Natural Resources & Sustainability Archives - Page 15 of 19

Urban Form Lab

The Urban Form Lab (UFL) research aims to affect policy and to support approaches to the design and planning of more livable environments. The UFL specializes in geospatial analyses of the built environment using multiple micro-scale data in Geographic Information Systems (GIS). Current research includes the development of novel GIS routines for performing spatial inventories and analyses of the built environment, and of spatially explicit sampling techniques. Projects address such topics as land monitoring, neighborhood and street design, active transportation, non-motorized transportation safety, physical activity, and access to food environments.

Research at the UFL has been supported by the U.S. and Washington State Departments of Transportation, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, the National Institutes of Health, and local agencies.

The Urban Form Lab is directed by Anne Vernez Moudon, Dr es Sc, a leading researcher and educator in quantifying the properties of the built environment as related to health and transportation behaviors. Philip M. Hurvitz, PhD, a veteran of geographic information science and data processing, leads data management and GIS work.

Urban Ecology Research Lab

The Urban Ecology Research Laboratory (UERL) is an interdisciplinary team of University of Washington researchers and Ph.D. students studying cities as urban ecosystems. The lab 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.

As part of the University of Washington’s innovative leadership in urban ecology research and education, the UERL transcends traditional disciplinary boundaries to address some of society’s most challenging problems. UERL research interests include: complexity and resilience in coupled natural and human systems, urban landscape patterns and ecosystem function, urban ecosystem management, modeling land cover change, adaptation and scenario planning. The UERL assists planners, decision makers and non-governmental organizations in making informed decisions about urban development in a rapidly changing environment.

The Urban Ecology Research Laboratory is directed by Professor Marina Alberti, and includes interdisciplinary PhD students, post-doctoral research associates, research scientists, and affiliate faculty from diverse disciplines who collaborate to study coupled natural and human systems.

Urban Commons Lab

Urban Commons Lab in the College of Built Environments at the University of Washington focuses on research and public service that contribute to civic engagement and democratization of contemporary city-making. The Lab approaches Urban Commons as a spatial and social practice that embodies sharing, reciprocity, inclusion, civic engagement, and collective actions. Through research, and community design projects as well as events and publications, it seeks to engage the public and the scholarly/professional community in advancing the understanding and making of urban commons.

Locally, the Lab’s primary focus has been on working with immigrant communities in King County. Specifically, the projects have engaged underserved communities including Seattle’s Chinatown-International District in collaboration with community organizations with support from Seattle’s Department of Neighborhoods and other funding sources. Through research and teaching collaboration, the Urban Commons Lab is also part of a network of community design scholars and practitioners in the Pacific Rim.

Urban Commons Lab has led and participated in projects funded by the Seattle Department of Neighborhoods, National Endowment for the Arts, Landscape Architecture Foundation, Worldwide Universities Network, Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, the UW Office of Global Affairs, and other organizations.

Integrated Design Lab

The Integrated Design Lab (IDL) is operated by the Department of Architecture in the College of Built Environments at the University of Washington. IDL’s mission is to discover solutions that overcome the most difficult building performance barriers, and to meet the building industry’s goals of moving towards radically higher performing buildings and healthy urban environments. The IDL advances their mission through interconnected research, technical assistance, and professional educational and tour programs.

The Integrated Design Lab carries out research to advance knowledge and policies that support the healthiest and highest performing buildings and cities. It measures and analyzes modeled and actual building performance data so as to influence the building industry’s understanding of how to radically improve the design and operation performance of buildings. The performance research includes energy efficiency, daylighting, electric lighting, occupant energy use behavior, human health and productivity in buildings, and advanced building management systems.

The Integrated Design Lab connects its discoveries and the transformative knowledge of others to the building industry and public through education. These offerings include classes, workshops, focus-group meetings, leadership forums, and exhibits of breakthrough technologies intended to transform the market for the highest performing buildings by reaching out and educating current and future leaders on meeting 21st century building performance challenges with the knowledge and policies that favor renewable and regenerative buildings, neighborhoods and cities.

The IDL is a self-sustaining organization that includes interdisciplinary faculty, staff, students, professional collaborators, and partner organizations.

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. The Lab’s goal is to develop green infrastructure solutions within a local and global context.

The Green Futures Lab explores and promotes planning and design for active transportation, including cycling and pedestrian environments; conducts research and design projects that aim to improve the ability of public spaces to build community and provide recreation and revitalization; works to improve the health of our water bodies and sustain our water resources through green infrastructure innovations, ecosystem restoration, and open space protection; innovates strategies for creating quality habitat, particularly within urban environments where it is most limited; and explores low-carbon urban design solutions to mitigate climate change.

