Dr. Carmela Cucuzzella, is a Professor in theDesign and Computation Arts department and is holder of the Concordia University Research Chair in Integrated Design and Sustainability for the Built Environment (www.ideas-be.ca). She is founding co-director of the Next Generation Cities Institute. She is a also member of theinter-university and interdisciplinary team of the Laboratory for the Studyof Potential Architecture (LEAP).
Her most recent books: (1) AnalyzingEco-architecture Beyond Performance offers an overview of the state of thefield and constitutes a critical introduction to the study of environmentalismin architecture. Contrary to the technological and performative biases of mosteco-design studies, the book helps to understand how meaningis embedded in all types of eco-architecture. (2) Sustainable Architecture betweenMeasurement and Meaning takes the reader on a journey that distances itself from the mainstreamapproaches for sustainable architecture.
Her research work is framed within the broad domain of design studies where she investigates questions of sustainable design for urban living. Her varied background and expertise in environmental and social life cycle analysis, in green building rating systems, and in design and architecture, allows her to adopt a framework revolving around design’s interrelated dimensions of the cognitive-instrumental, the moral-practical and the aesthetic-expressive forms of conception and discourse.
She has two main areas of research. In her CoLLaboratoire research , she seeks to understand how the collaborative design and implementation of interactive art-architecture in public urban spaces can contribute to a critique, deeper understanding and/or embodiment of sustainable urban,professional, community, and even human practices in the long term. In her second area of research, her interests lie predominantly in responsible design practices with a particular interest in understanding the challenges of accommodating sustainability diagnostic or rating tools such as Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) and LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) alongside the creative conceptual exploration that takes place during the design process. She addresses the limits of current sustainability assessment tools as a means to gain a complex understanding of social, cultural and environmental repercussions of design practice.
Education
- PhD (Environmental Design), Université de Montréal
- MAppSc (Design and Complexity), Université de Montréal
- BFA (Design Arts), Concordia University
- BCompSc (Systems Architecture), Concordia University
Research interests
sustainable design, design thinking, urban sustainability, public space design, integrated design, environmental evaluation, judgment, eco-art, eco-design, eco-architecture, eco-didacticism, precautionary principle, complexity theories, systems modelling, systems design
Areas of expertise
Environmental and social Life Cycle Analysis, LEED
