Janette Kim
Associate Professor
Education
- M. Arch. Princeton University
- B. Arts Columbia University
Research
- Climate Justice
- Housing Justice
- Community Engagement
Janette Kim is associate professor and director of the Design and Planning Assistance Center (DPAC) at the University of New Mexico’s School of Architecture and Planning. She is also founding principal of the design practice All of the Above.
Janette joined UNM in the fall of 2026 with over 20 years of experience in community-engaged design. In her previous roles as director of the Urban Works Agency at California College of the Arts (2016-2026) and the Urban Landscape Lab at Columbia University (2008-2015), Janette organized academic partnerships with government agencies and community-based organizations. These partnerships brought together inventive design thinking and scholarship from the classroom with activism and deeply-rooted knowledge within communities. They addressed urgent issues of climate equity and housing justice, including wildfire recovery in the Sierra Nevadas, creek revitalization in upstate New York, cooperative housing in San Jose, and reparations for disenfranchised communities in Oakland, California.
In her own research and private practice, Janette’s work reveals how designers can empower communities to realize a more equitable redistribution of land and resources. Janette designs multimedia tools for community engagement as well as buildings, landscapes, and urban spaces. With community partners across Northern California, Janette designed three board games—In It Together, Bartertown, and Mix & Match—which play out relationship between climate change and social justice in cities and towns. In the San Francisco Bay Area Resilient by Design Challenge, Janette worked with civic partners to imagine how collective ownership of housing and flood-prone landscapes could address dual pressures of rising seas and gentrification. For a hotel in Sichuan, China; an experimental farmhouse in Sonoma County, California; and an office headquarters for Pinterest in San Francisco, Janette designed spaces that foster lively social exchange and reciprocity with the land.
Janette’s scholarly work builds on her experience in practice to reveal opportunities for systemic change. Her book, The Underdome Guide to Energy Reform (Princeton Architectural Press, with Erik Carver) reveals the political implications behind potential energy management strategies in architecture. Janette is currently writing a book called Property Playbook, which illustrates how activists and architects can co-opt property law to foster a more just and ecologically vibrant built environment. Janette’s work has been celebrated as an “indispensable tool” for framing “design as a form of political action,” and was praised by former Oakland Mayor Libby Schaaf for its vision for a “vibrant, equitable economy.”
Books
Property Playbook: From Dispossession to Reciprocity, ORO Editions AR+D, forthcoming.
The Underdome Guide to Energy Reform, co-authored with Erik Carver, Princeton Architectural Press, 2015.
Selected Book Chapters
“Daylighting Conflict: Board Games as Decision-Making Tools,” in Urban Innovation for the Climate Crisis: Design, Policy and Practice, ed. Gabriel Kaprielian and Julia Ulrich (Taylor & Francis), anticipated 2026.
“Resilient Cities, Resistant Publics,” in Designing Change: Approaches to Coastal Adaptation in Landscape Architecture, ed. Kees Lokman (Taylor & Francis), forthcoming.
“Accidental Commons,” in Architecture from Public to Commons. ed. Marcelo López-Diaz (Taylor & Francis), 2023.
“Modeling a Critical Resilience: Board Games and the Agonism of Engagement” in Games and Play in the Creative, Smart and Ecological City, eds. Dale Leorke and Marcus Owens, Routledge Research in Sustainable Urbanism series (Taylor & Francis): 187-208, 2021.
Selected Journal Articles
“Manifold Enclosures: Decommodifying Property at Esther’s Orbit Room,” in Public Culture, “Other than the City: Variations on a Theme” Vol 34:3, ed. Arjun Appaduraii, Erica Robles Anderson and Vyjayanthi V. Rao, with Keller Easterling (Duke University Press), 2022.
“Field Notes on Design Activism: 6,” in Places Journal, ed. Nancy Levinson. Online https://placesjournal.org/article/field-notes-on-design-activism-6/?cn-reloaded=1,
“Rules of the Game: Tools for Governing Climate Justice,” in 2021 Intersections Research Conference: COMMUNITIES, ed. Rico Quirindongo and Georgeen Theodore (ACSA Press), 2021.
“Shearing Property: Replatting Climate Risk,” in Perspecta, “Atopia,” ed. Alexis Hyman, Melinda Agron, Timon Covelli, David Langdon, Vol 54 (MIT Press): 44-53, 2021.
