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Katherine Ambroziak

Associate Professor, Associate Dean for Academic Affairs and Research

My research examines how designers and users become conscious of their built and natural environments and what this may mean to the generation of healthy perceptions and memory. I focus on spatial theory related to sensory response and body perception, ritual theory, and contemporary memorial theory. These themes inform my teaching and participation with students, whether this be in design studio, special topics seminars, technology courses, or extracurricular explorations. A licensed architect in the State of Tennessee, I am active in community engagement as both an academic and civic pursuit. Since 2009, I have served as the primary designer and coordinator of the Odd Fellows Cemetery Reclamation Project, a public space initiative that aims to engage and support the communities of East Knoxville through the design and implementation of a sustainable memorial landscape.

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Contact Information

Master of Architecture, Princeton University, Princeton, New Jersey, 1996
Bachelor of Science in Architecture, University of Virginia, Charlottesville, Virginia, 1992

Licensed Architect, State of Tennessee (2007-present)
American Institute of Architects, member (2012-present)
Architecture, Culture and Spirituality, member (2011-present)
NCARB certification (2009-present)
Knoxville ReAnimation Coalition, advisory board member (2009-present)

My professional practice extends my research and engagement interests to realms of creative activity. I have recently been involved in three very distinct, professionally enriching collaborations – time[scape]lab with design partners Brian Ambroziak and Andrew McLellan (2008-present), Applied Research with Brian Ambroziak, Ted Shelton, and Tricia Stuth (2006-2015), and the Odd Fellows Cemetery Reclamation Project with fellow UTK faculty and students, the Knoxville ReAnimation Coalition representing communities in East Knoxville, and the City of Knoxville (2008-present).

time[scape]lab investigates the implications of time as a modifier of architectural space and environments. Design explorations are theoretical and rely on literary analysis as an instrument of the creative process. Described as fictions, the work is sensory based and relies on cultural traditions of myth and storytelling as premises for the investigations.

Applied Research combines various research and scholarly interests and explores them through design that focuses on contemporary architectural concerns. Together, members have developed projects, both theoretical and realized, that deal with issues of cultural sustainability, environmental and geographic perception, energy and material consumption, and qualitative living.

The Odd Fellows Cemetery Reclamation Project is an evolving, long-term research, design, and engagement initiative that addresses the potential for a deteriorating cultural landscape to be rehabilitated and reintegrated into the social and spiritual lives of the communities that surround it. Incorporating multidisciplinary research, creative activity, and practicum, it acts as a paradigm for academic scholarship and has become a focus or testing model for many socially and culturally geared courses and events offered through the College of Architecture and Design and various departments of the University of Tennessee, Knoxville campus. The reclamation process was initiated in 2008 in collaboration with the Knoxville ReAnimation Coalition (KRC), a grass roots organization in East Knoxville that focuses on educating and creating social wealth amongst Knoxville’s African American communities through projects that illuminate and valorize its past achievements. Since the initiative’s inception, I have served as project coordinator, researcher, and primary designer.

Special Topics in History, Theory, and Criticism: Spaces of Memory
Architectural Design Studios
Diploma Studio/Capstone Studio
Technology courses: Tectonics and Stereotomics and Climatic and Daylight Design

Cultural studies in Architecture
Memorial studies
Phenomenology and sensory perception

Fred & Rosalee Oakley Award, The Association for Gravestone Studies (AGS) 2016
Excellence in Academic Outreach, University of Tennessee Chancellors Honors Award 2015
Religious Art & Architecture Merit Award for Religious Architecture (unbuilt), Faith & Form Magazine and The Interfaith Forum on Religion, Art and Architecture (IFRAA) 2012 for Odd Fellows Cemetery Reclamation Project
Yeats Architecture Competition, Highly Commended for The Lake Isle of Innisfree, 2015 (with time[scape]lab)
AIA Housing Award (2015), AIA Gulf State Region Design Awards, Merit Award (2-14) and AIA East Tennessee Design Award, Award of Excellence (2014) for Old Briar (with Applied Research)

Working and learning in the College of Architecture & Design has given me an increasingly broader perspective about design’s potential to make impactful change. It’s interesting how scholarship focused on memory and ritual finds relevancy on issues such as social justice, health and well-being, and cultural sustainability. These issues drive my research and engagement and the degree to which students incorporate them into their own study and creative work is motivational.

Katherine Ambroziak