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UC Berkeley College of Environmental Design

@ced_berkeley

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No. 1 Public University for Architecture & the Built Environment.
@ucberkeleyarch
@ucberkeleyurbandesign
@ucberkeleyblakegarden

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We’re the No. 1 Public University in the U.S. for Architecture + Built Environment! 💛💙

QS World University Rankings has once again named UC Berkeley as the top public university in the nation for studying architecture and the built environment.

This isn’t just about the prestige, it’s about a "longtime dedication to empowering our students to be change-makers,” says William W. Wurster Dean Renee Y. Chow. “When our students graduate, they are prepared to design solutions to the myriad environmental challenges we face, be leaders in their professions, and serve their communities through practice and public service.”

#UCBerkeley
#ArchitectureSchool
#BuiltEnvironment
#QSWorldRankings
#CollegeOfEnvironmentalDesign by @ced_berkeley

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6 months ago

A new meadow designed by MLA students for the 2026 Thomas Church Memorial Design Competition is blooming at Blake Garden! This year’s competition brief for a “hypernatural” meadow asked students to develop designs that challenge our perception of nature, explore human agency in novel ecosystems, and foreground contemporary planting design aesthetics in a post–wild world.

Through collaborative coursework, elements of the winning designs were combined into one planting scheme and installed in the spring. Showcasing Blake Garden’s role as the experiential learning lab for the Department of Landscape Architecture & Environmental Planning, the project exemplifies the garden’s mission to demonstrate the transformative potential of the designed landscape and of unique plant combinations.

See the meadow as it matures and changes through the seasons: Blake Garden is open to the public Tuesdays to Fridays, 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Before you go, check @ucberkeleyblakegarden for the latest info on closures.

Read more about the competition and view the winning submissions on our website.

https://ced.berkeley.edu/news/master-of-landscape-architecture-students-design-hypernatural-meadow-amping-up-complexities-beauty-of-nature

#Hypernatural #MLA #BlakeGarden Rendering of garden: Master of landscape architecture students design “hypernatural” meadow, amping up complexities & beauty of nature by @ced_berkeley

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5 days ago

Join us for Building Tomorrow: Innovation at the Edge of Climate Justice — a special Homecoming panel and reception.

Learn how the College of Environmental Design is at the forefront of developing innovative, scalable solutions to the climate crisis — from wildfire prevention to sustainable timber construction to adaptive reuse.

Moderated by Interim William W. Wurster Dean Daniel G. Chatman, with presentations by Professor of Landscape Architecture & Environmental Planning and Urban Design Kristina Hill, Professor of City & Regional Planning Marta Gonzalez, and Assistant Professor of Architecture Ramon Weber.

A Q&A and reception will follow the presentations. We look forward to welcoming you back to Bauer Wurster Hall!

Friday, Oct. 9, 2026 | 3:30–4:30 PM (Reception to follow)
112 Bauer Wurster Hall

This event is part of UC Berkeley’s Alumni and Parents Weekend at Homecoming. Link in bio to learn more and RSVP! 💙💛

https://ced.berkeley.edu/events/building-tomorrow-innovation-at-the-edge-of-climate-justice-homecoming-event

Photo: Ramon Weber, closeup buildings from the exhibition "The Weather to Come: Forest, City, Fire, Cloud," CED, 2026.

#UCBerkeley #CalHC #BerkeleyTime #CalAlumni by @ced_berkeley

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16 days ago

Thinking about graduate study in design, planning, real estate, or the built environment? The College of Environmental Design’s graduate programs are hosting info sessions, open houses, and panels this fall. Join us!