“Daylighting Conflict: Board Games as Decision-Making Tools,” in Scenario Journal, “Power” Issue 07, Winter, ed. by Nicholas Pevzner & Stephanie Carlisle (University of Pennsylvania School of Design). scenariojournal.com/article/daylighting-conflict. 2020.
“Whose Resilient Future,” editorial in Metropolis Magazine, Nov/Dec, in print and online metropolismag.com/viewpoints/year-review-2018-whose-resilient-future, 2018.
“How to Use This Book: Guidance in a Permissive Society,” in 104th ACSA Annual Meeting Paper Proceedings: Shaping New Knowledges, ed. Robert Corser and Sharon Haar (ACSA Press), 492-499, 2016.
“Crisis in Crisis: Biosphere 2’s Contested Ecologies,” co-authored with Erik Carver in Volume Magazine, “Storytelling,” ed Jeffrey Inaba, vol. 20, September (Archis Foundation): 29-33. https://issuu.com/gsapponline/docs/volume20-previews, 2008.
Selected Journal Editions, Edited
“Urbanism Beyond Corona,” The Agent, Summer, No. 4 (California College of the Arts, Urban Works Agency). Editor with editorial support from Irene Cheng, Neeraj Bhatia, Antje Steinmuller and Chris Roach, 2021.
#UrbanismBeyondCorona, Instagram series with 116 contributors. Co-editor with Irene Cheng, Neeraj Bhatia, Antje Steinmuller and Chris Roach. Jun-Jul, 2020.
ARPA Journal no. 05 “Conflicts of Interest,” June, arpajournal.net/conflicts-of-interest. Editor, 2018.
ARPA Journal no. 03 “Performance,” July. arpajournal.net/issue-03-performance (Columbia University GSAPP). Editor, 2015.
ARPA Journal no. 01 “Test Subjects,” May, arpajournal.net/test-subjects (Columbia University GSAPP). Founding Editor, 2014.
Selected Projects
Mix & Match, board game for the Almanor Foundation (with LMNOP), 2023-2025.
Experimental farmhouse, design for private client in Sonoma County, CA (with IF/THEN Studio) , 2024-25.
Manifold Enclosures, research on the East Bay Permanent Real Estate Cooperative
Minsu, hotel design in Sichuan, China (with Cheng + Snyder), 2022-23.
In It Together, board game for Resilient by Design Challenge (with the All Bay Collective), 2018-2021.
Estuary Commons, urban design proposal for Resilient by Design Challenge (with the All Bay Collective), 2017-18.
Bartertown, board game for Bay Area Conservation and Development Commission, 2017-19.
Fall Kill Master Plan, signage and urban design in Poughkeepsie, NY (with PAUSE, eDesign Dynamics, and Alice Feng), 2011-14.
Pinterest Headquarters, interior renovation in San Francisco, CA (with First Office and Schwartz and Architecture), 2012-13.
Safari 7, Safari 4, Safari 1, and Safari SZ/HK, podcast series in New York, São Paulo, Beijing, Hong Kong, and Shenzhen (with Kate Orff and Glen Cummings), 2009-13.
Block Pantry, temporary installation in Levittown, NY (with Erik Carver), 2011.
Living Memorial, landscape design and memorial at the National AIDS Memorial Grove, San Francisco (with Chloe Town), 2005-07.
Selected Exhibitions
Drawing Codes: Experimental Protocols of Architectural Representation, University of Housiton 2025, Cooper Union, NY, NY. 2019 (catalog) at Taubman College of Architecture and Urban Planning, Ann Arbor, MI. 2018; Knowlton School of Architecture, Ohio State University, Columbus, OH. 2018; Woodbury University Hollywood Outpost (WUHO) Gallery, Los Angeles. 2017; California College of the Arts, Hubbell Street Galleries, San Francisco. 2017 (Andrew Kudless and Adam Marcus, curators), 2017-25.
Parallel Grounds: Seoul Biennale of Architecture and Urbanism (Global Cities Exhibition), Seoul Citizens Hall, Seoul, Korea (Jinyoung Lim, Sang Hoon Youm, curators), 2023.
What is radical today? 40 positions on Architecture, Royal Academy of Arts, London, UK (Gonzalo Herrero Delicado, curator), 2019.
