College of Built Environments at the University of Washington.
BE LABS
The BE LAB series is a unique, special-topic micro-curriculum developed to provide CBE students and faculty with a ‘fifth space’ for highly integrative and experimental coursework. BE Labs expressly engage grand challenge problems, test novel methods, and promote rigorously transdisciplinary frameworks for research, instruction, and design inquiry.
2010-11 BE LAB Offerings
Check out the Winter 2011 and Spring 2011 offerings. Application deadlines below.
Interested in one of these courses? Please fill out the online course application noted with each course. Course faculty will select from the submitted applications to fill the interdisciplinary course. You will be notified of your application outcome along with a course add code.
Autumn 2010 - Seminar
BE Lab 5: INDIA : Cities of Tomorrow: Globalization and Urbanization in India.
Faculty: Vikramaditya Prakash, Professor, ARCH + Manish Chalana, Assistant Professor, UDP
DETAILS: BE 498/598 M 5:30 – 8:20, 3 credit hours, Gould 208J
Application - Closed - Course in Session
Indian cities are transforming at an unprecedented pace due to rapid urbanization-fueled globalization and changing urban policy. The BE Lab: India focuses on select cities that have the potential to elucidate patterns emerging from this interface. (formerly Chandigarh Unbound)
Winter 2011 - Studio
BE Lab 4*: Disaster Response: Resilient Systems for Health
Faculty: Rob Corser, ARCH, Carrie Dossick, CM, Kate Simonen, ARCH, Heather Burpee, ARCH.
DETAILS: BE 498/598 M 1:30 - 5:20, 6 credit hours
APPLICATION DEADLINE: Friday, November 12, 2010
This interdisciplinary BE Lab addresses both long-term chronic health problems associated with poor quality built environments generally, as well as specific opportunities to improve our responsiveness to acute health challenges brought on by disasters Ðboth natural and man-made. Our driving question is: how can healthcare building systems be designed to assist underserved communities that have long-term deficits in healthcare infrastructure, and simultaneously serve as vehicles for immediate response to be deployed in times of urgent need? Together with health care professionals, engineers, and manufacturers, we will explore opportunities for modular and pre-fabricated systems to better address urgent needs for rural healthcare facilities in underserved areas. Our strategy is to study regional needs in the northwest, but within a broader framework of investigation that targets the scalability of these particularized solutions to address national and eventually global disaster response.
*Builds upon work done in Spring 2010 BE Lab 4 Seminar.
Spring 2011 - Studio
BE Lab 6: In Between Climate and Built Environments: Designing for Urgent Change on the pacific rim
Faculty: Ken Oshima, Associate Professor, ARCH + Thaisa Way, Assistant Professor, LA
DETAILS: BE 498/598 M 1:30 - 5:20, 6 credit hours
PRIORITY APPLICATION DEADLINE: Monday, November 22, 2010
This BE proposal addresses the global challenge of climate change and the more localized challenge—the urgency of responsible and responsive design to engage both immediate and future needs of the Pacific Rim cities. The BE Lab will investigate the role of urban and architectural design in addressing the predictions of rising waters in the Pacific Rim cities including those in Alaska (online research), in Japan (onsite research), and specifically Seattle (onsite research and design). Participants are encouraged to participate in a Spring Break study trip to Japan.