Climate Solutions
Research + Design

CED announces Just Climate Futures grants to support projects that investigate carbon-neutral timber construction, new methods of wildfire risk mitigation, converting commercial buildings into affordable housing, and the environmental impacts of AI.

Three alums will receive the Distinguished Alumni Award at CED’s 2025 Commencement ceremony on May 20 at the Greek Theatre. This year’s awardees are John Cary (MArch 2003), Lee Ehmke (MLA 1988), Sujata Srivastava (MCP 2000). The award honors alums who have exhibited outstanding public service, in its broadest sense, throughout their career.

Metropolis has named Kyra Johnston (MArch 2025) to the Future100 class of 2025. Each year, a jury of experts designates the top graduating architecture and interior design students in the U.S. and Canada, nominated by their instructors and mentors.

A team of CED researchers affiliated with the Center for the Built Environment received the 2024 Best Paper award from the Building and Environment Journal. The paper, “Causal thinking: Uncovering hidden assumptions and interpretations of statistical analysis in building science,” was co-authored by CED’s Ruiji Sun, Stefano Schiavon, Gail Brager, Edward Arens, and Hui Zhang, with Thomas Parkinson and Chenlu Zhang.

Assistant Professor of Architecture Liz Gálvez’s ARCH 202 Collective Comfort studio earned a Tulane Prize honorable achievement for its cutting-edge curriculum relating to climate change mitigation and adaptation.

designboom explores Professor Ron Rael’s Adobe Oasis created for Desert X in California’s Coachella Valley: “Layered in rhythmic ribbons of red adobe, the walls mimic the texture of the surrounding palm trunks, anchoring the work in both its landscape and architectural heritage aligned with the 2025 exhibition’s call for interventions that reimagine the desert as a site of memory, transformation, and resistance.”

Over 10 summers, students impacted by the 2011 earthquake, tsunami, and nuclear disaster in Tohoku  came to CED to develop strategies for recovery using the Y-PLAN framework.

“Getting In, Out, and About,” a report by Morgan Cunneen-Franco (MCP 2025), Lisa Schroer (MCP 2025), and Esteban Villaseñor (MCP 2025), analyzes the Berkeley Hills and recommends strategies to improve pedestrian safety, emergency vehicle access, and evacuation routes in the dense residential area.

Associate Professor of City & Regional Planning Marta Gonzalez received the prestigious Lagrange Prize–Fondazione CRT for her pioneering use of network science to make cities more livable, sustainable, and equitable.

Collective Comfort: Airing on Possibilities, an exhibition by Professor of Architecture Liz Gálvez, examines climate resilience in desert cities. Highlights design-research, full-scale prototypes, and student work addressing the urgent need for alternative cooling solutions in regions facing extreme heat.

Danielle Rivera, assistant professor of landscape architecture and environmental planning, was one of the Berkeley researchers interviewed about the causes and fallout of the LA fires. The fires destroyed homes in diverse communities, but the media focus on wealthy neighborhoods could impact post-fire recovery.

Hempo Longhouse, Associate Professor Neyran Turan’s research and design project on hempcrete construction, has been awarded first prize in the Unbuilt-Residential Single-Unit category of The Architect’s Newspaper’s 2024 Best of Design Awards. The project was made possible with funding from a 2023 CED Lau Grant for Just Climate Futures.

On the occasion of the publication of Heterogeneous Constructions: Studies in Mixed Material Architecture, Associate Professor of Architecture Neyran Turan spoke with the authors, Aaron Forrest, associate adjunct professor of architecture; Yasmin Vobis, assistant professor of architecture; and Brett Schneider, associate professor of architecture at Rice University.

A new article in the journal Nature Cities involving several CED faculty and researchers investigates the quantity, spatial distribution, and potential factors influencing urban green spaces in Latin America.

Through deep analysis of 12 case studies, The Equitably Resilient City proposes a framework for climate resilience strategies that strengthen and empower vulnerable urban communities.

We mourn the loss of Professor Emeritus of Architecture Sim Van der Ryn, often called “the father of green architecture,” who aimed to create buildings and communities that were sensitive not only to place, but to the flow of human life.

Newly published research from Ramon Weber demonstrates that spatially efficient floor plans, produced through computational design, result in sustainable high-performance buildings.

A team of MRED+D students won their category in the 2024 Ivory Innovations Hack-A-House competition and are on their way to the Grand Prize event. Learn more about their innovative idea, and how MRED+D helped lead them to victory.

A multidisciplinary team of Berkeley undergrads, including students from CED, has won the 2024 Students Reinventing Cities sustainable urban design competition for the city of Curitiba, Brazil.