DRAWING ATTENTION :The Digital Culture of Contemporary Architectural Drawings, Roca London Gallery, London, UK (Jeremy Ficca, Amy Kulper and Grace La, curators), 2019.
Enough: The Architecture of Degrowth, Oslo Architecture Triennale, Nasjonalmuseet, Oslo, Norway (Matthew Dalziel, Phineas Harper, Cecilie Sachs Olsen and Maria Smith, curators), 2019.
Drawing for the Design Imaginary, Carnegie Museum of Art & Carnegia Mellon University, Pittsburg, 107th Association of Collegiate Schools of Architecture (ACSA) Annual Meeting (Jeremy Ficca, Amy Kulper and Grace La, curators), 2019.
Bay Area Now 8, Triennial, Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, San Francisco, in collaboration with Neeraj Bhatia, Antje Steinmuller, and Chris Roach (Lucía Sanromán, curator), 2018-19.
Platforms: Augmented Histories of Space, California College of the Arts, San Francisco, CA (Irene Cheng with Lucie Waschke, curators)
Bi-City Biennale of Urbanism/Architecture, Kwun Tong Ferry Pier, Hong Kong and Value Factory, Shenzhen, China, (Ole Bouman, curator) , 2018-19.
10th Sao Paulo Architecture Biennale, Metro Station Paraíso, São Paulo, Brazil, in collaboration with Magu Bueno (Guilherme Wisnik, head curator; Ana Luiza Nobre and Ligia Nobre, adjunct curators), 2013.
Open House, Levittown, NY (Droog Design and Diller Scofidio Renfro, curators), 2011.
Solo Exhibition. Safari 4, 8 Stations & video screens on Train Cars throughout the No. 4 Line; Beijing, China (Beijing MTR Corporation, curator), 2009.
Safari Basecamp, Earth Day Earth Fair, Grand Central Terminal, NY (New York MTA, curator), 2009.
Solo Exhibition. Safari 7, “SubTalk” ads and Metrocards system-wide, New York, NY (New York MTA, curator), 2009.
Solo Exhibition. Safari 7 Reading Room, Columbia University. Studio-X, NY. (Gavin Browning, curator) , 2009.
Selected Engagement and Leadership
California College of the Arts, Faculty Senate Vice President (former)
ACSA 111 th Annual Conference, Steering Committee
ACSA Faculty Design Award 2024, juror
University College Washington University St. Louis, Steedman Fellowship jury member
Member Owner at East Bay Permanent Real Estate Cooperative
Member Owner at the People Powered Solar Cooperative (former)
Recognition
Emerging Voices Award, The Architectural League of New York, 2023.
Future Architecture Platform, 2019.
AIA San Francisco Community Alliance Awards, Emerging Professional Award, 2018.
ASLA Honor Award in Communication (with Kate Orff and Glen Cummings), 2010.
Fellowships
MacDowell, Fellow in Architecture, 2024.
Van Alen Institute, New York Prize Fellowship, 2010.
Selected Grant Awards
Arnold W. Brunner Grant for Architectural Research, for Property Playbook, 2024.
Build it Green Innovation Fund, for Mix & Match, 2024
CCA Gensler Center for Design Excellence Research Fellowship , for Property Playbook, 2023-24.
Resilient by Design Bay Area Challenge award, for Estuary Commons and In It Together, supported by the Rockefeller Foundation,2017-18.
Graham Foundation for Art and Architecture, for The Underdome Guide to Energy Reform, 2013.
Asian Cultural Council, for Safari 4 Beijing, 2010
Previous Academic Appointments
California College of the Arts, Architecture Division, Associate Professor
Syracuse University, School of Architecture, Assistant Professor
Columbia University, Graduate School of Architecture, Planning & Preservation, Adjunct Assistant Professor
Barnard College, Barnard + Columbia Architecture, Adjunct Assistant Professor and Emergent Architecture Fellow
Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, School of Architecture, Clinical Professor
Ohio State University, Knowlton School of Architecture, Howard E. Lefevre Fellow
Creative Practice Affiliations
Urban Works Agency, California College of the Arts (co-Director)
Urban Landscape Lab, Columbia University (co-Director)
Laura Kurgan Design (Designer)
Diller + Scofidio (Junior Designer)
RoTo Architects (Intern Designer)
Maya Lin Studio (Junior Designer)
