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Research,
Creative Scholarship & Service
Faculty research interests at the Interdisciplinary Design Institute
include:
-
Environment-behavior
relationships
-
Land use
and environmental planning
-
Urban
space as interior design
-
Lighting
design
-
Observation-based
research methodologies
-
Urban
material culture
-
Aging
and the environment
-
Social
basis of design
-
Design-build
collaboration
-
Design
criticism and theory
-
Art and
architectural aesthetics
For more
information please visit our Faculty
page.
Community
Service Learning
An important element to the education of students
at the Interdisciplinary Design Institute is learning through
real-life projects in and around the local community.
Some
examples of recent class studio projects include:
Some examples of recent
Charrette projects
include:
University
District
Five years ago the University
District project began with adjunct faculty Elizabeth Payne's
4th-year landscape architecture studio working with Bruce
Butterworth and the East Spokane Business Association (ESBA). Their
mutual goal was an exploration of ways to make a portion of the as
yet unnamed U District more pedestrian friendly, boost economic
vitality, and generate a new place identity.
The success of that studio's work,
and the work of other faculty at the Design Institute, resulted in a
recent collaborative effort to explore the beneficial potentials in
identifying the extent of the University District. Collaborative
partners included Spokane's Mayor John Powers, his Economic
Advisor Kim Pearman-Gillman, City Planner Tom Reese, ESBA's
President Bruce Butterworth, business owners, and developers.
While the U District encompasses a
1.5-square-mile area, the primary focus of this past year's studio
was the 30-block half-mile-square area most in need of
revitalization. The focus
area's greatest assets are its central location, underutilized
infrastructure, and vacant land. Working interactively, with
occasional meetings with the project collaborators, four student
teams explored Student Housing, Pedestrian and Auto Oriented Retail,
Multigenerational Housing, and Pedestrian, Bicycle, and Vehicular
Circulation throughout the district.
Collaborative partners imaginations
were captured by the students' efforts to turn Brownfields into
Brightfields, build on existing viable building stock, design for
active living as part of people's daily routines, mix land uses to
optimize multigenerational interaction, and plan circulation to
bolster both economic revitalization and strengthen the three
universities community ties.
The student teams' imaginative
designs, coupled with their built-in social and economic
understanding, won more than applause from the other project
partners. Moves to make the University District a reality include
the studio project being used as part of recent lobbying efforts
in Washington, D.C.
To
read the University press release please click
here.
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