Design + Health
A number of especially promising areas of future research, including the newly created Center for Design and Health, build on current work and interests of our faculty and students:
Public Health and Urban Form
As sprawling land use patterns are now being associated with a host of chronic health problems, this relationship necessitates investigation.
Green Building and Sustainable Design
The design of buildings clearly has the potential to affect the health of their users and occupants.
Design and Planning for an Aging Population
The demographic trends of a graying U.S. population present a number of important and serious health challenges.
Biophilic Design and Planning
The concept of biophilia challenges designers to integrate green features into buildings, neighborhoods and cities of the future.
Climate Change, Disaster Management, Coastal Resiliance
Few environmental trends or problems raise more serious public health concerns than global climate change.
Community Food and Agriculture
Creatively including food production into built environments is an interest that crosses disciplines in the School.
Patient Centered Medical Facilities
There is a growing demand for well-designed medical facilities that reduce the negative effects of stress on the immune systems of patients, staff, and visitors.
Selected Research Projects
- Tim Beatley — Local Food
- Anselmo Canfora — Studio reCOVER
- Tanya Denkla Cobb — Virginia Food Heritage Project
- John Quale — ecoMOD XS: Sustainable, Affordable, Prefab Housing for Aging in Place
- Phoebe Crisman — Money Point Sustainable Revitalization Study
- Phoebe Crisman — The Learning Barge
- Phoebe Crisman — Paradise Creek Nature Park