Labs, Centers & Initiatives
BE is home to more than a dozen cross-disciplinary, cross-sector labs, centers, and initiatives focused on finding innovative solutions to complex problems. Explore below to learn more about the innovative work we are doing and the outcomes that come from our collaborations.
Life Cycle Lab
UW’s Life Cycle Lab is focused on supporting the next generation of researchers and pursuing critical research to advance life cycle assessment (LCA) data, methods and approaches. The research that we pursue aims to fill challenging knowledge gaps in order to inform impactful policies that support the integration of life cycle thinking, LCA findings and decarbonization strategies to implement into practice today.
Livable City Year
Livable City Year Many communities lack the capacity to fully address livability goals. UW is a powerhouse of research and innovation on all aspects of livability, but this knowledge isn’t always available to communities. Through Livable City Year, UW faculty and students from multiple disciplines work on high-priority projects identified by our community partners, creating...
Pacific Coast Architecture Database (PCAD)
PCAD archives a range of information on the buildings and architects of California, Oregon and Washington. Also included are professionals in other fields who have made an impact on the built environment, such as landscape architects, interior designers, engineers, urban planners, developers, and building contractors. Building records are tied to those of their creators (when...
Humanities, Histories, Futures (HHF)
HHF invests in CBE's current humanities strengths, including connections to social science, relevant to climate solutions, prosperity, equity, and social justice. This includes connecting CBE’s humanities capabilities with the greatest needs of other UW colleges, local institutions, and community and industry partners.
Cybersecurity in the Built Environment (Cyber-BE)
The Cyber-BE Lab integrates the latest in academic research on policy, communication, and organization with industry expertise on IoT security, risk mitigation and building operations.
PhD in the Built Environment
The PhD in the Built Environment is an interdisciplinary program incorporating subject areas and faculty from the College of Built Environments’ areas of study: architecture, construction management, landscape architecture, urban design and planning, and real estate; and has three areas of concentration/specialization: sustainable systems and prototypes, technology and project design-delivery, and history, theory, representation.
Urban Design & Planning Interdisciplinary PhD
This program brings together faculty from disciplines ranging from Architecture to Sociology to focus on the interdisciplinary study of urban problems and interventions. Covering scales from neighborhoods to metropolitan areas, the program addresses interrelationships between the physical environment, the built environment, and the social, economic, and political institutions and processes that shape urban areas.
Energy & Sustainability in Construction (ESC) Lab
The ESC lab promotes energy efficiency and sustainability (EES) in the built environment through the development of sustainable design and construction practices and risk-based financial models for EES investments. We aim to integrate advanced financial analysis, project development, and management strategies used during the delivery of energy-efficient buildings and sustainable infrastructures. With this work, ESC...
Urban@UW
Urban@UW brings people together across disciplines and sectors to address complex urban challenges. We believe that collaboration among scholars and community partners is the key to building urban systems wherein everyone can thrive. Our mission is to activate research and practice toward inclusive innovation for the future of cities.
Applied Research Consortium
The Applied Research Consortium (ARC) connects students, faculty, and industry partners for applied research. ARC brings together research, practice, and education; generates new ideas and solutions for the built environment; supports diversity and intercultural skills among student fellows; and enhances impact and connections for academic and firm partners alike.
Washington Center for Real Estate Research
The Washington Center for Real Estate Research (WCRER) works with faculty to ensure their research is accessible and easily usable by industry participants, the media and the general public. WCRER aims to provide credible research, education services and information to real estate professionals, institutional customers, public agencies, and communities in the Pacific Northwest.
Urban Infrastructure Lab
The Urban Infrastructure Lab (UIL) brings together students and faculty across numerous disciplines with a shared interest in the planning, governance, finance, design, development, economics, and environmental effects of infrastructure. The interests of the UIL span the systems critical to economic and social well-being, such as energy, water, health, transportation, education, and communications.
Urban Form Lab
The Urban Form Lab aims to affect policy and supports approaches to the design and planning of more livable environments, with a specialty in geospatial analyses of the built environment using multiple micro-scale data in Geographic Information Systems. Projects address land monitoring, neighborhood and street design, active transportation, non-motorized transportation safety, physical activity, and access to food environments.
