Julia Felkner

Photo of Julia Felkner

Assistant Professor

Juliana M. Felkner was born in Kansas City, Missouri, USA. She studied architecture and spatial planning at the University of Kansas and the Royal Institute of Technology (KTH), Stockholm. She worked for Ateliers Jean Nouvel in Paris before moving to Zurich to conduct her PhD research at ETH in the Chair of Structural Design and the Chair of Structural Mechanics. She is a member of the Swiss Society of Engineers and Architects (SIA). She started as a tenure-track assistant professor at the School of Architecture in 2016 and is an advisor in the Center for Sustainable Development.

Prof. Felkner’s research and teaching addresses the societal challenges that come with increasing urbanization of the world. Smart urban growth requires holistic strategies ranging from historic preservation and spatial development, to architecture as materialization of the planning process and energy related questions pertaining to a sustainable built environment.

Prof. Felkner received the Faculty Innovation Grant for 2017 for the project, "Form and Energy: Bridging Engineering and Architectural Education through a collaborative project utilizing interactive architectural models, sensors, control systems and real-time data"

She is currently working with the School of Engineering on a project, "Integrated Transformation of Urban, Building, and Energy Systems," which simulates programmatic spatial development scenarios resulting from integrated modeling of the energy system and the built environment.

She advises graduate students in the Program of Historic Preservation and the Center for Sustainable Development and is now part of the faculty for Community and Regional Planning.

She also serves as the Vice-Chair of the Faculty Women’s Organization steering committee at UT Austin.