössische Technische Hochschule and his Ph.D. from MIT in 1986. He was a CASVA fellow (1985), Post-doctoral Resident Fellow at the J. Paul Getty Center for the History of Humanities and Art, Santa Monica, California (1986), a fellow at the Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton, NJ (1993), at the Canadian Center for Architecture (2001) and at the Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute (2005). He has worked extensively on nineteenth and twentieth century aesthetics, and the history and theory of architecture. He has published several books including a textbook entitled A Global History of Architecture (Wiley Press, 2006) with co-author Vikram Prakash with the noted illustrator Francis D.K. Ching. He is the author of Architecture of First Societies: A Global Perspective (forthcoming, Wiley Press, 2013). Jarzombek teaches a range of courses from the undergraduate to the Ph.D. level.

Interview:

April 23, 2009 in Murcia Spain produced by Observatorio del Diseño y la Arquitectura. The interview covers a range of topics from Sustainability to the future of architecture.

Latest publications:

"Global in a Not-so-Global World" Written with Alfred B. Hwangbo, this article questions how far the call for "global architectural history" can reach in a world (sadly) that is increasingly less interested in that project.

"Dialectics of Death in the Civilian Era: Hans van Houwelingen's Sluipweg" This article interprets Hans van Houwelingen's recent installation Sluipweg based on its unique location within a UNESCO Heritage site.

"The Power of Red" From the Cave of Blombos (ca. 100,000 BCE) to a Wei Dynasty Tomb, this article discusses the ancient color of all, red, derived from ochre, and used globally by First Society people to designate the interface of life and death.

"The Metaphysics of Permanence -- Curating Critical Impossibilities" in Log #21 (New York, NY: Anyone Corporation, 2010), pp. 125-135.