🗓️UPCOMING ADMISSIONS EVENTS & INFO SESSIONS

UC Berkeley Graduate Diversity Fair
–Master of Urban Design (MUD): Tue, Oct. 6, 4 PM
–Master of Design (MDes) Career Pathways & Alumni Panel: Thu, Oct. 8, 9 AM
–Design the Future: Architecture Grad Programs: Thu, Oct. 8, 1 PM

Architecture Info Sessions
Learn about graduate architecture degrees with faculty and advisors.
–Mon, Oct. 12, 12 PM
–Thu, Nov. 5, 9 AM
–Application Walkthrough: Fri, Dec. 4, 5 PM

Landscape Architecture & Environmental Planning Info Session
Join Chair Dorotheé Imbert & advisors for curriculum details, degree tracks, and faculty Q&A.
–Wed, Nov. 4, 5 PM

City & Regional Planning Info Sessions
Join MCP Chair Charisma Acey & advisors to explore the program and application process.
–Tue, Sept. 29, 10 AM
–Tue, Oct. 20, 10 AM
–Tue, Nov. 24, 10 AM

Urban & Regional Development
Master of Urban Design (MUD) Info Sessions
Discover the interdisciplinary curriculum, admissions process, design studios, and career paths.
–Tue, Nov. 10, 10:30 AM
–Wed, Dec. 9, 5 PM

Abbey Master of Real Estate Development + Design (MRED+D) Info Sessions
Explore funding, student life, career outcomes, and applications tips. Also join us for an industry panel and open house.
–Tue, Oct. 6, 4 PM
–On-Campus & Virtual Open House: Mon, Oct. 19, 10:45 AM

Master of Design (MDes) Info Sessions
Get an inside look at the curriculum, resources, and community.
–Curriculum Overview w/ Faculty Director Kyle Steinfeld: Tue, Oct. 20, 4 PM
–In-Person Visit Day: Thu, Nov. 5, 1 PM

Arcus Social Justice Corps Fellowship Info Sessions
For grads driven to create transformational social change through planning, research, and design.
–Tue, Oct. 13, 11 AM
–Thu, Nov. 12, 11 AM
–Thu, Dec. 10, 11 AM

Head to the link in bio to register for a virtual or in-person session. We look forward to meeting you!
🔗ced.berkeley.edu/admissions/graduate-admissions Graduate Info Session by @ced_berkeley

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17 days ago

California has a wildfire problem and an affordable housing problem.

Paul Mayencourt, assistant professor of cooperative extension at @ced_berkeley and @natureatcal, is teaching people and businesses to manufacture mechanically laminated timber (MLT) as an alternative, eco-friendly construction material.

Currently, the forest thinning that can help prevent wildfires results in small trees being cut down but going unused. MLT is an inexpensive way to repurpose this salvaged wood as well as sustainably harvested timber. Wood products like MLT are also far more environmentally friendly than concrete and steel, whose production is responsible for 11% to 15% of global greenhouse gas emissions. Dowel-laminated timber, a type of MLT, is even recyclable.

Mayencourt’s efforts at the @berkeley.woodlab have helped a Humboldt County company become the first in the nation to produce dowel-laminated timber commercially. In June, the company shared plans to hire 30 more employees as it expands.

You may see more MLT construction in the future. Mayencourt and his collaborators have also designed affordable housing using MLT, including barracks for the same hotshot firefighters who battle wildfires.
 More at the link in our bio: https://bit.ly/4dd2aI3  
[Video description: A college student and lab director walk through a building full of wood and other construction materials, showing off the processes for repurposing wood. Other clips appear throughout further illustrating the process.]

#Construction #Wildfire #BornAtBerkeley taken in Berkeley, California by @ced_berkeley

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19 days ago

Do car-free days actually clear the air?

September 22 is World Car Free Day, when cities aim to reclaim public space, encourage active transport, and give urban skies a well-deserved breather. But do these temporary car bans actually deliver cleaner air?

A new study led by Chancellor's Professor of City & Regional Planning Daniel Rodríguez and Cheng-Kai Hsu (PhD 2024) examining 27 mandatory car-free days across 7 Colombian cities reveals a far more nuanced picture than previously thought.

The study found a modest average improvement of 5% in PM2.5 (0.90 µg/m³) on car-free days relative to control days. These reduced pollution levels persisted immediately after the event. However, air quality worsened at the edges of their window of analysis, three days before and after the events.

Key Takeaways

* Car-free days are not a silver bullet for pollution: Single-day bans yield brief, modest environmental gains that are partially offset by travel shifted to surrounding days.

