built environment

Ewing: COVID-19 rates in urban centers

June 20, 2020

Research from GCSC affiliate Reid Ewing, College of Architecture + Planning, runs counter to the instincts that some city dwellers have had in fleeing to the suburbs in response to the coronavirus pandemic. Ewing is the Director of the Metropolitan Research Center at the U of U. In a study with his former graduate student and GCSC fellow Shima Hamidi, Ewing used  structural equation modeling to account for both direct and indirect impacts of density on the COVID-19 infection and mortality rates for 913 U.S. metropolitan counties.

From the paper: The researchers’ findings “suggest that connectivity matters more than density in the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic. Large metropolitan areas with a higher number of counties tightly linked together through economic, social, and commuting relationships are the most vulnerable to the pandemic outbreaks. They are more likely to exchange tourists and businesspeople within themselves and with other parts, thus increasing the risk of cross-border infections. Our study concludes with a key recommendation that planners continue to advocate dense development for a host of reasons, including lower death rates due to infectious diseases like COVID-19.”

Read about their findings in @theU.

GCSC Seminar – Terry Irwin “Designing for Systems-Level Change”

“Designing for Systems-Level Change” – Terry Irwin, Professor and Head, Carnegie Mellon University School of Design  | 210 ASB

In this lecture, Terry Irwin will discuss the role that design can play in addressing the complex problems confronting 21st century societies. She will introduce Transition Design, a new area of design focus aimed at catalyizing systems level change and making the tools and approaches used by designers available to transdisciplinary teams working on problems such as climate change, water shortages, poverty, crime and many more. To resolve these complex problems, entire societies will need to transition toward sustainable futures characterized by lifestyles that are place-based and local, yet cosmopolitan in their global awareness and exchange of knowledge and technology. In particular, Terry will discuss her recent work with the city of Ojai California using Transition Design to address the city’s extreme, drought-induced water shortage. She will also explain how Transition Design may offer an approach for resolving conflicts among the multiple diverse stakeholders found within a complex, Œwicked problem such as water security.  Download abstract/flyer

Read more here.

Bio

Terry Irwin is a professor/Head of the School of Design at Carnegie Mellon University and has been teaching at the University level since 1986. She has been on the faculty at Otis Parsons College of Design, Los Angeles, California College of the Arts (1989-2003), San Francisco and The University of Dundee, Scotland. She has also guest taught and lectured widely in North America and Europe.

Terry has been a practicing designer for more than 40 years, and was a founding partner of the San Francisco office of the international design firm, MetaDesign where she served as Creative Director from 1992 – 2001. In 2003 Terry moved to Devon, England to do a Masters Degree in Holistic Science at Schumacher College/Plymouth University, an international center for ecological studies and joined the faculty in 2004. At CMU Terry led the faculty in a redesign of all programs to place design for society and the environment at the heart of all curricula. Terry1s research is in Transition Design a new area of design focus that involves seeding and catalyzing societal transition toward more sustainable futures. Terry holds an MFA in Design from the Allgemeine Kunstgewerbeschule in Basel, Switzerland.

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GCSC Seminar: Ryan Smith – “Building systems: ecological design and construction”

“Building Systems: ecological design and construction” – Ryan Smith, Assoc. Dean for Research, College of Architecture + Planning, U of Utah.  4pm, 210 asb

Building systems is a noun – the built infrastructure systems that constitute our physical world.  Building systems is also a verb – the daily design decisions of architects, planners, engineers, contractors and owners often have unintentional consequences on society, environment and economies that have long term effects.  This talk will illustrate research and teaching by Professor Smith that seeks for resilient solutions to construction by utilizing the efficiencies and savings associated with low carbon wood production and factory produced buildings.

Landscape Lab: Interdisciplinary, Collaborative Redesign of the Williams Building Landscape

September 13, 2016

landscape lab designAlthough the upper portion of the Red Butte Creek watershed is a protected natural area, the creek’s lower reaches run through the University of Utah campus and have faced over a century of degradation, diversion, and neglect. Graduate students in the 2012 and 2013 Global Changes and Society course recognized this and brought it to the attention of University administration, thus beginning a larger conversation. In 2014-15, the Office of Sustainability, the GCSC, and the Ecological Planning Center carried out a broad engagement and planning process to develop a Strategic Vision for Red Butte Creek, which proposes an approach to revitalize the creek and its watershed and profoundly change the relationship between the university, the surrounding community, and this ecological corridor. The new vision for Red Butte Creek aims to foster healthy ecosystems and build campus sustainability, while advancing the university’s mission as a platform for research, education, and community engagement.

The Williams Building property in the University of Utah’s Research Park offers a unique opportunity to host a demonstration project for the Red Butte Creek Strategic Vision. In partnership with campus facilities and planning and the Real Estate Administration, the Office of Sustainability, the GCSC, and the Ecological Planning Center convened a collaborative design process—the “Landscape Lab”—to re-design the landscape of the Williams Building. Facilitated by a landscape architecture consultant, the research design team has worked to weave ecological and social-impact research questions into the design and construction of the new landscape, thereby encouraging a new process model that merges social science and ecological research with planning and design.

Through this collaboration, the project will restore native ecological diversity and function to this portion of the Red Butte Creek watershed; increase access to recreational space for occupants of the building, the campus community, and the public; as well as test research questions about urban stream restoration, stormwater management, water quality, use of public space, and more. By working across disciplines, this investigative process aims to shorten the feedback loop between implementation and research, ultimately helping to shape more effective designs for healthy and resilient ecosystems and communities.

This project is funded with support from the Real Estate Administration for the University of Utah Research Park, with supplemental funds coming from individual research grants. There are ongoing opportunities for interested faculty and students to engage with this project.