Sustainability Design Lab

Operating at the intersection of interior and landscape architecture, the Sustainability Design Lab 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.

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Through cross-disciplinary research and learning, the Sustainability Design Lab 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 Sustainability Design Lab 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.

At RISD, Landscape Architecture straddles the interface between the cultural and natural worlds, addressing design issues inherent in a range of typologies and scales, from specific sites to global systems. We encourage students to bridge intuitive and analytical thinking, engage in cross-disciplinary experimentation, as the only Master of Landscape Architecture degree program embedded in a US-based art and design school, employ a range of methods across multiple artistic and design practices.

As a community of landscape designers and scholars, we respond to the social, cultural and ecological challenges of the 21st century and develop models for research and practice that reflect a commitment to humanity and the environment.

More about Landscape Architecture

Operating at the intersection of architecture, conservation and design, Interior Architecture at RISD takes an innovative approach to the reuse and transformation of existing buildings. A deep focus on adaptive reuse is central to our programs, as students and faculty in the department interrogate the design of buildings from inside out.

As demonstrated through research and teaching, our approach to adaptive reuse emphasizes creative strategies that are socially and environmentally responsible, as students learn to design interventions for existing structures at many scales—from smaller spaces to large buildings and the greater urban fabric.

More about Interior Architecture