I see a key part of my role as a teacher as helping designers to make use of the most important qualification there is for creating habitable built environments … their humanity.  This is what connects us to those we design for, and I believe it is essential to all building that aspires to be architecture.

Research & Creative Work

Embodied TimeThe word ʻtimeʻ occurs more than seven times as often as ʻspaceʻ in written English, yet in the design of the indoor environments where we now spend most of our lives, these priorities are typically reversed, with time often being little more than an afterthought. Embodied Time endeavors to correct that imbalance by demonstrating how built environments can be designed to evoke positive recollections of the past, interactions with the present, and anticipations of the future.

Constructed OtherThe Constructed Other argues that the widespread assumption of the otherness of Japanese architecture in the West made it not only a proving ground for Western architectural theory but also a seemingly endless source of novel architectural ideas. It is suggested that this had the effect of creating what amounted to a mythical version of Japanese architecture in the West, often at odds with historical fact, but which nonetheless exercised a powerful influence on 20th century architecture globally.

This Here Now This Here Now explains how traditional Japanese buildings acknowledge unique materials, objects and events, and argues that the built recognition of singular phenomena can serve to affirm the individuality of all being, including our own. The book also explains how buildings can help us overcome our separateness by enabling us to share the normally subjective experiences of this, here and now.

NaturallyAnimated-webThis video-augmented book explains how the natural movements of the sun, wind and rain can be used to improve the well-being of people in buildings and raise awareness of sustainable living practices. In demonstrating how buildings can be designed to reconcile their traditional role as shelter from the elements with the active inclusion of their movement, the book shows how, in the process of separating us from the extremes of the natural world, architecture can also be a means of reconnecting us with nature.

Crossing BoundariesThis exhibition, created in collaboration with Bundit Kanisthakon and Kaylen Denice Daquioag, uses the work of two modern American architects, Frank Lloyd Wright (1867-1959) and John B. Yeon (1910-1994), to illustrate how long-established ideas in one cultural context can serve as a source of innovation in another. It suggests that at least some modern American architects were in fact perfectly willing to make use of the past, provided that it was sufficiently far removed from their own medium and culture. At a time when the movement of ideas across cultural boundaries is increasingly being called into question, the examples of Wright and Yeon may serve as a reminder that changes of cultural context have often served as a powerful source of human inspiration.

THIRTEENTH INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON The Constructed EnvironmentThe 13th International Conference on the Constructed Environment examined how a range of human/nature interactions could be recalibrated to reduce the damage we are inflicting on natural systems. The conference was highlighted by plenary session talks from two internationally recognized leaders in the fields of bioclimatic design and environmental psychology, architect Ken Yeang and building scientist Lisa Heschong. There were also more than 130 paper presentations by speakers from around the globe, from Finland to New Zealand, and South Korea to Chile: https://cgscholar.com/cg_event/events/V23en/accepted_proposals# Many thanks to the local Organizing Committee of Dean William Chapman, Cathi Ho Schar, Simon Bussiere and Bundit Kanisthakon.

Professional Experience

Professor of Architecture, University of Oregon (2007—2019)
Visiting Research Fellow, University of Queensland, Australia (Oct—Dec 2009)
Japan Society for the Promotion of Science Research Fellow, University of Tokyo, Japan (Aug 2005—July 2006)
Associate Professor of Architecture, University of Oregon (2000—2007)
Visiting Teaching Fellow, University of Tasmania, Australia (August 1997)
Associate Professor of Architecture, Muroran Institute of Technology, Japan (1996—2000)
Japan Foundation Research Fellow, University of Tokyo, Japan (Jan 1995—Jan 1996)
Part-Time Lecturer in Architecture, University of Cambridge, England (1993—1994)
Course Director, University of Cambridge Board of Continuing Education, England (1993—1994)
Supervisor in Architecture, Jesus College, Cambridge, England (1990—1993)
Monbusho Scholar, University of Tokyo, Japan (Oct 1988—March 1990)
Visiting Research Associate and Fulbright Scholar, University of California, Berkeley (Oct 1986—May 1987)
Architectural Designer, Percy Thomas Partnership, London, England (1986)
Architectural Designer, Richard Seifert and Partners, London, England (1985—1986)
Architectural Designer, Archiplan Team, Singapore (1983)
Architectural Designer, YRM International, Hong Kong (1982—1983)

