Assistant Professor - Computation and Design Methods - Department of Architecture

Job title

Assistant Professor
- Computation and Design Methods
- Department of Architecture

Salary range: The current salary range for this position is $84,100-$132,900 (9-month academic year salary), however, off-scale salary and other components of pay, which would yield compensation that is higher than this range, are offered to meet competitive conditions.

Anticipated start: July 1, 2027

Open date: July 31, 2026

Next review date: Thursday, Oct 15, 2026 at 11:59pm (Pacific Time)

Apply by this date to ensure full consideration by the committee.

Final date: Thursday, Oct 15, 2026 at 11:59pm (Pacific Time)

The Department of Architecture at the University of California, Berkeley, invites applications for a full-time tenure-track position at the rank of Assistant Professor in Computation and Design Methods. Berkeley's Department of Architecture sits within the College of Environmental Design, a leader in cross-disciplinary environmental design education since 1959, and is uniquely positioned in the Bay Area, where design practice, technological innovation, and critical inquiry converge in uncommon proximity;

for more information, visit UC Berkeley's Department of Architecture.

We seek candidates whose work examines and/or demonstrates promise in applying computation as a creative, social, and technical force in architectural design, connecting systems, tools, and intelligent environments to questions of authorship, agency, governance, participation, and the changing responsibilities of design. 'Computation and Design Methods' names a broad area of inquiry concerned with how tools, systems, data, media, and methods shape architectural design, representation, research, and practice.

Its primary concern is the study and making of socio-technical systems through which design activity is organized, coordinated, and governed, and design artifacts are generated, represented, and evaluated. Possible areas of focus include technically-oriented subjects such as building information modeling, digital twins, spatial data systems, and urban information systems; methodological inquiry such as feedback systems, human-building interaction, participation, distributed agency, and self-regulating processes;

and sociotechnical and critical research such as platform studies, civic data, public-interest technology, and built-environment science and technology studies. Across these areas, the field asks how computation operates in architectural design as means, as material, and as media, ultimately shaping how the built environment is experienced and inhabited over time. That is: as a way of making and evaluating design work, as a technical substrate shaped and incorporated into designed artifacts, and as a system that acts back on design practice and culture.

This search responds to a moment in which computation is rapidly reshaping design knowledge, pedagogy, and practice. As data-rich, automated, and intelligent systems transform how buildings are conceived, coordinated, evaluated, and inhabited, the need for critical frameworks has never been more pressing. Artificial intelligence, as much a cultural force as a technical one, has generated expectations, anxieties, and professional reorganizations that now bear directly on how architecture is taught, practiced, and understood.

The College of Environmental Design's foundational work on "wicked problems," feedback, participation, patterns, and design-as-argumentation offers an urgently needed foundation for preparing designers to act responsibly within this transformed landscape, recognizing that technical decisions are inseparable from their human, social, and environmental consequences.

As the position is situated within a broad and pluralistic field, work in this role may span research, practice, making, criticism, and scholarship across theoretical, applied, experimental, and industry-facing modes. The position carries responsibility for teaching computation both as an instrument of design and as a cultural actor with social, technical, and political consequences. The position involves advising and/or leading design studios and foundational representation courses, helping students connect computational tools and methods to questions of participation, governance, and human experience.

Teaching duties include broad undergraduate lecture courses, among them large-format courses introducing students to computation on both a theoretical and practical level, as well as advanced graduate seminars shaped by the faculty member's expertise

This position may include opportunities to build collaborations across Berkeley's campus with units such as computing, data science, information science, engineering, building technology, new media, design innovation, and science and technology studies. Through such partnerships, the appointed faculty member may advise students across colleges and degree programs, develop shared computational resources, and…