Next Generation: The Weitzman School of Design is at the cutting edge of architectural research

By Dr. Franca Trubiano 

Challenging, innovative, and impactful research is being conducted in new labs in schools of architecture across the United States. This exciting movement, which is poised to transform architectural education, the discipline, and the profession in the years to come, includes five labs at the Weitzman School of Design at the University of Pennsylvania.  

This is not the first-time architectural education has embraced the research model in the pursuit of knowledge. As architectural historian Avigail Sachs reminds us in “The Postwar Legacy of Architectural Research,” the pioneering work of centers and research units at Berkeley and Michigan, and the sponsorship of research by the AIA’s Department of Education and Research resulted from technological advances required of the Second World War.1 

This time, the impulse for those dedicating their architectural careers to research is different: The innocence of technological positivism is long gone and the professional, economic prospects of architectural practice no longer self-evident. Architectural education is also due for an upgrade. For more than fifty years in the U.S., graduates have benefitted from access to fully accredited schools whose curricula evidence a preponderance of studio-based courses, supplemented by courses in technology, history/theory, and professional practice. For the most part, this has served the profession well. Licensed architects, knowledgeable in the history of art and strength of materials, design buildings for all uses and programs. However, with drastic changes taking place in the material, digital, environmental, and political conditions of building, might we ask if this pedagogical arrangement helps us reckon with the scale and scope of our contemporary challenges? Does a design-based education predicated on serving market-responsive clients make sense for all architects, particularly for those who wish to address the impending traumas of material and energy depletion, toxic buildings, and the ever-increasing technological demands of the business of building? Not really.  

The zeal with which some architects have embraced academic research may be a response to the profession’s need for answers to questions that are difficult to articulate and address in practice. Architects are increasingly graduating with advanced doctoral degrees in architecture, be they in history and theory, in advanced design, or in building technology and engineering. This new cadre of informed research partitioners is reshaping the landscape of architectural knowledge and, in time, the profession’s horizon of critical inquiry. More than ever, schools of architecture are selecting their tenure track faculty from this group of analytically trained scholars who, in teaching young architects, will undoubtedly advance the profile of research within the discipline. Moreover, academic research in the twenty-first century is valorized and made possible by external funding. Faculty members with PhD’s are eager, if not incentivized, to pursue resources from industry partners, governments, and nonprofits to further their work.  

The architecture faculty featured in this story are focused on funded research in the physical, digital, and environmental futures of the discipline. These five research labs participate in internationally sponsored research committed to advancing both disciplinary and professional knowledge. With directors, physical infrastructure, a cadre of undergraduate, graduate, and doctoral students, and a wide array of collaborators and funders who support their innovations, each is set to transform architectural education and the way we envision practice for the next generation of architects. 

THE CENTER FOR ENVIRONMENTAL BUILDING + DESIGN  

Founded and directed by Dr. William Braham (FAIA), the Center for Environmental Building + Design [CEBD] is a faculty research unit and consultancy dedicated to improving the environmental future of buildings and cities. Working in interdisciplinary teams on projects at a range of scales, the CEBD undertakes Climate Action Planning for academic and nonprofit institutions; researches building products and components, such as responsive building skins and advances in glass; investigates building performance and design, including energy, daylighting and air flow analysis, and management strategies for large collections of buildings; and conducts urban and regional assessments, identifying land use strategies, resource allocation, and decision making for resilient development. Working alongside graduate research assistants, full-time research associates, and post-docs, the work is shared in consultancy products, journal articles, books, media, education initiatives in degree programs, and through public symposia and workshops. CEBD research is sponsored by PENN’s Carbon and Sustainability Action Plan, UNICEF, the Daiken Open Innovation Lab, the Ramboll Foundation, and the National Science Foundation, among others.  

design.upenn.edu/cebd/projects 

THE THERMAL ARCHITECTURE LAB  

Founded and directed by architect and assistant professor Dr. Dorit Aviv, the Thermal Architecture Lab operates at the intersection of thermodynamics, architectural design, and material science. Aviv holds a Ph.D. and M.Arch from Princeton University, and a B.Arch from The Cooper Union. As a licensed architect, she practiced with Tod Williams Billie Tsien Architects, KPF, and Atelier Raimund Abraham. As a researcher, she seeks to achieve synergies between renewable environmental forces, architectural materials, and forms to improve buildings’ energy performance, air quality, and human health.  

The Thermal Architecture Lab examines the building’s form and materials as active agents in the transfer of heat between the human body and its environment. Novel cooling technologies and design tools strategies are sought to simultaneously reduce a building’s energy demand and provide thermal shelter from heat stress. In addition to construction and testing of full-scale prototypes, the Lab develops simulation tools inspired by computer graphics techniques to enhance the legibility of energy flows, and full-scale physical prototypes for testing how geometry shapes the transfer of heat in space. It uses contemporary diagnostic technologies such as thermography and 3D scanning, as well as novel sensing devices and the Internet of Things (IoT) for acquiring real-time thermal data. Aviv’s work is supported by the U.S. Department of Energy, the National Science Foundation, and the National Park Service, as well as industry collaborations with Microsoft, Ripple, and Armstrong World Industries. In 2024, she received a Ramboll Foundation grant to investigate architectural applications of membrane-assisted radiant cooling. In 2021, she was awarded a Holcim Award for Sustainable Design and Construction for the Hydroculus prototype of passive cooling in a desert climate. 

thermal-architecture.org 

DUMOLAB RESEARCH  

Founded and directed by interdisciplinary architect and assistant professor Dr. Laia Mogas-Soldevila, DumoLab Research [DLR] is focused on the deployment of regenerative biomaterials in architecture. Dr. Mogas-Soldevila joined Penn in 2021 following her interdisciplinary Ph.D. in Biomedical Engineering at Tufts University. With two professional architecture degrees from Spain, and two Masters of Science degrees from MIT (in Design Computation and Mediated Matter), she translates biomaterial systems from engineering, life sciences, and vernacular design, creating everyday products and structures that support human health and regenerative building. DumoLab investigates manufacturing in ambient-conditions, water-based processing, bioremediation with living building materials, and bio-based alternatives. It hosts a team of 15 students in architecture, design, biology, and material science focused on bio-receptive building parts and structures, smart and programmable biomaterials, biodegradable products, distributed environmental sensing, and outreach on environmental literacy.  

