Theresa Hwang

Theresa Hyuna Hwang is a community-engaged architect, educator, and facilitator. She has spent over 13 years focused on equitable cultural and community development with multiple groups and campaigns. Theresa/Hyuna draws upon her experiences as a second generation Corean-American cis-woman, middle child, Libra sun with a Virgo rising, and more recently, as a sole parent and mother to a young child, to hold spaces for collective creation, mindful dialogue, and deep listening to address collective neighborhood-based trauma and design new visions and solutions based on first-hand experiences, centering those who have been most impacted. She is the founder of Department of Places, a participatory design and community engagement practice based in Los Angeles, CA. Additionally, she is the current Program Director of Design Futures Student Leadership Forum, a national initiative focused on elevating the role of design in dismantling systems of inequality. She was the former Director of Community Design and Planning at the Skid Row Housing Trust, a non-profit permanent supportive housing organization where she was the Enterprise Rose Architectural Fellow from 2009-2012. Her work has been featured in Architectural Record, the New York Times, Atlantic Cities, Al-Jazeera America and other media outlets. She was recognized as one of Next City’s Urban Vanguards 2015. She received her Master of Architecture from Harvard Graduate School of Design (2007) and a Bachelor of Science in Civil Engineering and Art History from the Johns Hopkins University (2001). She is a licensed architect in California and is a LEED accredited professional.

Residency/Fellowship

2020 Labor

Website

deptofplaces.org

Location

Los Angeles, CA USA