About
Jon Brearley is an associate at Transsolar KlimaEngineering in New York, where he works on climate-responsive design for projects from Santa Cruz to Saudi Arabia. He is a Certified Passive House Designer, speaks at conferences on passive design, sits in on architecture studio reviews as a critic, and is on the content committee for NESEA BuildingEnergy Boston 2027.
Before Transsolar, Jon was a research affiliate at MIT's Urban Risk Lab, where he made graphics for Miho Mazereeuw's book Design Before Disaster and contributed to MIT's Climate Grand Challenges. Earlier, at MIT's Leventhal Center for Advanced Urbanism, he researched heat-resilient housing in Kuwait City, created a heat-resilient housing design manual, and co-authored two peer-reviewed papers on the work. Those papers and his other publications are on Google Scholar.
Jon studied architecture at Portland State University before graduate school at MIT, where he earned a Master of Architecture and a Master of Science in Building Technology. His joint thesis, Taming Torridity, looked at heat resilience in the American single-family home. He graduated with the Tucker-Voss Award and the Faculty Leadership Award.
At MIT he co-chaired the IDSA Boston chapter with Sheng-Hung Lee and the Architecture Student Council with Ginevra D'Agostino. He was also part of the design and planning collective Group Project.
Born in New Mexico, Jon is always hunting for a proper breakfast burrito. He lives in Brooklyn, and when he isn't working his shift at the PSFC he is probably baking biscochitos or starting a side project he may or may not finish.
Work
Publications
- Acoustically Protected Natural Ventilation, Facade Tectonics World Congress 2026, with Erik Olsen and Olivia Chen
- Implementing Thermal Re-regulation in the Public Domain, for Heatwave, the Bahrain Pavilion at the Venice Biennale, with Viola Zhang
- On the Courtyard, for Impossible Toronto, an ongoing research program by The Neptis Foundation, with Studio VAARO, Gabriel Fain and Krista Palen
- Design of heat-resilient housing in hot-arid regions, Energy and Buildings 328, with David Birge, Zhujing Zhang and Leslie K. Norford
- Mitigating Peak Load and Heat Stress under Heat Waves by Optimizing Thermostat Setpoint and Fan Speed Schedules, Journal of Building Performance Simulation 16(4), with Zhujing Zhang, Kevin J. Kircher, Yuan Cai, David Birge and Leslie K. Norford
- Bubble Box Eat & Watch, Journal of Architectural Education 72(1)
Thesis
- Taming Torridity, new housing forms for heat resilience, for the MArch and SMBT at MIT
Tool Development
- W/m²-K, browser calculators for the U-value of building assemblies, from layered walls and two-dimensional details to glazing and whole envelopes
- Land Surface Temperature, a web interface to Google Earth Engine for downloading land surface temperature and NDVI maps
- Jerboa, a Grasshopper toolset for modelling the ground under a building in EnergyPlus, released with the thesis
Studio
- Pinch Point, a transit hub at Oak Grove as an anchor for density where Boston’s parks pinch its growth
- Accommodations, mixed-income housing for construction and migrant workers in Chon Buri, Thailand
- The Y, a YMCA for Coney Island built from one continuous surface
- Village Square Pavilion, a canopy of bamboo trusses and fiberglass for a village square in China, built at full size
- Safest At The Top Of The Hill, moving Chamanga, Ecuador, to higher ground after the 2016 earthquake
- Bubble Box: Eat & Watch, imagined volumes turned into architecture, published in the Journal of Architectural Education
Smalls
- Moynihan Train Hall, a case study of what keeping the Farley Post Office's trusses meant for the hall's grid shells
- Additive Timber, a workshop on building modules in timber, extended into buildings
- The People's Pool, an alternative history of the WPA pools, told in print from 1924 to 2056
- Anthropocene, a sculpture of steel pipes that abstracts the air moving past a cyclist
Lectures and Design Reviews
- Water in Architecture, guest lecture and design review for Design Studio 5, The New School
- Engineered Natural Ventilation for Climate Resilient Buildings and Occupants, NESEA BuildingEnergy NYC
- Natural Ventilation and Passive House in Adaptive Reuse, Regenerative Metropolis, Passive House New York
- Natural Ventilation at the Irving Institute for Energy and Society, NESEA Pro Tour
- Design reviewer and guest lecturer, Solar Decathlon studio, The Cooper Union
Exhibitions
- Part Objects, Precarious models and digital animations, Keller Gallery, MIT
- Anthropocene, a sculpture celebrating Oregon's 1971 Bike Bill, for the Oregon Environmental Council's 50th anniversary, Portland State University, with Aaron Whelton, Kip Olkowski, Griffin Lutz, Molly Jacobs, and Kagan Reardon
- Rejected Projections, a digital exhibition of Rooms for 9^3
- Treeline Stage, designer of the music stage at Pickathon
- Extracurricular PSU, a drawing made for Andrew Santa Lucia in an exhibition of faculty work, AIA Portland
Experience
Work
- Associate, Transsolar
- Intern, Transsolar
- Research Affiliate, Urban Risk Lab
- Research Assistant, Leventhal Center for Advanced Urbanism
- Teaching Assistant, Undergraduate Architecture Design Studio I
- Research Assistant, Hans Tursack
- Shop Monitor, MIT Architecture Shops
- Department Tour Guide, MIT Architecture
- Intern, SRG Partnership
- Project Manager, Twin City Painting
- Painter, Twin City Painting
Service
- Content Committee, NESEA BuildingEnergy Boston 2027
- Vice-Chair, IDSA Boston Chapter
- Co-president, Architecture Student Council
Education
- Master of Science in Building Technology (SMBT), MIT
- Master of Architecture (MArch), MIT
- Bachelor of Science in Architecture, Portland State University
- High School and Middle School, Bosque School