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Headshot of Whitney Moon in front of colorful tiles.

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Whitney Moon

  • Associate Professor, Architecture

Education

  • Ph.D. (Architectural History & Theory), UCLA, 2016
  • BArch, Cal Poly San Luis Obispo, 2000

Biography

Whitney Moon is Associate Professor of Architecture at the University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee, where she teaches architectural history, theory, and design. Trained as both an architect and historian, her research and teaching focus on the critical examination of temporary architecture, including objects, installations, exhibitions, pavilions, stage sets, and other time- and event-based constructions. Her work investigates how architectural temporality intersects with social, political, economic, and environmental conditions, positioning the temporary as a productive site for experimentation, invention, and innovation within architectural practice.

Moon completed her Ph.D. in Architectural History and Theory at the University of California, Los Angeles in 2016. Her dissertation, The Architectural Happening: Diller and Scofidio, 1979–89, examines the early objects, installations, and performances produced by Elizabeth Diller and Ricardo Scofidio, arguing that their first decade of work challenged architecture’s conventional objecthood by foregrounding impermanence, performance, and event as central architectural concerns.

Her scholarship also engages the history and theory of pneumatic architecture as a distinct strain of temporary architecture. In 2018, as a research fellow at the Canadian Centre for Architecture in Montréal, Moon conducted archival research that culminated in a temporary exhibition and public lecture titled Cedric Price and the Rise and Fall of Pneumatic Architecture. This work examined Cedric Price’s underexplored contributions to the development and regulation of air as an architectural medium, situating pneumatic structures within broader technological and cultural frameworks.

Moon’s ongoing research explores inflatables as a lens through which to examine ephemerality—such as adaptability, scalability, materiality, and lightness—and their implications for the technical and cultural performance of architecture. She is currently completing a collection of essays on pneumatic architecture in the 1960s and 1970s, titled Who Let the Air Out, and is co-authoring a forthcoming book and exhibition with Monica Obniski on the architectural work of Willis and Lillian Leenhouts.

Her writing appears in scholarly journals and edited volumes, and her collaborative work has been exhibited nationally and internationally. Since 2021, she has led design studios in collaboration with The Chipstone Foundation and has worked with Milwaukee-based partners to engage students in material experimentation, exhibition design, and pneumatic fabrication. Moon is a registered architect in California and Wisconsin and holds a Bachelor of Architecture from California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo and a Ph.D. in Architectural History and Theory from the University of California, Los Angeles.

