Hyun-Tae JUNG, Associate Professor, School of Architecture and Design,

New York Institute of Technology

Introduction and Respondent: Nader Vougoussian, Associate Professor,
School of Architecture and Design, New York Institute of Technology

Lecture Description:
How did new building materials impact our built environment during the
first half of the 20th Century? More specifically, how did the
introduction of modern insulation contribute to modern American
architecture? In what way did new insulation help advance new
construction methods?
To answer these questions, the lecture focuses on how cane fiber and
asbestos insulation contributed changes in the field of architecture and
others. The Celotex Corporation introduced and popularized cane fiber
insulation in the early 1920s. The company converted sugarcane waste
into a robust, fibrous building material. This sustainable approach
allowed the new company to become a leading manufacturer. In the late
1930s, it promoted asbestos-based insulation products, which became very
popular and widely used in the industry.

Celotex’s products helped reshape the trajectories of modern
architecture, construction technologies, and natural landscapes in the
United States, contributing to the rationalization of the human body,
labor, and wages. Cane fiber and asbestos insulation products triggered
an unanticipated chain reaction in architecture, sugar plantation,
agricultural landscape, and suburban housing developments.

Bio:
Dr. Hyun-Tae Jung is an Associate Professor of Architecture at the New
York Institute of Technology. He completed his bachelor’s and master’s
degrees in architecture at the University of Seoul, South Korea. He
received a Doctorate in History and Theory of Architecture from Columbia
University with a dissertation on the rise of corporate architecture in
the mid-twentieth century. Dr. Jung has published articles and book
chapters on modern and contemporary architecture and urbanism. He is
currently working on a book, Skidmore, Owings & Merrill: The
Architecture of Organization from the Great Depression to the Cold War
through Bloomsbury Publishing Company. Dr. Jung has taught at several
institutions including Seoul National University of Science and
Technology, Columbia University, Parson School of Design, University of
Nebraska-Lincoln, and Lehigh University. He served as a Visiting
Professor at Louisiana State University and Visiting Scholar at the
University of Pennsylvania. At New York Tech, Professor Jung teaches
Global History of Architecture and other history and theory courses.