Welcome to the information page for the
Environmental Structure Research Group
An International Consortium of Advanced Investigators into Collaborative Structure-Generating Processes in the Human Environment
Mission Statement
The Environmental Structure Research Group is an interdisciplinary, international partnership of basic and applied researchers and practitioners in the fields of the built and natural environments, and the fields with which they interact.
The purpose of the organisation is to create additional opportunities for the collaborative development and dissemination of research into best practice.
The focus of the work is the understanding and further development of structure-generating methodologies (e.g. design codes, research tools and collaborative processes) which result in more adaptive, more optimal, and more ecologically stable environmental structure, in both human and natural realms.
The working hypothesis is that important work remains to be done to understand the relation between the structure of the environment including the built human structures within it and human and ecological health and well-being; and that more work is needed to develop new standards of best practice, and new methodologies to achieve them. To meet the challenge this work must be inter-disciplinary, and must combine theory and practice.
Fields of Collaboration:
Built Environment: Architecture, Planning, Urban Design, Landscape Architecture, Engineering, Construction
Natural Environment: Biology, Ecology, Climatology
Other: Medicine (Epidemiology, Environmental Health), Environmental Psychology, Anthropology, Sociology, Economics, Mathematics, Physics, Computer Science, Business Management, Finance, Government Policy
Board of Senior Partners (In formation)
Christopher Alexander, Ph.D. (International practitioner, researcher, author)
Emeritus Professor, University of California, Berkeley
Centre for Environmental Structure - Europe
Ward Cunningham, MSc. (Computer scientist, developer of Wiki)
Eclipse Foundation, USA
Andres Duany (International practitioner, researcher, author)
Principal, Duany Plater-Zyberk,
Jan Gehl (International practitioner, researcher, author)
Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts
Gehl Architects, Copenhagen
Brian Goodwin, Ph.D. (Professor of biology)
Schumacher College, UK
Bill Hillier, DSc. (Professor of urban morphology)
University College London, UK
Elizabeth Plater-Zyberk, MArch. (Dean, Professor of Architecture)
University of Miami, Miami, FL
Founding Strategic Partners Individuals
David Brain, Ph.D. (Sociology)
New College Florida
Herbert Girardet (Ecology)
Schumacher Society
Richard J. Jackson, MD, MPH (Environmental health)
University of California Berkeley
Roderick J. Lawrence (Human ecology, epidemiology)
University of Geneva
Bernard Lietaer (Economics, complex systems integration)
Research Fellow, University of California Berkeley
Stephen Marshall, Ph.D. (Planning, complexity in urbanism)
University College London
Paul Murrain (Urban design, collaborative design tools)
The Princes Foundation
Ernesto Philibert, Ph.D.(Architecture, urban networks)
TEC de Monterrey Queretaro
Yodan Rofe, Ph.D.
Ben-Gurion University of the Negev (Architecture, pattern languages)
Emily Talen, Ph.D.,
University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (Planning)
Roger Ulrich, Ph.D. (Environmental Psychology)
TAMU/Bartlett School of Architecture
Marcel Vellinga, Ph.D. (Anthropology of Architecture)
Oxford Brookes, International Vernacular Architecture Unit
John Worthington (International architectural practice)
DEGW Architects
Executive Board (In formation)
Stuart Cowan, Ph.D. (Physicist, expert on sustainable systems)
Sustainable Systems Design, Portland, OR
Howard Davis (Professor, author of The Culture of Building)
University of Oregon
Besim Hakim (Scholar on historic and modern design codes, practitioner)
Independent scholar and consultant, Albuquerque, NM
Brian Hanson, Ph.D. (Architectural/urban historian and theorist)
Birkbeck College, University of London
Michael Mehaffy (Architectural/urban theorist and practitioner)
Structura Naturalis Inc., Centre for Environmental Structure - Europe
Maggie Moore (Organizational consultant)
Centre for Environmental Structure - Europe
Hajo Neis (Professor of architecture and urbanism, theorist, practitioner)
University of Oregon
Nikos Salingaros, Ph.D. (Mathematician, physicist, architectural/urban theorist)
University of Texas at San Antonio
Bankoku Sasagawa (Architect, craftsman)
Centre for Environmental Structure - Europe
Lucien Steil (Architect, educator, practitioner)
Katarxis Urban Workshops
Strategic Partner Institutions (In formation)
The Bartlett School of Planning, University College London
London, UK
Host Institution for Inaugural Symposium, November 2006
The University of Greenwich, School of Architecture and Construction
Greenwich, UK
Pledged Member Institution, Proposed Host for Future Events
The University of Cambridge
Cambridge, England
Affiliate through the SOLUTIONS research project (in discussion)
Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts, Centre for Public Space Research
Copenhagen, Denmark
Pledge of member Jan Gehl, Director
Tecnologico de Monterrey, Department of Architecture
Queretaro, Mexico
Pledge of member Ernesto Philibert, Professor
The University of Miami, Department of Architecture
Miami, Florida
Pledge by Member Elizabeth Plater-Zyberk, Dean
The University of Oregon
Portland, Oregon
Affiliated through member Hajo Neis, Director of the Portland Program
Eclipse Foundation
Ottawa, Canada
Discussion with Member Ward Cunningham
Appropriate Software Foundation
London, UK
Pledge of Member John Bywater
Centre for Environmental Structure
Arundel, UK
Through Research Associate Michael Mehaffy and Chairman Christopher Alexander
And others in discussion
Activities
Annual Symposium
[Note: last symposium was November 7-8 2006, UCL, London; next set for Portland, OR in September 2007]
Supplemental working group symposia and task meetings
Annual newsletter
Collaborative listserv
Periodic Working Groups and Task Forces
Joint funding applications for collaborative research
Other opportunities as they develop
Proposed Topics of Investigation
Morphogenetic processes and generative codes in the human environment
Self-organization processes, and design tools that can manage or exploit them
Collaborative design processes and technologies Wiki, computer-based systems,
design-build management systems, rule-governed collaborations, charrettes et al.
Qualitative diagnostic tools and consensus methodologies for use in collaborative
design processes.
Cognitive evaluations of the built environment differences between cohorts (e.g.
design professionals versus ordinary people) and their implications
Assessment methodologies, e.g. sustainability checklists, et al.
The economics of sustainable development and construction, and new management,
information, assessment and financing processes needed.
The analysis and generation of various classes of geometric characteristics in design
Current Projects:
Social Housing in Latin America: Topics of Self-Organization and Collaborative Design Process
Nikos A. Salingaros, Ph.D., Lead Investigator/Author
With: David Brain, Andres Duany, Michael Mehaffy and Ernesto Philibert
Paper to be presented at the Brazilian and Ibero-American Congress on Social Housing, November 2006
SOLUTIONS Research Project on suburban morphology (Martin Centre, Cambridge)
Stephen Marshall, Ph.D., is exploring possible links to this established research project
Contact:
Michael Mehaffy, Coordinator, ESRG
Research Associate, Centre for Environmental Structure - Europe
President, Structural Naturalis Inc.
(Michael dot Mehaffy at the gmail domain.)