Resources

The Carbon Leadership Forum (CLF) is an industry-academic collaborative research effort. CLF is working to link the rigor of Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) based carbon accounting to industry best practices in order to enable quantifiable reduction to the environmental impact of the built environment. Its research is focused on developing the data, analysis, and standards needed to accurately predict, report, and reduce the carbon impact of building materials and products. Recent projects include: developing North American standards to report LCA results of concrete (Product Category Rules); testing whole building LCA and the LEED green building rating system; and integrating seismic and environmental performance metrics for high performance buildings.

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” – i.e. the relevancies of cities and city-regions in Asia to each other, to the Pacific Northwest of the U.S., and to the world at large. Specifically, the Center integrates research and action-oriented activities in the field to develop new knowledge and inform policy, decision-making, and professional development. It provides a platform locally and internationally for critical discussion of urban issues in Asia and beyond.

The Center for Education and Research in Construction (CERC) is a locus of research, scholarship and discovery in the UW’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.

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. The CID includes the Integrated Design Lab, the Carbon Leadership Forum, and an Education and Outreach program, which conducts professional and public tours of the Bullitt Center. Co-located with like-minded sustainability professionals, the Center fosters innovative and collaborative effort to design buildings that positively impact environmental and human health.

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.

The Chandigarh Urban Lab is dedicated to creating a forum to understanding the contemporary Indian city in transformation. It is designed to support Indian and international students and scholars of architecture and urbanism interested in studying Chandigarh as a case-study in the above context. Besides infrastructural and logistical support, the Lab offers linkages with local and national architects, academics, activists and citizens.

The Circular City + Living Systems Lab (CCLS) is an interdisciplinary group of faculty and students 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, planning, biology, and ecology, the CCLS applies principles of research and design to investigate transformative strategies for future cities that are adaptive and resilient while facing climate change. Ongoing work at the CCLS includes research on urban integration of aquaponics, building-integrated agriculture, circular economies in the food industry, algae production, and green roof performance.

Design Machine Group (DMG) is a collaborative research studio aimed at exploring, fostering, and developing ideas that will shape the future of design and information technology. The lab serves as the primary home of students in the MS in Architecture Program in Design Computing.

The Informal Urban Communities Initiatives (IUCI) is a design activism, research and education program based in Peru and expanding to Nepal this coming year. It focuses on the design, implementation and assessment of community-driven interventions in the built environment and places particular emphasis on the integrated, interdisciplinary design of distributed infrastructure and public space. The IUCI aims to improve human and environmental health and well-being, to build the capacity of designers and other professionals to work effectively with marginalized urban communities and to gather evidence that informs best practices in these contexts.

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. Its mission is to build a resource center that will enhance risk reduction and resilience activities through research and analysis of hazards, policies related to mitigation, and outreach to the community. The Institute provides expertise in disaster preparedness, response, and recovery with a special emphasis on mitigation and planning in the promotion of community sustainability. It is interdisciplinary in focus and structure, and the capabilities of the Institute are enhanced by its close relationship with other academic and research organizations. This incorporates collaboration with several other disciplines within the University of Washington.

The Integrated Design Lab (IDL) 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. The IDL transfers findings of its research through guidance and technical assistance to leading building industry partners. As consultants to project teams across North America, the IDL provides guidance through its advanced modeling and monitoring capabilities in building energy use, integrated lighting, daylighting, heating, ventilating, and air conditioning systems. These advanced design and engineering skills are transferred to its building industry partners through the delivery of radically more sustainable buildings and communities.

The mission of the Northwest Center is 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. It is a research and policy center focused on issues of environmental and economic sustainability, quality of life, and responsible governance–using Washington state as a model. The Center operates from the belief that the university should, in cooperation with state agencies, local governments, and community leaders, seek to improve existing social and environmental conditions through research and innovative policy development. It advocates development strategies that focus on:
• smart and efficient land use
• strong communities
• high-wage, low waste jobs and economic development
• public participation and accountability in government

SHARE Lab (Safety and Health Advancement through Research and Education Laboratory) embarks on innovative research that promotes the wellbeing of construction taskforce and/or reduces occupational injuries and illnesses for the construction industry. Example research projects completed at the lab include: sensor based physiological status monitoring on construction workers, video gaming development for the training and education of construction safety, information communication technology for field safety inspection, machine-learning based solutions for retrieving and classifying safety resources, and Total Worker Health.

The THINK (Transportation-Human Interaction-and- Network Knowledge) Lab studies the sustainability and resilience of a city through the lens of human beings interacting with the physical environment. We generate new knowledge and insights for use in city planning, infrastructure development and policy design. Our research results facilitate real-time disaster response and recovery efforts. Our work is highly interdisciplinary, drawing on the latest methods and ideas in disciplines from social and natural sciences to engineering. More specifically, THINK lab’s research activities center on unpacking the complexities across scales, from micro-level individual mobility behaviors, to meso-level social tie networks formed as the result of space and time-based individual behaviors, and macro-level system behaviors that propagate through multiple networks.

Urban @ UW

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. We approach Urban Commons as a spatial and social practice that embodies reciprocity, sharing, civic engagement, and collective actions. Through research, and community design projects as well as events and publications, we seek to engage the publics and the scholarly/professional community in advancing the understanding and making of urban commons.

The Urban Ecology Research Laboratory (UERL) is an interdisciplinary team of UW 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. Specific areas of research 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 Form Lab (UFL) aims to affect policy and to support 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 (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.

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. Across these sectors, UIL studies integrate empirical and applied methods of research to discover the means to obtain long-run objectives, such as decarbonization, resilience, and information security through decisions made today.

The Washington Center for Real Estate Research (WCRER) was initially established by the Board of Regents at Washington State University to provide a bridge between academic study and research on real estate topics and the professional real estate industries. It served that mission at WSU until merging with the Runstad Center at the beginning of 2012. WCRER works with the faculty to ensure their rigorous research is accessible and easily usable by industry participants, the media and the general public, regardless of their statistical sophistication. The purpose of WCRER is to provide credible research, value-added information, education services and project-oriented research to real estate licensees, real estate consumers, real estate service providers, institutional customers, public agencies, and communities in Washington state and the Pacific Northwest region.