Faculty Profile

Mark Rakatansky is principal of Mark Rakatansky Studio, a practice that focuses on the performative capabilities of design.

His recent design work includes Reading Pavilion (for Banned Books) for the Gwangju Design Biennale; Psychosocial Rehabilitation Center for persons with mental illness in Kanakapura, India; Recombinant Campus, a series of designs for Queens College; houses in the United States and Korea (Turning House, Guest/Host House, Docking House); the exhibit design for The Open Book: A History of the Photographic Book from 1878 to the Present (The International Center of Photography) and the book design for Catherine Ingraham’s Architecture, Animal, Human (Routledge).

His designs and writings have appeared in numerous publications in Australia, Austria, Denmark, England, Germany, Italy, Japan, Korea, and the United States, including: ANY, Architecture Record, Art in America, Art New England, Assemblage, A+U, Camerawork, Chicago Sun-Times, Città: Terzo Millennio, Columbia Documents, Competitions, Yale Constructs, (UCLA) Faultlines, Journal of Philosophy and the Visual Arts, The Harvard Architecture Review, Iowa Architect, Metropolis, New York 2000, New York Newsday, Oakland Tribune, Perspecta, REDIRECT, Sharawadgi, Space Design, Strategies in Architectural Thinking, Sturm der Ruhe: What is Architecture?, The Sydney Morning Herald, and The Wall Street Journal.

His recent writings include: “The Possibility of Another Culture” in Space (2007), “Envelope Please” in Tschumi and Chang, eds., The State of Architecture at the Beginning of the 21st Century (Monacelli, 2004), “Why Architecture is Neither Here nor There” in Cairns, ed., Drifting: Architecture and Migrancy (Routledge, 2004), and “The Bitterness and Sweetness of Architecture” in Log (2003).

He teaches at Columbia University, Parsons School of Design, and Pratt Institute. He has also taught at Harvard University, Iowa State University, Northwestern University, University of California at Los Angeles, University of Florida at Gainesville, and University of Illinois at Chicago.

He has received a diverse range of awards in architecture, urbanism, landscape, and graphic design. His work was selected for inclusion in the 2009 Gwangju Design Biennale in South Korea and in The City: Third Millennium for the 2001 Venice Biennale. He was selected by the Architectural League of New York in 1995 as one of their ten “Emerging Voices.” He has received a special citation in the 39th annual Progressive Architecture Awards. His graphic design work has twice received awards from the American Center for Design’s Annual 100 Shows, as well as awards from the 41st I.D. Annual Design Review and PRINT’s 7th Digital Design & Illustration Annual. He has received fellowships and grants from the Chicago Institute for Architecture and Urbanism, the Graham Foundation, and the New York State Council on the Arts.