The faculty and students in the School of Architecture participate in a wide range of funded and non-funded research, scholarship, and creative and professional activities. Most of it is collaborative and interdisciplinary. Faculty engage researchers within the School as well as in the fine and performing arts within the College of Arts + Architecture. They also engage a number of civic and cultural institutions. Several participate in research projects in disciplines across campus, including engineering, geography, and computer science. Sponsored activities include urban design studies for local and regional municipalities and community groups, high performance building and optimization protocols, daylighting and energy analysis, digital design and fabrication components, and interactive visualization.
The School publishes an online collection of current faculty and student essays, The Thinking Architect.
Within the School, there are several research centers and laboratories that provide a base for faculty research and also become a point of contact for students to engage in funded research projects with the faculty. This research takes full advantage of the advanced computing, software and digital fabrication facilities at the CoA+A. The scale of research ranges from small, short-term investigations to large, multi-year grants.
Research Centers
Much of the School of Architecture's research is funded and conducted through our research centers. For more information about each, please explore their individual websites through the links below.
- Integrated Design Research Lab
- including the Laboratory for Innovative Housing and the Daylighting Lab
- City.Building.Lab
- D-Arts
- The DesignLAB focuses on the role of design as a form of architectural research in the analysis and transformation of the built environment through targeted speculations, experiments, design competitions, practical strategies, and pilot projects. A recent DesignLAB project received the Citation Award in the Activate North Carolina 2016 Urban Housing Competition.
- Urban Synergetics Lab