Research + Design
The College of Environmental Design (CED) is one of the world’s most distinguished laboratories for experimentation, research, and intellectual synergy. Our research centers and academic departments pioneered an integrated approach to analyzing, understanding, and designing our built environment that continues to this day.
CED’s mission is to provide leadership to address the world’s most pressing environmental challenges. We tackle issues from multiple perspectives and across disciplines — architecture, city and regional planning, landscape architecture and environmental planning, urban design, and real estate development and design —always with the understanding that environmental design is inseparable from society, culture, politics, and economics. Our faculty and students view environmental design as an exploratory spatial practice, aimed at creating forms of building, landscape, and urban plans that have yet to be imagined. At the same time, we believe that environmental design must be a profoundly ethical practice, coproduced through dynamic engagements with diverse communities and policy-makers.
Our design and research practices are centered on four main themes: climate solutions, equity and social justice, technology and material innovations, and design excellence.
Research Collaborations
Our collaborators include a broad range of groups working to solve environmental design issues at all scales.
Internationally, this includes the World Bank and United Nations, international governments and universities, and non-governmental organizations. Nationally, we work with other universities, foundations, and federal governments and agencies. Closer to home, we partner with local community groups, design and engineering firms, builders, regional planning authorities, and local governments.
These collaborations offer a rich source of information, analysis, and design creativity to our partners while profoundly enhancing the research of our faculty and students. Our collaborations bring together world-class faculty, passionate students, and experienced professionals to develop new ideas, apply advanced research, and shape a better future for the earth and its inhabitants.
