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Department of Architecture

 

 

Designed and built by Behaviour and Building Performance Centre’s associate and artist Alex Schweder with Ward Shelley, ReActor is part of an experimental, performative series of ‘social relationship architecture’. In the summer of 2016, for a total of five days, the architect-artist duo lived in the rotating house, which is located in upstate New York.

 

BBP logoThe focus of the BBP research team is on the interrelationships between people and the built environment.

The BBP group is an interdisciplinary and collaborative research initiative working at intersection of:

  • Behaviour (neuroarchitecture, people, practices, health, wellbeing, cognition, etc.)
  • Built environment (urbanism, architecture, construction, simulation, modelling, etc.)
  • Performance and Policy (environmental, energy, social, sustainability, etc.)

We believe that the human experience is influenced by the built environment (and vice versa) and that the performance and sustainability of the built environment is dependent on this interaction. Although the context for our research is global –with projects in Europe, Africa, Asia and beyond– it has a direct relevance to the UK. In England alone, more than 10 million people currently live in ‘non-decent’ homes that present a serious health, safety and environmental risk. From a neurological cognition perspective, our focus on 'neuroarchitecture' reveals how the built environment and cities impinge on our mental wellbeing. The solutions to such challenges are interdisciplinary and require the consideration of economic, engineering, environmental, and social factors in the design and retrofit of our built environment.

Our projects address the key sustainable development challenges of health and wellbeing (SDG3), gender equality (SDG5), clean and affordable energy (SDG7), sustainable cities (SDG11), responsible consumption and production (SDG12) and climate action (SDG13).

 

Co-directors:   Visiting Fellows:

Professor Koen Steemers

Professor Minna Sunikka-Blank

Associate Professor Ronita Bardhan

Assistant Professor Michal Gath-Morad

 

Chiara Jutzi (University of Salzburg, Austria)

Tijn Croon (TU Delft, The Netherlands)

Dr Philip Graham (Cullinan Studio, UK)

Mette Boisen Lyhne (Aarhus School of Architecture, Denmark)

Researchers:          Associates:

Sam Aitkenhead

Shujuan Chen                  

Rebecca Forster

I-Dec Goh

Mohamed Hesham Khalil

Bing-Tao Lee

Flora Haiwei Li

Mengyuan Li

Fatma Mhmood

Heather Mitcheltree

Michaela Mitrovic

Jiayu Pan

Filomena Russo

Michael Salka

T. Shao

Maoran Sun

Cleo Valentine

Jon Wood

   

Dr Jamie Anderson (Buro Happold, UK)

Dr Anna Boldina (RHP, Cambridge, UK)

Dr Alex Coburn (University of California, San Francisco, USA)

Dr Kan-chane Gunawardena (BDP, UK)

Dr Yasser Khaldi (Arab American University, Palestine)

Dr Rihab Khalid (Research Fellow, Lucy Cavendish College, Cambridge, UK)

Dr Xin Li (Nanjing University, China)

Dr Martijn Lugten (Assist. Prof., TU Delft, Netherlands)

Dr Zhikai Peng (Postdoc, TU Delft, Netherlands)

Dr Maiss Razem (Al Ahliyya Amman University, Jordan)

Dr Alex Schweder (Performance Architecture, New York, USA)

Isabelle Sjövall (University College London, UK)

Lydia Tew (Max Fordham LLP, Cambridge, UK)

 

 

Publications:

Please use the individual staff links in the list above to access CVs and publications.