Technology and Material Innovations

The Architect’s Newspaper says that the Chengdu Pavilion, a building in China’s Sichuan Province designed by Chair of Architecture Lisa Iwamoto’s firm IwamotoScott, “represents a trajectory toward environmentally adaptive architecture in anticipation of the context taking shape around it.”

Drawing on research developed by Paul Mayencourt’s team at the UC Berkeley Wood Lab, Mad River Mass Timber has emerged as California’s first producer of dowel-laminated mass timber, which has the potential to improve forest health, mitigate wildfire risk, and accelerate the production of affordable housing — while also contributing toward the long-term goal of decarbonizing the environment.

This interdisciplinary lecture series considers the role of technology in shaping our landscapes and cities, past and present, and asks the question, “Can technology fix what technology broke?” We’ve invited speakers from a range of disciplines to critically assess the compelling opportunities, as well as the potential downsides, of generative AI and other new technologies that are increasingly becoming part of our design and research practices. 

Kristina Hill, Institute of Urban & Regional Design Research Director and associate professor, alongside five Bay Area environmental justice organizations launches the Bay Area Community Air Quality Map, a new tool designed to provide real-time estimates of air quality across the Bay Area for students and their families.

In this 101 in 101 video, Professor of Architecture Ronald Rael gives a primer on earthen architecture and explains why our future homes could be made using the soil beneath our feet. Soil is a material so compelling that it has long been a central pillar of Rael’s work and teaching.

Designer, educator, researcher, and alum David Brown (MArch 1990) led this year’s competition, with the theme Lot, Garden, and Void. Student teams of five to six students had 58 hours to create their designs before presenting to a panel of jurors. Brown, professor of architecture and director of the College of Architecture at the University of Illinois – Chicago, is best known for The Available City, his ongoing initiative to document, explore, and reimagine vacant lots in Chicago as landscapes of collective action.

The California Institute for Energy and Environment announced Aoyu Zou, a PhD student in architecture (BSTS), as the recipient of the 2025 Art Rosenfeld Award for Energy Efficiency. Working in the Center for the Built Environment under Professors Stefano Schiavon and Gail Brager, Zou is developing scalable, grid-interactive solutions to improve energy efficiency in the built environment.

Ronald Rael and Virginia San Fratello, founders of Emerging Objects, were honored with a National Design Award in the category of digital design. The awards honor innovation and impact and recognize the power of design to change the world.

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.”

A duplex in Providence, Rhode Island, shows off Ultramoderne’s take on “cheapskate” architecture, using discarded materials from local construction projects. “Innovative architecture is still possible in today’s economic climate—it just requires a new approach.”

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.

Maryam Hosseini, who uses AI, computer vision, and machine learning to advance urban accessibility and walkability, joins the Department of City & Regional Planning this semester as assistant professor.

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.

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.

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

The Softwood Lumber Board and the Association of Collegiate Schools of Architecture have named a new studio for Berkeley’s Master of Advanced Architecture Design program as a winner of its 2024 Timber Education Prize.

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.