Prof. Jihun Kim   PhD    AIA    LEED

Dr. Jihun Kim is an architect, researcher, and educator with a passion for sustainability, energy flow, and environmental design. He holds a Master of Architecture from the University of Michigan and a Ph.D. in Architecture from the University of Pennsylvania, where he trained as a building scientist and pioneered a new algorithm to assess topography and urban form for their impact on local wind conditions, published in Building and Environment. He has published widely on airflow, thermal comfort, and energy optimization, and recently launched the $1.6M DeCarb Lab for sustainable architecture and performance testing. Throughout his career, Dr. Kim has taught at the University of Pennsylvania, CUNY City Tech, and Parsons School of Design, developing performance-based design curricula and leading studios and seminars that respond to evolving sustainability and resilience criteria. He also advised the Seoul Metropolitan Government on green building policy. His expertise spans decarbonization strategies, urban heat island analysis, low-carbon neighborhood design, carbon accounting, environmental simulation, and bioclimatic optimization, bridging academic research with practical innovation in sustainable architecture.

The courses he taught include

ARCH 754 Performance Design Workshop (PENN)

ARCH 755 Environmental Innovation & Prototyping (PENN) 

ARCH 708 Environmental Design Studio (PENN) 

PSCE 5300 Environmental Design (Parsons)

ARCH 2412 Architectural Design Studio IV 

ARCH 4812 Architectural Design Studio VII – Urban Design (CUNY) 

ARCH 4812 Architectural Design Studio VIII – Environmental Building Design (CUNY)

ARCH 3550 Building Performance Workshop (CUNY)

ARCH 4750 Advanced Simulation for High-Performance Building (CUNY)

ARCH 1250 Site Planning (CUNY)

His recent publications include

Integration of raytracing and CFD simulation to assess the impact of UVGI technology on the control of aerosol transmission in an occupied room (2021)

Integrating analog analysis techniques and building performance simulation in the architectural design process (2019)

Topography integration to wind downscaling. Building and Environment (2017)

A rapid indoor airflow mapping with two-dimensional computational fluid dynamics (2016)

An urban-conscious rapid wind downscaling model for early design stages (2015)

Discovery-Performance-Design (2013)

Building form optimization in the early design stage to reduce adverse wind condition-using computational fluid dynamics (2011)

His recent projects include

Microsoft Datacenter Evaporative Cooling Chimney – Prototyping a Passive System to Mitigate Extreme Heat (2022)

Parallel Scenery – Walking on Discrete Memories. Entry to an international design competition for a pedestrian bridge in Korea (2019)

Drop-in Modular Housing. Entry to a design competition ‘Big Ideas for Small Lots NYC’ (2019)

Dynamic Threshold Cities. Entry to an international design competition for Dubai UAE Expo (2018)

Collective Complexion, Entry to International Design Competition for Korean Writing Museum (2017)

Sky Condominium, Costa Rica, Entry to International Design Competition, Honorable Mention (2013)

Connecting Ocean To Mankind, South Korea, Entry to International Design Competition (2009)