Kya Anaïs Kerner is a working architect, artist, and researcher with an educational background in Architecture as well as Cultural and Natural Heritage Management. Before coming to IAAC’s Valldaura Labs to work as an academic coordinator and instructor, Kya has worked at several firms in Philadelphia on projects of various scales: a multi million dollar healthcare facility, university project proposals and master plans, and residential renovations.

She is the Assistant Director for Architectural Studies at the Mt. Lykaion Excavation and Survey Project in Arcadia, Greece, where she has led a group of young architects in the field in both the practical and experimental survey and documentation of architectural remains. Stemming from her work on the excavation, she also acts as the Landscape Character Assessment Coordinator for the 670 km2 proposed Parrhasian Heritage Park of the Peloponnesus, the first proposed Natural and Cultural Heritage Park in Greece.

Often found exploring the boundary conditions of the architectural discipline, Kya is interested in the micropolitics of space in relation to disciplinarity and ecology. Her master’s thesis at Aarhus University involves looking at an archaeological ethnography through the lens of the architect as existing in a peripheral condition.