Working with the University of Washington, local communities, and international partners, 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 of faculty and students applying principles of research and design to investigate transformative strategies for future cities that are adaptive and resilient while facing climate change.

Synthesizing expertise from architecture, landscape architecture, engineering, planning, biology, and ecology, the Lab’s innovative research spans core topics such as the integration of living systems in the built environment to produce and circulate resources within the food-water-energy nexus, and spatial design responses to COVID-19.

Ongoing work at the CCLS includes research on urban integration of aquaponics, urban and building-integrated agriculture, circular economies in the food industry, algae production, and green roof performance.

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. The Center recognizes that existing buildings provide cultural continuity of place, communicate stories of our past, and play a critical role in promoting environmental sustainability through reuse rather than demolition.

CPAR is based in the College of Built Environments at the University of Washington in Seattle.

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.

The University of Washington Center for Integrated Design includes the Integrated Design Lab (IDL), the Discovery Commons, and the Carbon Leadership Forum (CLF). The Center’s mission is to advance the highest performing built environment that better serves environmental and human health through research, technical assistance, education and outreach. The Center is anchored by the Integrated Design Lab which delivers its mission through the three core services of: discovery through research; guidance through technical assistance; and advocacy through education and outreach.

The Center and the Integrated Design Lab are supported by the Northwest Energy Efficiency Alliance (NEEA), the U.S. Department of Energy (US DOE), The National Science Foundation (NSF), The UW Campus Sustainability Fund, Puget Sound Energy, AIA Seattle, The Bullitt Foundation, and innovative building owners, designers, and operators in the Pacific Northwest region and nationally.

Operating out of its own ‘living laboratory’, the Center is a self-sustaining service located at the Bullitt Center in Seattle, WA– the greenest commercial building in the world.

Center for Education and Research in Construction

The Center for Education and Research in Construction (CERC) is a locus of research, scholarship and discovery in the University of Washington’s Department of Construction Management and allied disciplines of architecture, engineering and real estate. Focused on the people and practices of a dynamic, innovative construction industry, CERC develops new concepts and innovative solutions as well as improves methodologies for design, construction and operations.

With labs focused on Safety and Health, Project Delivery and Management, Virtual Design and Construction, Infrastructure Development, and Sustainable Built Environments, the CERC faculty are not only experts and researchers in a wide array of topics, but also lead the field in translating that expertise into excellent construction education practices and pedagogy to train tomorrow’s construction professionals.

CERC develops and delivers continuing education for professionals within the built environment disciplines. Examples of past and ongoing partnerships include those with Skanska and the National Electrical Contractors Association. In addition, the Center supports the Department of Construction Management (CM) by hosting meetings of the program’s advisory council (CIAC), graduate and undergraduate classes, and teaching laboratories.

With generous support from the local construction industry, the Department of Construction Management took on an ambitious project to develop a research and education center at the old naval base at Sand Point located in Magnuson Park, Seattle, WA near the University of Washington’s main campus. The facility features more than 25,000 square feet of space on two levels, providing a home for the Center for Education and Research in Construction.

Labs associated with CERC include:

PDM Lab
LCR Lab
ESC Lab
CTOP Lab
SHARE Lab

CTOP Lab supports the Internet of Things (IoT) project, studying devices which are increasingly a standard component of buildings. As these sensors are connected to the internet and networked to building technology (such as heating and lights), they introduce potential security vulnerabilities. Although technical solutions exist to counter security issues, implementation of these solutions are often impeded by the challenges that an organization’s Information Technology (IT) staff and a building’s Operations and Maintenance (O&M) staff have when they work closely together and share their knowledge about computer security and how buildings operate. These difficulties arise from different ways of working and different points of view about how technology works. These challenges, in combination with a policy environment that rarely regulates IoT devices, increases risk, leaving buildings vulnerable to attack.

This project will address these challenges by studying two critical areas: (1) how O&M and IT groups currently share their knowledge and skills in order to improve IoT security and (2) how public policies and an organization’s own rules regarding privacy and security impact how IT and O&M collaborate. The results of this study will generate knowledge around how IT and O&M professionals can work more effectively together to improve the security of our nation’s buildings and offer insights into how public policy may affect professional cybersecurity collaboration to manage IoT risk.

This project is a joint venture of the Communication, Technology, and Organizational Practices (CTOP) Lab as well as the Cyber-BE lab.

David Blum

Edward David Blum has spent more than 40 years as a planner in both the public and private sectors. In the public sector, he has worked for state and county governments, Native American tribes and non-profit organizations. His work experience in the private sector includes managing the development of various commercial, residential, industrial, retail and marina projects throughout the United States. Mr. Blum has taught classroom and studio courses in New Jersey, Oregon and Washington with a focus on land use planning, affordable housing, economic development and sustainable urban mobility.