DumoLab is sponsored by the U.S. National Science Foundation, Johnson&Johnson Foundation, The Stephenson Bio-Maker Space, Kleinman Center Sustainable Agriculture Fund, Sachs Program for Arts Innovation, Penn Research Foundation, Penn Environmental Innovation Initiative, and the Penn Global Engagement Fund. The lab’s work has been exhibited at the Healthy Materials Lab at Parsons, the ACADIA Conference, the New Lab for Biofabricate, Milan’s Design Week, London’s Design Week Materials Matter, the Athens Opera House during Nostos Festival, the Barcelona Design-HUB, and at CAA for Autodesk Pioneering Biomaterials Symposium. 

design.upenn.edu/dumolab/about 

POLYHEDRAL STRUCTURES LABORATORY  

Founded in 2017 and directed by associate professor Dr. Masoud Akbarzadeh, the Polyhedral Structures Laboratory [PSL], located at Pennovation, is a research unit concentrating on advancing structural geometry, architectural design, and construction technologies. Grounded in Dr. Akbarzadeh’s doctoral research from the Institute of Technology in Architecture at the ETH Zurich, the PSL explores 3D Graphic Statics using Reciprocal Polyhedral Diagrams for the design and construction of efficient structural forms. Based in Willian Rankine’s and James Clerk Maxwell’s structural proposition published in Philosophical Magazine of 1864, this research is manifest in advanced construction and additive manufacturing, material science, architected cellular solids, multi-material 3D printing, numerical methods of form-finding, and multi-scale modeling of materials.  

The PSL engages in cross-disciplinary collaborations with mechanical engineering and material science, and with universities such as the Technical University of Darmstadt, Texas A&M, Princeton and McGill. It also benefits from industrial collaborations with Cemex, Sika and Baumit. Dr. Akbarzadeh has garnered significant governmental funding from the U.S. National Science Foundation and the Department of Energy. Most recently, the lab digitally designed and robotically constructed Diamanti, a concrete 3D-printed, post tensioned funicular beam concrete canopy (2025 Venice Biennale) and Tortuca, a multi-layer ultra-thin sheet-based funicular glass bridge (Corning Museum of Glass, 2024). The lab is currently developing carbon-absorbing concrete 3D printed structures in a collaborative effort funded by the ARPA-E HESTIA program of the Department of Energy. 

psl.design.upenn.edu 

THE AUTONOMOUS MANUFACTURING LAB  

Founded and directed by assistant professor Robert Stuart-Smith, the Autonomous Manufacturing Lab [AML] explores the integration of robotic manufacturing and construction within architectural design. Seeking to reduce the environmental and economic costs of design and production, the lab’s integrative methods for generative design and manufacturing are developed using semi-autonomous systems, multi-agent systems, AI/machine learning computational approaches, and applications of real-time sensor and computer vision technologies. The AML’s multidisciplinary research includes the highly collaborative funded research projects, “Applied Off-site and On-site Collective Multi-Robot Autonomous Building Manufacturing” and “Aerial Additive Manufacturing” (Aerial AM). Published in Nature, Aereal AM demonstrates the world’s first in-flight additive manufacturing by cooperating drones — a form of collective robotic construction. Stuart-Smith’s research also involves collaborations with industry partners including Cemex, Skanska, Mace, Buro Happold, Arup, MTC, Ultimaker, and Kuka. Stuart-Smith is the program director and founder of the Master of Science in Design: Robotics and Autonomous Systems degree (MSD-RAS). He was also a founding partner of Kokkugia, and previously practiced with Grimshaw Architects, Lab Architecture Studio, and Arup’s Advanced Geometry Unit. 

aml-penn.com 

FRANCA TRUBIANO is Graduate Group Chair of the PhD Program in Architecture, Associate Professor at University of Pennsylvania, and a Registered Architect with l’Ordre des Architects du Québec. She is also co-director of Penn’s Mellon-funded Humanities + Urban + Design Initiative.  

Endnotes 

1. Avigail Sachs, “The Postwar Legacy of Architectural Research,” Journal of Architectural Education, Vol. 62, n. 3 (February 2009): 53-64.  

CAPTIONS:  

RESEARCH MAKES AN IMPACT IN THE REAL WORLD  
Aerial photograph of six unoccupied ger tents for testing the effectiveness of different thermal interventions in Mongolian winter conditions Photo: Christopher Cherry 

Rendered view of the Hydroculus, an evaporative and radiative cooling chimney prototype for desert climates Photo: Thermal Architecture Lab 

TERRENE from DumoLab Research, Polyhedral Structures Lab and Complex Fluids Lab, UPenn Photo: Polyhedral Structures Lab and Complex Fluids Lab, UPenn.  

DESIGNING FOR THE FUTURE  
Additively Manufactured Cladding System at Autonomous Manufacturing Lab Photo: Autonomous Manufacturing Lab 

Diamanti at the PSL Labs, Photo: PSL Labs, UPenn