Kenneth Michael Hays (born October 18, 1952) is an American

architectural historian An architectural historian is a person who studies and writes about the history of architecture, and is regarded as an authority on it. Professional requirements As many architectural historians are employed at universities and other facilities ...

and

professor Professor (commonly abbreviated as Prof.) is an Academy, academic rank at university, universities and other post-secondary education and research institutions in most countries. Literally, ''professor'' derives from Latin as a "person who pr ...

. He currently serves as

Eliot Noyes Eliot Fette Noyes (August 12, 1910 – July 18, 1977) was an American architect and industrial designer, who worked on projects for IBM, most notably the IBM Selectric typewriter and the IBM Aerospace Research Center in Los Angeles, Californi ...

Professor of Architectural Theory at

Harvard University Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of higher le ...

Graduate School of Design The Harvard Graduate School of Design (GSD) is the graduate school of design at Harvard University, a private research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. It offers master's and doctoral programs in architecture, landscape architecture, urban ...

. He is also co-director of the school's doctoral programs, namely

Ph.D A Doctor of Philosophy (PhD, Ph.D., or DPhil; Latin: or ') is the most common Academic degree, degree at the highest academic level awarded following a course of study. PhDs are awarded for programs across the whole breadth of academic fields ...

and DDes or Doctor of Design.

Education

Hays received his

B.Arch The Bachelor of Architecture (B.Arch.) is a bachelor's degree designed to satisfy the academic requirement of practising architecture around the world. Australia Architectural education in Australia varies depending on the university offering th ...

degree from the

Georgia Institute of Technology The Georgia Institute of Technology, commonly referred to as Georgia Tech or, in the state of Georgia, as Tech or The Institute, is a public research university and institute of technology in Atlanta, Georgia. Established in 1885, it is part of ...

in 1976. He then went on to the

Massachusetts Institute of Technology The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) is a private land-grant research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Established in 1861, MIT has played a key role in the development of modern technology and science, and is one of the ...

's School of Architecture and Planning, where he received his

M.Arch The “Master of Architecture”(M.Arch or MArch) or a “Bachelor of Architecture” is a professional degree in architecture, qualifying the graduate to move through the various stages of professional accreditation (internship, exams) that resu ...

in Advanced Studies in the History and Theory of Architecture in 1979. His dissertation was entitled ''Reference, Coherence, Meaning: A Realist Epistemology of Art'' under the direction of Henry A. Millon. In 1990, he completed his

program at

MIT School of Architecture and Planning The MIT School of Architecture and Planning (MIT SAP, stylized as SA+P) is one of the five schools of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, located in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1865 by William Robert Ware, the school offered the f ...

in the History, Theory, and Criticism of Architecture and Art. His main focus of study was European

Modernism Modernism is both a philosophy, philosophical and arts movement that arose from broad transformations in Western world, Western society during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The movement reflected a desire for the creation of new fo ...

and his minor field was

critical theory A critical theory is any approach to social philosophy that focuses on society and culture to reveal, critique and challenge power structures. With roots in sociology and literary criticism, it argues that social problems stem more from soci ...

. His dissertation was advised by Stanford Anderson and he wrote on ''Modernism and the Posthumanist Subject: The Architecture of Hannes Meyer and Ludwig Hilberseimer'', which he later published into a book of the same title.

Career

Hays has played a central role in the development of

architectural theory Architecture is the art and technique of designing and building, as distinguished from the skills associated with construction. It is both the process and the product of sketching, conceiving, planning, designing, and constructing buildings ...

North America North America is a continent in the Northern Hemisphere and almost entirely within the Western Hemisphere. It is bordered to the north by the Arctic Ocean, to the east by the Atlantic Ocean, to the southeast by South America and the Car ...

, which has gained him international renown. His research and scholarship have focused on the areas of European modernism and critical theory, as well as on theoretical issues of contemporary architectural practice. He has published on the work of modern architects such as

Hannes Meyer Hans Emil "Hannes" Meyer (18 November 1889 – 19 July 1954) was a Swiss architect and second director of the Bauhaus Dessau from 1928 to 1930. Early life Meyer was born in Basel, Switzerland, trained as a mason, and practiced as an architect i ...

Ludwig Hilberseimer Ludwig Karl Hilberseimer (September 14, 1885 – May 6, 1967) was a German architect and urban planner best known for his ties to the Bauhaus and to Mies van der Rohe, as well as for his work in urban planning at Armour Institute of Technology ( ...

, and

Mies van der Rohe Ludwig Mies van der Rohe ( ; ; born Maria Ludwig Michael Mies; March 27, 1886August 17, 1969) was a German-American architect. He was commonly referred to as Mies, his surname. Along with Alvar Aalto, Le Corbusier, Walter Gropius and Frank Lloyd ...

