Jung-hye Shin

Educational background:

Ph.D. Architecture, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee

MS Design and Environmental Analysis, Cornell Universty

BFA Design, Seoul National University

Jung-hye Shin, Ph. D., is Assistance Professor of Design Studies at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Her scholarship and teaching address the dynamic relationship between people and their environment as to how people construct their environment based on their social understanding of the given place. Once constructed, this environment continues to influence the life of the people in it while they modify their places. This broad conceptual understanding of the human-environment relationship has enabled her to look into various settings including healthcare facilities, residential buildings, and workplaces.

Her recent research specifically focuses on Korean residential buildings and the unique Korean heating system called ondol. Utilizing various research method tools, she not only identifies its unique physical features but also how gender roles, class relations, and inter-generational roles have manifested within the physical arrangement of the ondol and how changing technology and globalization have created and reinforced the cultural meanings embedded in physical presence of the ondol.

Her ongoing research interest includes: (1) ethnic culture and residential environment in the context of globalization; (2) thermal comfort and illumination; and (3) cross-cultural comparison of housing for older adults.

Her teaching efforts are directed towards demonstrating the application of research and social theories to the study of buildings. She particularly emphasizes a broad range of methodologies and their conceptual linkage to social theories in the inquiry of building design. She also plays a central role in introducing design foundations to incoming design students.

Faculty and Staff - Jung-hye Shin