Climate change exacerbates natural disasters and existing chronic stressors within our communities. As global weather patterns continue to change and trigger more extreme events, we’re taking these risks seriously. We’re researching, developing, and adapting strategies to increase the resilience of our buildings and our communities so that—even in the face of acute and chronic events—they can survive, recover, grow, and flourish.
Arenas are large, expensive, non-continuously-used, energy-intensive luxuries. To date, there have been no arenas built that meet any definition of “zero net energy building.” How do we move beyond the AIA 2030 Challenge, and design ecologically sustainable Net Zero energy Arenas? While Perkins and Will has generally made great progress towards meeting the 2030 goals,... Read more »
In April 2017, Rebecca Holt was featured by the AIA California Council with a by-line entitled “Reconciling Planetary Health in City Building.” Click here to learn more about the Lab’s initial engagement with urban ecologist Dr. Alex Felson, Registered Landscape Architect, Associate Professor at the Yale School of Architecture and Director of the Urban Ecology and Design... Read more »
City built-form guidelines act as durable constraints on building design decisions. Such guidelines directly impact energy, comfort and other performance conditions. Existing urban design and planning methods only consider a narrow range of potential design scenarios, with rudimentary performance criteria, resulting in suboptimal urban designs. Bibil is a software plugin for the Rhinoceros3D/Grasshopper3D CAD modeler... Read more »
Sustaining a reasonable level of safety and quality in our day-to-day lives now requires that we collectively respond to weather extremes, economic disruptions, and resource depletions that are becoming commonplace globally, regionally, and locally. Resilience involves interactive social, economic, and environmental elements that respond to both acute short-term and systemic long-term topics related to the... Read more »
SFU Urban Studies is dedicated to training urbanists to be critical and strategic thinkers who have the knowledge and expertise to become effective decision makers. The interdisciplinary program operates at the nexus of theory and practice, striking the right balance between academic and professional training. Dr. Meg Holden is leading Ecourbanism Worldwide, a 5-year research project (2014-2019) to investigate model sustainable neighborhoods, and urban infill settings worldwide. Perkins+Will is participating as part of the project’s advisory group, formed to help ground the research in practical application
Concerns over the effects of climate change affect not only the architectural design world, but the larger web of society as a whole. As such, the solutions developed need to address the complexity of factors leading to current atmospheric carbon levels. Moving forward, new ways to work, collaborate and structure fees need to be considered... Read more »
This paper discusses current trends in research related to the design of cities, primarily focused on the relationship between regulations that are put in place to control development and the outcomes resulting from the regulations. Unlike other arenas of urban research, where the desired outcome is the health, safety and welfare of the general public,... Read more »
The “LA REDCAR SF” project was realized as a colloquium as part of the San Francisco Chapter of the AIA “Architecture and The City Festival 2010” which rook place September, 2010, under the theme of “Investigating Urban Metabolisms.” The colloquium, entitled “Rethinking Urban Transportation: New Strategies for Mobility,” was the first of its kind where a moderated discussion with... Read more »
Earth’s atmosphere reached a significant threshold of 400 ppm atmospheric carbon last year, swiftly moving upward, away from the historically more environmentally stable 350 ppm that many scientists believe is sustainable. Perkins+Will is working to address these issues nationally as a participant in the AIA 2030 Commitment and, locally here in Seattle, as member of the Seattle 2030... Read more »
Nature has been recycling water within the Earth’s closed ecosystem since the very beginning of time. Humans, although a part of the ecosystem, have misappropriated this precious reserve, severely imperiling the availability of freshwater for future use for all life on Earth. Civilizations have thrived or collapsed because of water. The restructuring of our established... Read more »
The U.S. healthcare industry is changing and shifting its focus toward prevention and community health. Geographic Information Systems (GIS) and interactive mapping can help healthcare clients visualize problem areas in their communities and help answer questions about how best to improve community health with limited financial resources. This research project reviewed existing literature to determine... Read more »
