The Center for Architecture Science and Ecology (CASE) is a Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute wide research center addressing the need for radically improved, energy-effective, and sustainable built environment technology. CASE (https://www.case.rpi.edu/) unites advanced architectural and engineering practices with scientific research through a unique collaboration among multiple academic institutions, industry partners, and professional architecture and engineering firms within the building industry. In the Built Ecologies program, we pursue our mission of a socially and technologically sustainable built environment through the study of fundamental scientific principles as well as emerging methods from across the engineering and humanities disciplines, accelerated by technology and synthesized through design. We believe that the Built Environment should become an integrated Built Ecology of material, energy and information in space for socio-natural affect. CASE is in Industry City, Brooklyn (https://industrycity.com/) – one of New York City’s most vibrant emerging business and technology hubs.
The Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.) in Architectural Sciences with a concentration in Built Ecologies is an interdisciplinary educational and applied research degree designed to develop knowledge and expertise in the development of radically new building systems, structures and environments that are informed by the behavior of natural systems and/or performance characteristics of emergent technologies. Performance-driven design techniques seek new solutions to building system design based on the understanding that the built world should operate as an ecology and operate synergistically with larger ecologies. It seeks to address the global need for accelerated innovation and implementation of energy and materially efficient, sustainable built environments. Doctoral students participate in the program’s foundational courses while developing their own academic research, publication and instructional programs under the guidance of CASE faculty and collaborating industry partners. Doctoral students participate in foundational seminars, design studios and independent research programs to build an advanced understanding of materials, energy, and information as integral components of the built environment. Students gain advanced knowledge in programming techniques, advanced building energy modelling and simulation as well as novel materials and manufacturing. The PhD program curriculum is organized to meet a students’ individual needs, research directions and career ambitions. Our PhD Graduates have become, leaders in R&D for the Building Industry, faculty members of academic research laboratories as well as have established their own startup businesses to commercialize the Intellectual Property generated as part of their research work at CASE. Applicants are strongly encouraged to discuss their specific research interests in their statement of background and goals. All 1st year courses of the PhD program are taught in New York City, with additional elective courses from other departments taught at the Troy RPI Campus and through the institute’s online instruction programs.
Recent Doctoral research topics include: Emerging, renewable construction materials and manufacturing methods, energy harvesting, storage and redistribution systems both at the building and urban scales, air quality, bio-mechanical air filtration and phytoremediation, dynamic lighting systems, data driven architectural, urban and planning design, smart buildings and smart cities.