Climate Solutions
Research + Design

Drawing on the College of Environmental Design’s history of social critique in design and planning, White Green and Black brings a critical focus to cultural landscapes and living with difference.

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.

Students who graduate from Berkeley's Master of Urban Design program take the lessons they learned in California and apply them in other parts of the country — and the world — that are also seeking sustainable forms of human-centered urban development.

Research projects involving faculty from the Departments of City & Regional Planning and Landscape Architecture & Environmental Planning received seed grants from a new program sponsored by UC Berkeley’s Office of the Vice Chancellor for Research.

Architectural Record honored Associate Professor Neyran Turan’s office, NEMESTUDIO, with a Design Vanguard 2024 award. Turan, who joined the Department of Architecture faculty in 2016, is currently serving as chair of its MArch program.

CED teams won first and second place at the Academy of Neuroscience for Architecture (ANFA) Student Design Competition.

The Department of Architecture is pleased to announce two new faculty appointments: Ajay Manthripragada as assistant professor in design and Ramon Elias Weber as assistant professor specializing in building technologies. 

Berkeley Institute of Transportation Studies names Kathryn Exon Smith (MCP 2024) as the recipient of the 2024 Outstanding Masters Student of the Year, calling her work and collaborations in all regards "phenomenal," including her thesis on transportation regional governance.

Maria Paz Gutierrez, associate professor of architecture, receives National Science Foundation grant for household greywater reuse project. Gutierrez is working with professor of architecture, Luisa Caldas, and UC Merced.