, as well as on contemporary figures such as

Peter Eisenman Peter Eisenman (born August 11, 1932) is an American architect. Considered one of the New York Five, Eisenman is known for his writing and speaking about architecture as well as his designs, which have been called high modernist or deconstructiv ...

Bernard Tschumi Bernard Tschumi (born 25 January 1944 in Lausanne, Switzerland) is an architect, writer, and educator, commonly associated with deconstructivism. Son of the well-known Swiss architect Jean Tschumi and a French mother, Tschumi is a dual French-S ...

, and the late

John Hejduk John Quentin Hejduk (July 19, 1929 – July 3, 2000) was an American architect, artist and educator of Czech origin who spent much of his life in New York City. Hejduk is noted for having had a profound interest in the fundamental issues of shap ...

. Hays was the founder of the scholarly architecture journal '' Assemblage'', which was a leading forum in discussion of architectural theory in both North America and Europe. From 1995 through 2005, he was

Chair A chair is a type of seat, typically designed for one person and consisting of one or more legs, a flat or slightly angled seat and a back-rest. They may be made of wood, metal, or synthetic materials, and may be padded or upholstered in vario ...

of the

Committee and director of the Harvard Graduate School of Design's Advanced Independent Study Program. In 2000, he was appointed the first Adjunct Curator of Architecture at the

Whitney Museum of American Art The Whitney Museum of American Art, known informally as "The Whitney", is an art museum in the Meatpacking District and West Village neighborhoods of Manhattan in New York City. It was founded in 1930 by Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney (1875–1942), ...

, a position he held until 2009.

Personal life

Hays resides in Boston, Massachusetts with his wife, Martha Pilgreen, who is also an architect and president of

Perry Dean Rogers Architects Perry Dean Rogers is an architectural firm based in Boston, Massachusetts. Founded in 1923 as Perry, Shaw & Hepburn, the firm became notable for its designs for educational institutions. The firm was responsible for the restoration of Colonial Will ...

. They have one son, Henry.

Works

*'' Modernism and the Posthumanist Subject: The Architecture of

and

'' (1992) *''Unprecedented

Realism Realism, Realistic, or Realists may refer to: In the arts *Realism (arts), the general attempt to depict subjects truthfully in different forms of the arts Arts movements related to realism include: *Classical Realism *Literary realism, a move ...

: The Architecture of Machado and Silvetti'' (1995) *'' Hejduk's Chronotope'' (1996) *''

Oppositions ''Oppositions'' was an architectural journal produced by the Institute for Architecture and Urban Studies from 1973 to 1984. Many of its articles contributed to advancing architectural theory and many of its contributors became distinguished practi ...

Reader: Selected Essays 1973-1984'' (1998) *'' Architecture Theory Since 1968'' (2000) * Introduction of '' The Singular Objects of Architecture'' (by

Jean Baudrillard Jean Baudrillard ( , , ; 27 July 1929 – 6 March 2007) was a French sociologist, philosopher and poet with interest in cultural studies. He is best known for his analyses of media, contemporary culture, and technological communication, as w ...

and

Jean Nouvel Jean Nouvel (; born 12 August 1945) is a French architect. Nouvel studied at the École des Beaux-Arts in Paris and was a founding member of ''Mars 1976'' and ''Syndicat de l'Architecture'', France’s first labor union for architects. He has ob ...

) (2002) *''Sanctuaries: The Last Works of John Hejduk'', with Maxwell L. Anderson, John Hejduk, Toshiko Mori (2002) *''Scanning: The Aberrant Architectures of Diller + Scofidio'', with Aaron Betsky and Laurie Anderson (2003) *'' Tschumi'', with Giovanni Damiani and Marco De Michelis (2003) *''

Buckminster Fuller Richard Buckminster Fuller (; July 12, 1895 – July 1, 1983) was an American architect, systems theorist, writer, designer, inventor, philosopher, and futurist. He styled his name as R. Buckminster Fuller in his writings, publishing more t ...

: Starting with the Universe'', with Dana A. Miller (2008) *'' Architecture's Desire: Reading the Late Avant-Garde'' (2010) *''Constructing a New Agenda: Architectural Theory 1993-2009'' (2010) *''

Log Log most often refers to: * Trunk (botany), the stem and main wooden axis of a tree, called logs when cut ** Logging, cutting down trees for logs ** Firewood, logs used for fuel ** Lumber or timber, converted from wood logs * Logarithm, in mathe ...

22'', with numerous authors (2010)

References

External links

*
Harvard Graduate School of Design profile
{{DEFAULTSORT:Hays, K. Michael 1952 births Living people 20th-century American architects American architectural historians American male non-fiction writers Georgia Tech alumni MIT School of Architecture and Planning alumni Harvard Graduate School of Design faculty Architectural theoreticians 21st-century American architects