The Urban Design Lab is continuing its post-Maria initiative in Vieques, Puerto Rico studying options for resilient short-term development projects with longer-term implications for scaling-up economic development. The team is headed by UDL Director Richard Plunz, with Vilma Rivera Gallagher, Maria Paola Sutto and Urban Planner Douglas Woodward, faculty member of the Graduate School of… read more

On May 18, Maria-Paola Sutto was an invited participant at the CXI 2018 conference, where she was included in the  project of the artist Juan Miguel Marin. The CXI conference is the leading business conference on innovation in the consumer experience. The art project was a collaboration to remind to all of us that no… read more

On December 8th the Urban Design Lab celebrated 10 years of research pushing the frontiers of urban innovation and interdisciplinary boundaries. There was acknowledgment of meaningful partnerships all over the world, and optimism about further collaborations. In a festive and warm atmosphere colleagues and partners from various professional backgrounds came together at Steelcase on Columbus… read more

The Urban Design Lab, in partnership with the Stone Barns Center for Food and Agriculture , has received support from the Rockefeller Brothers Fund to further research on the New York City Regional Foodshed Project. The study will evaluate the potential capacity of agricultural production and distribution infrastructure in the New York City region toward the development of strategies… read more

Of the various initiatives geared to develop a deeper understanding of the underlying implications food has on human life, few could be more pertinent than a discussion around a table. In this spirit, the Urban Design Lab in December 2009 contributed to the climate change discussion, joining an event in Copenhagen sharing experience in food… read more

The Urban Design Lab from November 2009 participated in a series of ongoing national initiatives with the Action Center to End World Hunger, Earth Pledge Foundation, Fast Forward Fund, and HealthCorps, geared to enhance awareness of students, children, and the general public on the themes of sustainability, climate change, health, food, and fair trade.

Michael Conard, assistant director of the UDL, presented “Redesigning the Food System for Public Health and Sustainability” at the Center for Disease Control’s National Environmental Public Health Conference. This event, which took place October 26-28 in Atlanta, was organized to encourage innovative strategies for addressing existing and emerging environmental health issues and to provide a… read more

From July 2009, the Urban Design Lab’s Michael Conard and Kubi Ackerman engaged in designing a community health awareness curriculum for the FitTown initiative of the HealthCorp. The curriculum calls for photo documentation and neighborhood mapping, to be distributed in more than 50 high schools across the country.