Program Overview
WHAT IS THE CONSTRUCTED ENVIRONMENT?
The constructed environment is a continuously evolving realm that:
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Encompasses the material, socio-economic, and political systems of the human mediated physical world.
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Spans a wide range of temporal-spatial scales, from plants and species to building elements, assemblages, sites, neighborhoods, cities, and global infrastructures, across historical narratives, present conditions, and future projections.
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Is the product of competing agents drawn from across the socio-physical environment including microorganisms, climatic conditions, interfaces with virtual realms, urban conglomerations, migrating populations, and the intentional and unintentional efforts of designers, planners, and policymakers.
The PhD in the Constructed Environment is a multidisciplinary program developed to identify and address complex phenomena, problems, and potentials in the contemporary world not easily explained by isolated disciplinary knowledge. We invite you to join us in questioning the constructed environment: what it is, how it functions, where it’s headed, and the ways we might join in to understand and shape it.
OUR MISSION: CROSSING DISCIPLINARY + METHODOLOGICAL BOUNDARIES
Housed in the School of Architecture, the PhD Program in the Constructed Environment builds on and expands the school’s existing forms of knowledge by connecting them to one another and to a broader range of disciplines and methods of research. Our goal is to construct a web of shared scholarly ambitions that begin at the School of Architecture, but do not end there. We strive to use our focus on the constructed environment as a way to connect, bridge, or unite existing disciplines. Toward this, our program provides a space in which to gather up new modes, media, and models that cross disciplinary and methodological boundaries and combine theoretical and practical knowledge. We support research that mixes methods from the natural, social, and data sciences with those stemming from the humanities and design disciplines, including quantitative and qualitative analyses and methods. We ask not only how social relationships shape the constructed environment’s history, theory, and development, but how they might shape its future. What are its critical processes? What knowledge does it produce? How has the constructed environment been produced through labor, technology, governance, social justice, media, and experimentation, urban conglomerations and global modernity, terraforming, and virtual worlds?
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We have identified four strains by which we study the constructed environment. Each of these strains encompasses a broad research terrain. They are intended to characterize the breadth of constructed environment research in the School of Architecture. Faculty dissertation advisors are listed within their associated research strains.
SOCIAL + SPATIAL ORGANIZATIONS
The morphologies, institutions, landforms, and economic structures that activate the constructed environment.
- Ila Berman
- C.L. Bohannon
- Vanessa Guerra
- Malo Hutson
- Nana Last
- Jennifer Lawrence
- Andrew Johnston
- Suzanne Moomaw
- Louis Nelson
- Moira O'Neill
- Erin Putalik
- Andrea Roberts
- Jessica Sewell
- Barbara Brown Wilson
URBAN + ECOLOGICAL INTERSECTIONS
The planning and analysis of urban and natural systems and landscapes, urban theorization, forms of governance, resilience, and human and ecological health and wellbeing.
- Tim Beatley
- C.L. Bohannon
- Bradley Cantrell
- Ali Fard
- Vanessa Guerra
- Ghazal Jafari
- Matthew Jull
- Mona El Khafif
- Jennifer Lawrence
- Michael Lee
- Shiqiao Li
- Earl Mark
- Beth Meyer
- Andrew Mondschein
- Suzanne Moomaw
- Moira O'Neill
- Erin Putalik
- Jenny Roe
- Barbara Brown Wilson
DIGITAL + DATA-DRIVEN TECHNOLOGIES AND DESIGN METHODOLOGIES
Digital media, data literacy, digital humanities, sensing and responsive technologies, smart cities, and other data-driven approaches and digital technologies in the constructed environment, along with the theoretical and ethical questions sparked by advances in technology.
- Ehsan Baharlou
- C.L. Bohannon
- Bradley Cantrell
- Mona El Khafif
- Earl Mark
- Ines Martin-Robles
- Andrew Mondschein
- Lisa Reilly
- Andrea Roberts
IDENTITY FORMATIONS
Questions of how, when, and under what conditions cultural, aesthetic, and political identities are formed in relation to the constructed environment, power structures, cultural geography, and the history and theory of the cultural realm.
The PhD in the Constructed Environment seeks to explore the physio-socio-ecological systems, connections, and manifestations that form the constructed environment by supporting advanced research in topics that engage one or more of the Architecture’s School’s four disciplines: Architecture, Landscape Architecture, Urban + Environmental Planning, and Architectural History. The program fosters scholarship that identifies and researches emerging multidisciplinary issues across the globe and at every scale. Whether investigating the favelas of Sao Paolo, the digital environments of video games, sensing technologies embedded in urban landscapes, or geo-engineering proposals targeted at addressing global climate change, our students seek new and unconventional perspectives on the production of space and related social, ecological, aesthetic, and economic policies and practices.
Students come to the program in the Constructed Environment from a wide range of disciplines and practices. Building on and extending their expertise, students in the program work closely with their advisors and other students to develop self-directed study plans that bring theory together with applied research through courses in the School of Architecture and throughout the university. The focus of study may explore any area of the constructed environment, from plant biology to global infrastructural systems. The program prepares students for careers in academia, as well as research-oriented organizations in the public and private sectors.
The Ph.D. program in the Constructed Environment is a multidisciplinary, school-level doctoral degree that spans the four departmental disciplines within the School of Architecture: Architecture, Landscape Architecture, Urban + Environmental Planning, and Architectural History.
72 CREDITS
The Doctor of Philosophy in the Constructed Environment requires a minimum of 72 credits, including 48 credits of coursework, to be completed in full-time residence at the University during the first four semesters of the program.
The UVA School of Architecture PhD in the Constructed Environment Handbook serves several purposes:
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to assist students in their planning of their PhD in the Constructed Environment journey
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to communicate a common understanding of the PhD study for students, administrators, advisors, and faculty
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to provide PhD students with a balanced and purposeful engagement in teaching and research
Our PhD students (current and graduated) form a collective dedicated academic community focused on diverse scholarly pursuits in the area of the built environment. Click on the button below to learn about our PhD Students' research and view their profiles.