Lily Chi

Associate Professor

Department

Architecture

Contact

240G E. Sibley Hall
(607) 255-3797
lhc3@cornell.edu

Academic Research Areas

Architectural design
Film/video/sound
Urbanism

Lily Chi’s teaching covers topics in contemporary design research, 18th to 21st-century theory and criticism, and architectural drawing/representation in western history. Her studios have investigated urban temporalities, 1:1 and the situational, film and formation, and questions of location/globalization in the contemporary city. Chi served as design editor for the Journal of Architectural Education from 2000–04. She is completing a writing project on city-building, war, and propaganda in 20th-century Saigon.

Chi received her B.Arch. with high distinction from Carleton University (Canada), her M.Phil. in architectural history and theory from Cambridge University, and her Ph.D. from McGill University. Her doctoral work examined the role of Enlightenment concepts of custom, nature, and history in the formation of a modern architectural discourse. These themes are developed in her current research on the “sites” of architectural work in a geographically expansive discipline.

Academic Research Areas

Architectural design
Film/video/sound
Urbanism

Vertical panels of blue and red metal span the screen with grass in the foreground.

Lily Chi and John McMinn, Wind Gate, Temporary Cities Project.

Publications

Beyond Expression

In Architecture’s Appeal: How Theory Informs Architectural Praxis, Marc Neveu and Negin Djavaherian (eds), Routledge, 2015.
Sighting Saigon

In Tourism Revisited, David Vanderburgh and Hilde Heynen (eds), Lettre Volée, 2007.
On the Use of Architecture: The Destination of Buildings Revisited

In Chora 2: Intervals in the Philosophy of Architecture, McGill-Queen’s University Press, 1996.

Classes

Architectural Analysis

ARCH 2301/2302
Drawing Ideas

ARCH 3308/6308
Thesis Proseminar

ARCH 5110
Graduate Design Seminar

ARCH 5110
Theories and Analyses of Architecture I

ARCH 5301

Selected Awards, Grants, and Fellowships

Grants, Institute for the Social Sciences and Mario Einaudi Center for International Studies

“Building on the Informalized City: An Interdisciplinary Conference” with Jeremy Foster
2010
Grant, Graham Foundation for the Arts

“Architecture, Tourism, and Citizenship: Saigon 1911–63”
2004
Rotch Traveling Studio Grant, Cornell University

M.Arch. II Hanoi Studio
2002
Finalist, A Room in the Garden

Collaboration with Claudio Venier
Grant, Canada Council for the Arts

“Temporary Cities” with John McMinn