Applied design and use-inspired research are central to the mission of Phoenix Urban Research Lab. We are an interface between college and community, a locus where university-based urban designers and planners connect with city officials, community leaders, and project developers.
Some of our projects are generated in-house while o ther projects are generated by public and private clients seeking progressive design thinking. We focus on projects with a significant public presence or impact, and our most productive involvement happens often in the early stages, when large questions remain unresolved or even unarticulated—questions of concept, feasibility, scale, scope, place. How can a project contribute to large social goals? What planning and landscape concepts will make it ecologically sustainable? How can green technologies and materials be incorporated? What are the most promising and meaningful precedents? How will a project affect its environs? Invigorate public life? As a university center, we embrace the responsibility of identifying the civic and social values that a project might embody and encourage.
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