Sustainability Design Lab

Operating at the intersection of interior and landscape architecture, the Sustainability Design Lab (SDL) fosters a better understanding of how low-impact design strategies can shape both the future of the built environment and the socially responsible practices we need to create more inclusive material cultures. In investigating some of the most urgent issues of our time, students working within this interdisciplinary space come to continually question and revise their own design decisions.

Through cross-disciplinary research and learning, the SDL challenges how we relate to land and the built environment, both as individuals and collectives. In particular, it encourages practitioners to think about how climate change intertwines with land use, material culture and the future of professional design practice.

The lab brings students and faculty together to develop design methods that adapt to our constantly changing climate while serving both the environment and the communities their work impacts. It offers an annual rotation of classes focused on such topics as adaptive reuse, alternative energy, rights of nature, rights to commons, public health, justice for culture, and the environment and land use.

Experiential learning opportunities offered through the lab bring students into direct contact with both the places and the people impacted by the sustainability and climate-crisis issues at the heart of their work. In addition, each year the SDL supports six graduating students from the Interior Architecture and Landscape Architecture departments, respectively, to participate in a full year of studio and seminar work that concludes in a final research and design thesis.