Thena Tak

Assistant Professor of Architectural Studies

Thena Jean-hee Tak is a researcher, designer, and the founder and principal of LILO: Little Office, a design practice that privileges alternative ways of seeing and thinking.  The practice considers stories of entanglement, slowness, reciprocity, and the quotidian through the weaving of architecture, land, and art.  Her current research engages the notion of surrogates as both a point of inquiry and a working methodology with a particular focus on its relationship to the more-than-human world.   She has also worked professionally at a number of renowned offices including, Vincent James Architects Associates in Minneapolis, Howeler and Yoon Architecture in Boston, and Barkow Leibinger Architects in Berlin.  As an educator, she has taught at the University of British Columbia School of Architecture and Landscape Architecture, the University of Minneapolis College of Design, and Cornell University’s Architecture, Art, and Planning.  She holds a Master of Architecture from Harvard University Graduate School of Design with Distinction and a Bachelor of Architecture from Cornell University Architecture, Art and Planning.