* Cities should focus on permanent measures: To achieve lasting public health benefits, cities need policies —such as low- or zero-emission zones, congestion pricing, or continuous public transit electrification — that permanently alter commuting habits rather than temporarily shifting them.‌

* Car-free days can build public support for sustainable transport: They remain valuable tools for social engagement, promoting cycling and walking, and building public support for sustainable transport.

Rodríguez, D. A., Hsu, C.-K., Morales Betancourt, R., & Götschi, T. (2026). Air Quality Effects of Car-Free Days on PM2.5 Levels in Seven Colombian Cities. Under Review.

Images:
Slide 1 – Bogotá, Photo: Alejandro Bernal.
Slide 5 – Bogotá. Photo: Andrews Mogollon.

#CarFreeDay A quiet, empty urban street with a designated bike lane on a bridge. The scene includes buildings, trees, and distant hills under a cloudy sky. Text reads, "Do car-free days actually clear the air?" and "#CarFreeDay. by @ced_berkeley

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a month ago

We’re looking forward to an amazing semester with 10 visiting faculty across the college!

The Department of Architecture is welcoming Casper Mork-Ulnes, principal of international practice Mork-Ulnes Architects, as Friedman Visiting Professor of Practice; ETSAM professors Laura Sánchez Carrasco and Íñigo Cobeta as UPM Visiting Professors of Practice; and Luke Ogrydziak and Zoë Prillinger, principals of OPA, as Esherick Endowed Professors. In addition, the inaugural Creedon Fellow, Julie Riley, will continue in this role for the coming academic year.

The Department of Landscape Architecture & Environmental Planning has invited Kimberly Garza (BA Landscape Architecture 2006) and Erik Prince, principals of Atlas Lab, to campus as the fall 2026 Lifchez Professors of Practice in Social Justice.

The Department of City & Regional Planning is hosting two visiting professors: University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign’s Ken E. Salo as Theodore B. and Doris Shoong Lee Chair in Real Estate Law and Urban Planning and Joshua Muldavin, professor of geography, environmental studies, and Asian studies at Sarah Lawrence College, as a visiting professor.

Welcome, all!

@ucberkeleyarch
@caspermorkulnes
@morkulnesarchitects
@opa_architects
@atlaslab by @ced_berkeley

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a month ago

It's Oski's B-Day Bearathon fundraiser!

We invite you join us in celebrating our mascot's birthday by supporting graduate fellowships at the College of Environmental Design.

The Arcus Social Justice Corps Fellowship builds on CED’s legacy of educating environmental design leaders who are dedicated to creating positive social change. The Arcus Fellowship provides financial and programmatic support to graduate students in CED’s professional master’s degree programs who commit to using their education to address the vital issues facing our cities and communities.

The program is now in its fifth year, and Arcus alums are already making an impact, working with organizations to develop affordable housing, mitigate climate risk, and create healthy and just cities.

Your gift during Oski’s B-Day Bearathon, September 16 to 18, invests in these students, whose achievements ripple across Bauer Wurster Hall, campus, and our communities. Please join us in celebrating Oski’s birthday by supporting the next generation of changemakers!

Link in bio, make your gift today: https://givingday.berkeley.edu/giving-day/120099/department/120395

Learn more: http://ced.berkeley.edu/arcus

#OskiBday #Bearathon #GivingDay by @ced_berkeley

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a month ago

We’re thrilled to announce the appointment of Sean Canty to the faculty as assistant professor of architecture. Canty is an architect and educator whose work explores the capacity of architectural form to reorganize spatial norms and forms of social life.

“His work is impactful not just for the rigor it brings in synthesizing context, material, geometry, and space, but also in the manner in which he has been able to expand this work in increasingly public environments,” said Department of Architecture Chair Lisa Iwamoto.