Recent Publications

Books

Kevin Nute (2024). Frank Lloyd Wright and Japan Revisited. London: World Scientific.
Kevin Nute (2023). Embodied Time: Temporal Cues in Built Spaces. London: Routledge.
Kevin Nute (2021). The Constructed Other: Japanese Architecture in the Western Mind. London: Routledge.
Kevin Nute (2020). This Here Now: Japanese Building and the Architecture of the Individual. London: World Scientific.
Kevin Nute (2018).  Naturally Animated Architecture: Using the Movements of the Sun, Wind and Rain to Bring Indoor Spaces and Sustainable Practices to Life. London: World Scientific.

Academic Papers

Kevin Nute (2023). “The Architecture of Expectation.” Architecture. 3 (4): 671-680.

Kevin Nute (2023). “Space and Time.” Architecture. 3 (4): 593–595.

Kevin Nute (2021). “Time in the Traditional Japanese Room.” The International Journal of Spatial, Architectonic and Environmental Design 16 (2): 16–24.

Zhuo Job Chen and Kevin Nute (2021). “Looking Forward to the Future: Visual Prospects and Optimism.” The International Journal of Health, Wellness and Society 12 (1): 1–12.

Kevin Nute (2021). “Beginning at the End: Visualizing User Experiences in the Early Stages of Building Design.” The International Journal of Design Education 16 (1): 55–66.

 Kevin Nute and Zhuo Job and Chen (2020). “Wind-Generated Movement as a Potential Means to Psychological Presence in Indoor Work Environments.” The International Journal of Design in Society, 14 (2): 31–38.

Kevin Nute (2020).” Crossing Boundaries: The Transfer of Spatial Ideas Across Culture and Medium in the Work of Two Modern American Architects.” The International Journal of Interdisciplinary Cultural Studies 14 (2): 14–26.

Kevin Nute (2019). “Toward a Test of Cultural Misappropriation.” The International Journal of Critical Cultural Studies 17 (2): 67–82.

Kevin Nute (2019). “Changing Interpretations of Otherness in English-Language Accounts of Japanese Architecture.” The Journal of Asian Architecture and Building Engineering, October 31: 1-15.

Kevin Nute (2019). “Space, Time and Japanese Architecture: The Birth of a New Temporal Tradition.” The International Journal of Architectonic, Spatial, and Environmental Design 13 (3): 51–63.

Kevin Nute (2019). “Buildings as a Means to Intersubjectivity: Case Studies from Traditional Japanese Architecture.” The International Journal of the Constructed Environment 10 (3): 1–9.

Kevin Nute and Zhuo Job and Chen (2018). “Temporal Cues in Built Environments.” The International Journal of the Constructed Environment 9 (1): 1–18.

Invited Articles

Kevin Nute (2025). “Modernity and Tradition: the Western Gaze.” Ari Seligman, ed., Handbook of Modern Japanese Architecture. Tokyo: MHM/University of Amsterdam Press.

Kevin Nute (2024). “Spatial Politics.” Tamie Glass and Lindsay Graham, eds., The Importance of Space. London: Taylor and Francis.

Zhuo Job Chen and Kevin Nute (2024). “Architecture, Time, and Well-Being: Toward Transcendence,” Victor Counted et al, eds., Place, Spirituality and Wellbeing: A Global and Multidisciplinary Approach. Berlin: Springer

 Kevin Nute (2023). “Deciphering the Imperial.” Kevin Nute, ed., The Frank Lloyd Wright Newsletter 34, no 3. Phoenix, AZ: The Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation.

Kevin Nute (2020) “Here’s How You Can Bring Nature Indoors When You’re Staying Home.” The PBS NewsHour, May 23, 2020.

Kevin Nute (2017) “How to Stay Calmer, More Alert and Save the Environment: Bring the Weather Indoors.” The Washington Post. August 14, 2017.

Kevin Nute (2017). “Frank Lloyd Wright Credited Japan for His All-American Aesthetic.” Smithsonian.com, June 8, 2017.

Awards

2023  University of Hawaiʻi Presidential Citation for Meritorious Teaching

2021  IRC Environmental Psychology Conference Best Presentation Award

2019  ELit Gold Medal

2018  Constructed Environment Award for Research Excellence, with Zhuo Job Chen

2018  Digital Book World Award