Architectural Sciences (Concentration in Built Ecologies) Ph.D.

The Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.) in Architectural Sciences with a concentration in Built Ecologies is an interdisciplinary educational and research degree designed to develop knowledge and expertise in the development of radically new building systems, structures and environments that are informed by the behavior of natural systems and/or performance characteristics of emergent technologies. Performance-driven design techniques seek new solutions to building system design based on the understanding that the built world should operate as an ecology and operate synergistically with larger ecologies. It seeks to address the global need for accelerated innovation and implementation of vastly-improved, energy-efficient, sustainable built environments.

Current research focuses on next generation building systems that make substantial advances in urgently needed areas such as clean, on-site energy generation, and fresh indoor air and water reclamation though ecological system integration, sustainable development and emerging bioclimatic design strategies.   

Current research areas include:

• Active Building Envelope (ABE)
• Dynamic Shading Window Systems (DSWS)
• Building Integrated Passive Dehumidification Strategies
• Phytoremediation of Indoor and Outdoor Air Quality
• Building Integrated Phase Change Material strategies
• Development of biomaterials for building construction and performance
• Passive designing, developing, and testing integrated building systems using emerging materials and technologies to achieve increased levels of building performance
• Developing tools for the design and evaluation of high performance building systems
• Performing in-situ or laboratory tests on innovative building systems
• Determining the ecological benefits or liabilities of building systems and technologies

Outcomes of the Graduate Curriculum
Students who successfully complete this program will be able to:

• design and conduct original research related to integrated architectural systems.
• formulatate of hypotheses and prediction of experimental outcomes.
• design and complete an experiment to test hypotheses.
• analyze experimental results and draw conclusions based on this analysis.
• synthesize research results and analyze and incorporate experimental findings into a design proposal for transformative architectural systems. 
• communicate design hypotheses effectively in graphic, written, and oral form.