Links

Recent & Selected Works

Four people walk barefoot on sand between large, colorful abstract inflatable sculptures with swirling pink, purple, and orange patterns under a blue sky.
2025. Professor Whitney Moon led a seminar on pneumatic architecture in collaboration with FuzzPop Workshop. Students developed design proposals for Art Blaze, a series of summer events organized by Joy Engine at McKinley Beach in Milwaukee. Inspired by the flow and movement of water, the resulting installation, Threshold, investigates boundaries between human and environment, interior and exterior, and reality and dream.
Gallery room with small tabletop sculptures on wooden stands, including dark cylinder pieces, white forms, and geometric models near a doorway.
2025. Professor Whitney Moon led a studio in collaboration with The Chipstone Foundation exploring material intelligence in architecture. Following a series of material experiments with paper, oak, rubber, leather, linen, and terra cotta, students developed proposals for an architectural pavilion engaging questions of material innovation, temporal design, and architectural agency. Models of the resulting Wonder Pavilions were exhibited in a gallery at The Chipstone Foundation.
Visitor stands in gallery reading wall text and viewing posters and a large projection in a wooden-floored exhibition space with overhead lighting.
2021. Exhibiting Architecture, or Architectural Exhibitionism was an exhibition curated by Professors Whitney Moon and Per-Johan Dahl in Malmö, Sweden, presenting the research of sixteen international doctoral students from Lund University within the framework of the Swedish graduate school ResArc. Comprised of sixteen student-designed posters and a super-sized poster installation developed in collaboration with graphic designer Milo Bonacci, the exhibition was held at the Form/Design Center in partnership with Arkitekturdagarna (ArkDgr), organized by Architects Sweden. Conceived as both subject and method, the course examined the architectural exhibition as a critical medium for communicating architecture. Using the exhibition poster as an object of study, the PhD students linked architectural history and theory to their individual doctoral research to address contemporary architectural discourse and societal change.
People gather in a library-style gallery around a central table with books and a metal sculpture, viewed from a balcony-lit room with skylight.
2018. As a Visiting Scholar in Residence at the Canadian Centre for Architecture (CCA) in Montréal, Professor Whitney Moon conducted archival research that culminated in a temporary exhibition and public lecture titled Cedric Price and the Rise and Fall of Pneumatic Architecture. The project examined the late British architect Cedric Price’s underexplored contributions to the development, popularization, and regulation of air as an architectural medium, situating pneumatic structures within broader technological and cultural frameworks.
Crowd gathers on a sunny street between brick buildings, with a white dome structure ahead; storefront reads “Milwaukee School of Massage.”
2017. The Warming Hive emerged from “Pillow Talk: Blow Up!,” a seminar on inflatable architecture taught by Professor Whitney Moon in collaboration with artists Katy Cowan, Nicholas Frank, and John Riepenhoff at The Open in Milwaukee’s Riverwest neighborhood. Focused on temporary, mobile, and event-based architectures, the course emphasized design-build experimentation with air-filled structures and engagement with the local arts community. Conceived to activate multiple curatorial platforms at The Open, The Warming Hive functioned as a temporary outdoor gathering space during an opening event, thermally and socially engaging both The Outlet, an electrical outlet curated by Cowan inside the gallery, and The Oven, an outdoor brick oven operated by Riepenhoff.
People gathered at night beside a glowing white dome structure, with light illuminating figures standing at the entrance amid trees and outdoor equipment.
2017. The Warming Hive is a collaborative student research and design project exploring pneumatic technology in relation to mobility, sociability, environmental responsibility, and pedagogy. Adaptable to varied sites and seasons, the structure inflates in under three minutes and provides a thermally comfortable, transportable shelter for exhibition, cooking, and gathering. Fabricated in collaboration with Landmark Creations, the project challenges perceptions of pneumatic architecture as disposable by prioritizing durability and long-term reuse. The Warming Hive was inflated at numerous locations throughout Wisconsin, including ACRE Artist’s Residency in Steuben.
2017. The Canadian Centre for Architecture (CCA) in Montréal hosted an afternoon of discussion on the work of Cedric Price. Scholars presented their individual research motivations and methodologies related to Price’s key projects. Professor Whitney Moon’s presentation focused on Price’s research on pneumatic architecture.
2021. Paper presented virtually at the Blackboxing Banham Symposium at The Ohio State University. Professor Whitney Moon was invited to participate in the symposium to examine Reyner Banham’s influence on architectural discourse, focusing on his concept of the architectural “black box” and his engagement with structures. Moon’s paper, Clear Spheres, Translucent Domes, or The Allure of ‘Craque Lure’, argues that the bubble functioned for Banham as a conceptual lure—using the “wind-bag” to probe both the potentials and limits of pneumatic architecture while redirecting attention toward broader architectural questions.

Articles & Selected Papers

  • Moon, Whitney. “Making Room For Architecture.” Log, no. 52, 2021, pp. 83–87. JSTOR, https://www.jstor.org/stable/27092937.
  • Moon, Whitney. “Who Let the Air Out? How Pneumatics Went From Rad to Bad in the 1970s.” PRAXIS: Journal of Writing + Building, no. 15, 2019, pp. 89–102. JSTOR, http://www.jstor.org/stable/45288667.
  • Moon, Whitney. “Environmental Wind-Baggery.” e-flux Architecture, Structural Instability, e-flux and University of Pennsylvania, 2018, https://www.e-flux.com/architecture/structural-instability/208703/environmental-wind-baggery/
  • Moon, Whitney. “Cedric Price: Radical Pragmatist, in Pursuit of Lightness.” Journal of Architectural Education (1984-), vol. 71, no. 2, 2017, pp. 171–83. JSTOR, http://www.jstor.org/stable/44871722.

