K. Michael Hays
Eliot Noyes Professor of Architectural Theory
Director of the Master in Design Studies Program

On leave for Spring 2023
Michael Hays is Eliot Noyes Professor of Architectural Theory at the Harvard University Graduate School of Design and Director of the Master in Design Studies program. Hays joined the Faculty of Design in 1988, teaching courses in architectural history and theory.
Hays has played a central role in the development of the field of architectural theory and his work is internationally known. His research and scholarship have focused on the areas of European modernism and critical theory as well as on theoretical issues in contemporary architectural practice. He has published on the work of modern architects such as Hannes Meyer, Ludwig Hilberseimer, and Mies van der Rohe, as well as on contemporary figures such as Peter Eisenman, Bernard Tschumi, and the late John Hejduk. Hays was the founder of the scholarly journal Assemblage, which was a leading forum of discussion of architectural theory in North America and Europe. From 1995 to 2005 he was Chair of the PhD Committee and Director of the GSD’s Advanced Independent Study Programs. In 2000 he was appointed the first Adjunct Curator of Architecture at the Whitney Museum of American Art, a position he held until 2009.
Hays received the Bachelor of Architecture degree from the Georgia Institute of Technology in 1976. From MIT he received the Master of Architecture degree in Advanced Studies in 1979, and the Doctor of Philosophy in the History, Theory, and Criticism of Architecture and Art in 1990.
Publications
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Inscriptions: Architecture Before Speech
Edited by K. Michael Hays and Andrew Holder
Jennifer Bonner, Catherine Ingraham, Edward Eigen, Phillip Denny and Antoine Picon, ContributorsDecember 2021
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America
Mark Lee, Jerold S. Kayden, Jennifer Bonner, K. Michael Hays, Michael Meredith, Edward Eigen, Mack Scogin, Max Kuo, Sharon Johnston, Maurice Cox, Rahul Mehrotra, Kersten Geers, David Van Severen, Sean Canty and Michael Van Valkenburgh
February 2021
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Architectural Ethnography
Momoyo Kaijima, Yoshiharu Tsukamoto and K. Michael Hays, Contributors
September 2017
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Architecture's Desire: Reading the Late Avant-Garde
By K. Michael Hays
February 2009
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Toshiko Mori Architect: Works and Projects
By Toshiko Mori
Edited by K. Michael HaysJune 2008
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Buckminster Fuller: Starting with the Universe
By K. Michael Hays
January 2008
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Scanning: The Aberrant Architectures of Diller + Scofidio
By K. Michael Hays
February 2003
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Sanctuaries: The Last Works of John Hejduk
By K. Michael Hays
January 2003
Exhibitions
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How to See Architecture: Bruno Zevi (MArch ’42)
K. Michael Hays, Curator
NOV 1 – DEC 20, 2018
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Inscriptions: Architecture Before Speech
K. Michael Hays and Andrew Holder, Curators
JAN 22 – MAR 11, 2018
Events
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Kathryn Yusoff, “Geo-Logics: Natural Resources as Necropolitics”
K. Michael Hays, Host
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Sarah Whiting and K. Michael Hays: A Conversation
Sarah M. Whiting and K. Michael Hays, Contributors