In 2021 the College of Built Environments launched the CBE Inspire Fund, designed to support CBE research activities for which a relatively small amount of support can be transformative. The second year of awards have just been announced, supporting five projects across 4 departments within the college as they address topics such as food sovereignty, anti-displacement, affordable housing, and health & wellbeing.
This year’s awardees include:
Defining the New Diaspora: Where Seattle’s Black Church Congregants Are Moving and Why
Rachel Berney, Associate Professor in Urban Design & Planning and Co-PIs Donald King, Affiliate Professor in Architecture & Branden Born, Associate Professor in Urban Design & Planning are working with Black churches in Seattle’s Central District to better understand the lived experience of displacement and its incorporation in research, theory building and practice around anti-displacement strategies.
Exploring Cross-Border and Cross-cultural Community Development: Politics of the Possible
Branden Born, Associate Professor in Urban Design & Planning, along with Omar Nuñez Mendez, Director of Ollin Tlahtoalli Center for Mexican Languages and Cultural Preservation in Oaxaca, Mexico, is building on several years of community-based activity in Oaxaca, Mexico to explore opportunities in the combined realms of governance, and democracy-and their applications to global and localized grand challenges such as climate change, migration, and food sovereignty.
Affordable Housing Book Project
Gregg Colburn, Assistant Professor in Real Estate, and Co-PI Rebecca Walter, Windermere Endowed Chair and Associate Professor in Real Estate, are working to develop a guidebook for students and the professional community, that provides a comprehensive summary of affordable housing and the system, policies, and forces that interact to determine the affordability of housing in the U.S.
Investigating the Health Requirements and Risk-Responsiveness Criteria in Office Building Codes for Mitigating COVID-19 and Future Airborne Diseases
Hyun Woo “Chris” Lee, PD Koon Endowed Associate Professor in Construction Management, along with Sofia Dermisi, Victor L. Lyon and Alvin J. Wolff Endowed Professor in Real Estate & Professor in Urban Design & Planning, Heather Burpee, Research Associate Professor at the Integrated Design Lab, and Novi Bramono, CBE Ph.D. candidate, are conducting a comprehensive content analysis investigating the status of health-related requirements and standards in current building codes. Their study will lead to the development of risk-responsiveness criteria of office building codes for healthier office building practices.
One Seattle: Leveraging Seattle’s Comprehensive Plan Update to advance housing diversity, affordability, livability and racial equity
Rick Mohler, Associate Professor in Architecture, along with City of Seattle, Office of Planning and Community Development (OPCD) members, Rico Quirindongo, Acting Director, Lauren Flemister, Interim Deputy Director, Michael Hubner, Long Range Planning Manager, & Brennon Staley, Strategic Advisor, are working with the Architecture 594/508 research seminar and studio to identify opportunities within Seattle’s Comprehensive Plan that address historic inequities relating to housing diversity, affordability, livability & racial equity.