Canty is the founder of Studio Sean Canty (SSC), an architecture practice that introduces novel geometries and materials to enrich the spaces of everyday life, and a co-founder of design collective Office III. His work has been exhibited internationally, including at the 18th Venice Architecture Biennale, The Cooper Union, and A83 Gallery. He is the recipient of the 2023 Arts and Letters Award in Architecture from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, the 2023 Architectural League Prize, and the 2020 Richard Rogers Fellowship from Harvard. Canty is the author of the forthcoming book Black Abstraction in Architecture and his writings have appeared in Harvard Design Magazine, Log, Domus, and MAS Context, among other publications. He earned his BArch from CCA and MArch from the Harvard Graduate School of Design, where he also served on the faculty.

Please join us in welcoming Sean Canty to the College of Environmental Design.

Read more: https://ced.berkeley.edu/news/sean-canty-appointed-assistant-professor-of-architecture

Images:

1 – Sean Canty, UC Berkeley, 2026.
2 – Studio Sean Canty, Made to Dwell, House Transformed, Princeton University School of Architecture, 2025.
3 – 322A Table, 2024.
4 – Studio Sean Canty, House, Block, Commons, Philadelphia, 2021.
5 – Black Abstraction in Architecture (Park Books forthcoming 2026).

@ucberkeleyarch @sean_canty_ @studioseancanty by @ced_berkeley

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2 months ago

New year, new beginnings 📌. It's been great welcoming everyone to Bauer Wurster Hall. We wish you a successful year ahead! taken in UC Berkeley College of Environmental Design by @ced_berkeley

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2 months ago

MODERNISM: BORN IN CALIFORNIA spotlights the work of alums Ernest Alexander Born (BA 1922, MArch 1923, 1898–1992) and Esther Baum Born (MArch 1926, 1902–1987).

The exhibition focuses on how the Borns visualized and framed the new “look” of a world dramatically changed by the economic and social disruptions of modernization in the early decades of the 20th century.

An accomplished artist and illustrator as well as architect, Ernest Born designed exhibits, murals, advertising material, furniture, and books, and rendered designs for other firms. He designed the Glen Park and Balboa Park BART stations and drafted the signage for all 33 BART stations. He was a member of the faculty at the UC Berkeley School of Architecture from 1951–1958 and 1962–1974.

Trained as an architect at UC Berkeley alongside husband Ernest, Esther Baum Born was best known as a photographer. Her 1937 book The New Architecture in Mexico was pivotal in bringing attention to early Mexican modernism. She also photographed Frank Lloyd Wright Usonian Houses and documented the Golden Gate International Exposition on Treasure Island. In partnership with her husband, she ran a successful San Francisco–based architecture and graphic design practice.

The exhibition featuring work from the Ernest and Esther Born collection at the Environmental Design Archives is on view in the Lifchez/Stronach Exhibition Cases in Environmental Design Library, Bauer Wurster Hall. Open during library hours (summer hours vary).

Images: Ernest Born’s renderings for two unrealized urban-scale projects for San Francisco:
1 – Ernest Born (with John Bolles), Embarcadero Crescent, 1956.
2 – Ernest Born (with Wurster, Bernardi, and Emmons), United Nations, 1945. by @ced_berkeley

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2 months ago

A new issue of A—D is out with a contribution by Assistant Professor of Architecture Emmett Zeifman, “Camping in the Ruins of Modernism.”

Drawn from his practice and teaching in sustainable architecture, Emmett Zeifman traces an avant‑garde history of “camping in the ruins of modernism,” from Mies’s ambiguous shells to contemporary interior tents and thermal refuges. Reading these lightweight inhabitation devices as critiques of sealed comfort, he shows how improvised thermal living unsettles modern enclosure and reopens everyday experiments with climate.

About the issue:

A—D 96.3 The New Heliomorphism: A New Theory of Solar Architecture, guest-edited by Salmaan Craig, Charles Waldheim, and Min Yeo, asks not whether architects should design with the sun, but how we might do so, and to what ecological and political ends.

Moving beyond passive-solar nostalgia and technological quick fixes, contributors explore shade, buoyancy, radiant exchange, and biogenic materials as tools for reclaiming thermodynamic work. Across urban, interior, and material practices, heliomorphism becomes a framework for repairing climatic relations and imagining more equitable, resilient, and sustainable futures.

@architecturaldesign_ad by @ced_berkeley

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2 months ago