Urban Ecology Research Lab
The Urban Ecology Research Laboratory (UERL) is an interdisciplinary team of researchers and Ph.D. students studying cities as urban ecosystems. UERL studies urban landscapes as hybrid phenomena that emerge from the interactions between human and ecological processes, and the interactions between urban development and ecosystem dynamics.
Urban Commons Lab
Urban Commons Lab focuses on research and public service that contribute to civic engagement and democratization of contemporary city-making. We approach Urban Commons as a spatial and social practice that embodies reciprocity, sharing, civic engagement, and collective actions. We seek to engage the public and scholarly/professional community in advancing the understanding and making of urban commons.
Safety and Health Advancement through Research and Education (SHARE) Lab
The Safety and Health Advancement through Research and Education Lab’s (SHARE) mission is to promote construction safety and health through evidenced-based innovative research, education, and practices. In particular, the SHARE lab specializes in creating new knowledge, learning resources, and practical solutions using technology interventions.
Northwest Center for Livable Communities
The Northwest Center aims to enhance the livability of communities in the Pacific Northwest through applied research and outreach in the areas of land use planning; policy and design; healthy communities; food security; and public participation and democracy. The Center focuses on issues of environmental and economic sustainability, quality of life, and responsible governance.
Integrated Design Lab
The Integrated Design Lab carries out research to advance knowledge and policies that support the healthiest and highest performing buildings and cities. Its performance research includes energy efficiency, daylighting, electric lighting, occupant energy use behavior, human health and productivity in buildings, and advanced building management systems.
Institute for Hazards Mitigation Planning and Research
The Institute for Hazards Mitigation Planning and Research is dedicated to integrating hazards mitigation principles into a wide range of crisis, disaster, and risk management opportunities. It works to build a resource center that will enhance risk reduction and resilience activities through research and analysis of hazards, policies related to mitigation, and community outreach.
Green Futures Research and Design Lab
Green Futures Lab is dedicated to supporting interdisciplinary research and design that advances our understanding of, visions for, and design of a vital and ecologically sustainable public realm. Working to develop green infrastructure solutions within a local and global context, the lab provides planning, design, and education for healthy, equitably accessible, and regenerative urban and ecological systems.
Circular City + Living Systems Lab
The Circular City + Living Systems Lab (CCLS) is an interdisciplinary group researching living systems integrated into the built environment that produce and circulate resources within the food-water-energy nexus. Synthesizing expertise from architecture, landscape architecture, engineering, biology, and ecology, the CCLS applies principles of research and design to investigate transformative strategies for future cities.
Chandigarh Urban Lab
The Chandigarh Urban Lab is dedicated to creating a forum to understand the contemporary Indian city in transformation. It’s designed to support Indian and international students and scholars of architecture and urbanism interested in studying Chandigarh as a case-study. The Lab offers linkages with local and national architects, academics, activists and citizens.
Center for Preservation and Adaptive Reuse
The Center for Preservation and Adaptive Reuse (CPAR) is a research, education and advocacy center that recognizes the value of our existing historic and non-historic buildings. The center produces innovative research, advances knowledge, and promotes educational initiatives addressing the reuse and preservation of the built environment at all scales.
Center for Integrated Design
The University of Washington Center for Integrated Design (CID) promotes a healthy, energy efficient built environment through research, education and outreach initiatives. Located at the Bullitt Center in Seattle, WA, the Center serves as a hub for interdisciplinary research teams to collaborate, share resources and improve knowledge on high performance building design.
Center for Education and Research in Construction
The Center for Education and Research in Construction (CERC) is a locus of research, scholarship and discovery. Focused on the people and practices of a dynamic, innovative construction industry, CERC impacts the industry through developing best practices, highlighting emerging challenges, testing new technologies, and experimenting with new methodologies.
Center for Asian Urbanism
The Center for Asian Urbanism was established to promote and undertake interdisciplinary and collaborative research of urban conditions and processes in Asia and the “Global Pacific”. The Center integrates research and action-oriented activities in the field to develop new knowledge and inform policy, decision-making, and professional development.
