-Director of China Megacities Lab at Columbia University.
Jeffrey Johnson is the founding director of China Megacities Lab, an experimental research unit at the Graduate School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation, at Columbia University, where he also teaches. He is also a co-founding principal of SLAB, an architecture and urbanism studio based in New York City.
Research at China Megacities Lab focuses on contemporary issues related to the spatial and social transformation of China’s urban landscape. Current projects include research on China’s large-scale superblock development, which will be included as part of a book Johnson is co-editing on the subject provisionally entitled The China Lab Guide to Megablock Urbanisms, and on the current museum building boom and its future role in the city.
SLAB is a research-based design studio with projects ranging from architecture, urban design and exhibition design, with projects located in the U.S., China, Italy, Costa Rica, Bahamas and Mexico. SLAB projects have been exhibited in the U.S. and published widely internationally.
Johnson lectures frequently in both China and the United States, organizes collaborative international China Megacities Lab/Columbia University design studios and workshops in China, and has organized and participated in a number of international forums and exhibitions. Johnson is the co-academic director of the 2013 Bi-city Biennale of Urbanism/Architecture* Shenzhen (UABB*SZ).