Artistic Exhibitions & Artwork

  • FuzzPop Workshop (in collaboration with Whitney Moon & students: Nick Buske, Reagan Courtright, Isabel Domyslawski, Reagan Courtright, Kathya Fierro-Perea, Haley Grube, Elizabeth Hanson, John Hernandez, Kiera Jensen, Kirsten Josefchuk, Jaspreet Kaur, Nelson Kies, Jack Nunkovich, Nick Peterman, Elliot Rusch, Christian Stieber, & Lauren von Arx). Threshold. July 24, August 7 & August 21, 2025, Art Blaze, McKinley Beach, Milwaukee, Wisconsin.
  • Moon, Whitney (with students: Adeeb Mahmoud, Adam Duffy & Kevin Steve Rodriguez Munoz; Conor Krolczyk & Declan Sanderson; Elizabeth Hanson & Kathya Fierro-Perea; Juliana Abbate, Lauren von Arx & Elliot Rusch; Sarah Sunna & Mitch Hamm; Selvavetha Selvaraj Hemalatha & Dharshini Varathan). Material Menagerie. May 13, 2025 - February 01, 2026, The Chipstone Foundation, Fox Point, Wisconsin.

Chapters

  • Moon, Whitney. “Printmaking and Its Effects on Architectural Culture, Then and Now.” Architectural Image-Making in 1980s New York: The John Nichols Printmakers & Publishers Collection, edited by Courtney Coffman, Spector Books, 2026 (forthcoming), pp. 317-328.
  • Moon, Whitney. “Heat Makes it Happen.” Juergen Mayer H, edited by Courtney Coffman, Princeton University Press, 2026 (forthcoming), pp. #-#.
  • Moon, Whitney. “Yes…Swissness." Swissness Applied, edited by Nicole McIntosh and Jonathan Louie, Park Books, 2021, pp. 168-173.
  • Moon, Whitney. “Victor Lundy, Walter Bird, and the Promise of Pneumatic Architecture.”Constructing Building Enclosures: Architectural History, Technology and Poetics in the Postwar Era, edited by Clifton Fordham, Routledge, 2021, pp. 84-104.
  • Moon, Whitney. “A Contemporary (Self-Help) Guide to Profile Spotting in Architecture.” Possible Mediums, edited by Kelly Bair, Kristy Balliet, Adam Fure and Kyle Miller, Actar, 2018, pp. 180-181.
  • Moon, Whitney. “Lightweight Enclosures Unit: Redefining Architecture by Leveraging Lightness.” The Other Architect, edited by Giovanna Borasi, Canadian Centre for Architecture and Spector Books, 2015, pp. 396-397.

Creative Works Published/Cited by Others

  • Oliver Johnson, “Architecture Seminar Brings a Pop of Big Art to Milwaukee Lakefront,” UWM Report, University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee, November 13, 2025, https://uwm.edu/news/architecture-seminar-brings-a-pop-of-big-art-to-milwaukee-lakefront/
  • Groh, James. “ArtBlaze Brings a Night of Interactive Performances, Displays, and Artistry to Milwaukee.” TMJ4 News, Milwaukee Tonight (video and article), August 7, 2025. https://www.tmj4.com/news/milwaukee-tonight/artblaze-brings-a-night-of-interactive-performances-displays-and-artistry-to-milwaukee/

Grants/Funded Research

  • 2023 Urban Edge Award (UEA), UWM School of Architecture & Urban Planning, “Midwest Modernism," funding for ARCH 533: Urban Edge Award (UEA) Seminar in Fall 2023, PI: Whitney Moon, Co-PI: Monica Obniski, $50,000, funded.
  • 2022 Demmer Foundation Grant, Demmer Foundation, “Leenhouts Exhibition Proposal," funding to conduct research for a forthcoming exhibition about Willis & Lillian Leenhouts Architects, PI's: Whitney Moon & Monica Obniski, $10,000, funded.
  • 2018 Visiting Scholars Program, The Canadian Center for Architecture (CCA), Montreal, “Cedric Price, and the Rise and Fall of Pneumatic Architecture," research support and residency to conduct archival work and writing on the history of pneumatic architecture, PI: Whitney Moon, $4,800 Cdn + travel, funded.