Equity and Social Justice
Research + Design

A multiyear collaboration between the Department of Landscape Architecture & Environmental Planning and Jackson State University in Mississippi is bringing students together to address flood mitigation and enhanced river access along Jackson’s Pearl River and California’s Sacramento River.

CED’s interdisciplinary Boyce Housing Studio proposes strategies for newly identified housing element sites in Menlo Park and Piedmont.

CED professor Ronald Rael and Virginia San Fratello, of Emerging Objects, receive the 2023 Jeff Harnar Social & Environmental Justice award for their project Casa Covid, which combines 3D printing with Indigenous building methods and materials.

After finding community at CED, the first cohort of Arcus Social Justice Corps graduates makes an impact.

Carolina Reid discusses the structural foundations of homelessness and various approaches to developing affordable and permanent supportive housing in California.

This graduate studio explored multifamily housing in the context of California’s housing crisis.

Alan Ricks, founding Principal and Chief Design Officer of the award-winning MASS Design Group will be the Spring 2023 Lifchez Visiting Professor of Practice in Social Justice. 

The exhibition Small Infrastructures examines how architectural practice can contribute to recent housing legislation and larger problems of urban housing in the U.S.

On September 30th, fifteen Abbey MRED+D students (almost half of the thirty-six student cohort) competed in Ivory Innovations’ Hack-A-House competition, with one team winning first place in their category.

This report explores the market dynamics pushing up rents across California and offers recommendations for policies that might strengthen accountability.

CED is proud to announce that the inaugural NASA Equity and Environmental Justice Grant has been awarded to Professor of Landscape Architecture Iryna Dronova, DCRP Professor Emerita Karen Chapple, and DCRP Assistant Professor Zoé Hamstead for their proposal, “Where the Grass Grows Greener: The Impacts of Urban Greening on Housing Prices and Neighborhood Stability.”

“We cannot address climate change without climate justice,” says Danielle Zoe Rivera, an assistant professor of landscape architecture and environmental planning at Berkeley and a member of the new Climate Equity and Environmental Justice faculty cluster.

Seeking solutions for society’s most urgent social and environmental justice issues, the fellows make up a cohort who will not only dedicate themselves to supporting vulnerable communities but also foster a greater sense of belonging for all CED students.

Five new faculty members at UC Berkeley this fall hail from disparate U.S. states, academic disciplines and personal backgrounds. But they’re already forming a team partnered around one critical global issue — climate equity and environmental justice —

CED announces a transformative $5.3 million gift from Berkeley alumnus Jon Stryker that will fund a four-year fellowship program aimed at providing debt relief to more than 100 graduate students.

Architecture Professor Ronald Rael is at the forefront of another project at the southern border – an endeavor to transform migrant shelters along the U.S. – Mexico border by building community and sustainable tools.

Upon the release of his new book, Walter Hood conceives a landscape architecture rooted in a sense of place, justice, and historical truth. Co-editor, Grace Mitchell Tada is a M.L.A alumna and currently co-teaching a studio with Professor Hood.

In early May, CED Students from multiple departments claimed first place in the James R. Boyce Housing Studio Challenge. Their project centered on new housing in Sacramento as the competition aimed to bring affordable housing to state-owned land.

DCRP Associate Professor Carolina Reid weighs in on the housing crisis in California. “We are not going to solve the homelessness crisis if what people are expecting is that cities are going to build affordable housing for every one of those individuals.”

Michael Mendez (PhD City & Regional Planning 2015) has published his book about the role Latinx and other communities of color are leading on climate change.