Urban Ecology and Design Laboratory at Yale
College/University - New Haven, CT, US
Urban Ecology and Design Laboratory at Yale Employees
Urban Ecology and Design Laboratory at Yale Details
The UEDLAB combines landscape architecture with green infrastructure and urban design to study and adapt human settlements in response to pressing sustainability challenges.To do so, the UEDLAB:1. Re-envisions the role of urban ecologists as active members in the urban design and implementation process (Felson and Pickett 2005);2. Develops and advances new forms of urban design that: (a) add ecological function, and (b) are supported and developed through community engagement; and3. Generates data on urban ecological and social systems by integrating social science research into the engagement process, and integrating designed ecological experiments into the layout and implementation of urban built work. We work at multiple scales and across disciplines with diverse clients and stakeholders. Our research focuses on coastal and climate change adaptation, urban design and green infrastructure and constructed nature, often through a local or institutional process of engagement and through physical testing of species performance and interactions. The UEDLAB developed the first Coastal Resilience Plan in Connecticut for Guilford, and has received a grant from SCRCOG and CIRCA for continued coastal resilience work in southern Connecticut with Rob Mendelsohn. The resulting proposal will integrate social, ecological and economic goal to address land use changes and innovations in housing, landscapes and habitats, roadways and utilities, towards a cohesive transformation of an urban coastline, over time.The ongoing thermoGreenwall project involves the design and testing of a vertically constructed wetland that combines the benefits of wetland in reducing heat in the outdoor environment with the functionality of cooling towers in reducing heat in indoor building infrastructure.
