Latest News
Professor Reid Coffman Wins Researcher of the Year Award for North America for 2020
Green Roofs for Healthy Cities Excellence in Resaerch for an outstanding body of work and influence on young faculty and emerging professionals Learn more
Bike Box Living Roof Lab selected as one of the Best Roofs of 2020
Defying categorization helped the Bike Box garner an Award of Excellence as one of North America’s best roofs of 2020. Selected by the design jury for its collaborative efforts, educational outcomes, and the large impacts for its size, the project is now showing how rare plant species can be reintroduced via green roofs (Coffman and Blackson, paper accepted). The project’s success comes from great internal Kent State collaborations of students and faculty in architecture, urban design, landscape architecture and biology and the support of external partners Land Studio, local community planners, and NEORSD, the regional sewer district.
Info: Built Work/Special Recognition Category, Green Roofs for Healthy Cities
Kent State to Co-Lead New Center of Living Architecture
Faculty from Kent State University will join colleagues from the University of Cincinnati and Heidelberg University to lead the Greater Ohio Living Architecture Center (GOLA), which will be dedicated to the study of integrating vegetation within and upon buildings as novel ecosystems. The center will engage vegetated roof and wall industries in research and training activities for the Great Lakes and Ohio region through meetings, academic symposia and professional training across the three university campuses over the next three years.
A consortium of Ohio universities was selected as one of the first four North American regional centers of living architecture. Go to the press release.
CitiesAlive 16 Brooklyn NYC
NEW Paper in Biophilic Cities Journal.
Milan’s Bosco Verticale view from inside the terrace-scape
In a new editorial piece, Elevating nature: Milan's Bosco Vertcale, Dr. Coffman suggests living architecture is more than gardens and landscape. 'Finding nature in a high-rise apartment seems quixotic, but it may be just the biophilic injection dense cities need. After centuries of practice distinguishing the urbane from wilderness, a pair of residential high rises in Milan, Italy has flipped the paradigm by proposing a new social ecology within its building façade, and is providing an option for ultra-urban access to nature.' read more
Coffman Convenes Panel to Discuss Disciplinary Overlaps in Living Architecture
At the Annual Conference of the Council of Educators in Landscape Architecture, Dr. Coffman convened a panel with faculty from University of Cincinnati (Professor Virginia Russell), Kansas State University (Professor Lee Skabelund), and Washington State University (Professor Micheal Sanchez) to discuss the overlaps and adjacencies occurring between living architecture and landscape architecture fields. They discussed the ways teaching, research, and leadership are contributing to the area of living architecture and recognized future priorities should enhance participation in living architecture teaching; create channels for academic communication of scholarship; and develop partnerships with building architecture faculty. Virginia Tech, Blacksburg, VA Mar 24th.
Students Present at CitiesAlive 15 in Seattle, WA
Dr. Coffman and three graduate students grabbed a lot of attention at the international conference on living architecture where students presented their research activity to leaders of the living architecture field.
Spontaneous Vegetation in Three Green Roof Media by Anna Droz, PhD Student in Microbiology. Spontaneous vegetation in green roof growth media occurs when lacking proper soil sterilization leading to unwanted weed dispersal. This study characterizes the ability of different growth media to support biomass and diversity of unintentional weed species common to Northeast Ohio. With Professors Reid Coffman and Chris Blackwood.
Rare Plant Establishment in the Great Lakes by Erin Laffay, Masters student in Landscape Architecture. Rare plant species, including species no longer found in Ohio, are showing survival on vegetative roofs in and around Cleveland. With Reid Coffman
Ecological Green Wall Built Using Dredged Material by Shruti Bhairappanavar, Master of Architecture Science and Environmental Design. Dredged sediment from the Cuyahoga river is used for a cement brick wall system that allows for growing vegetation. With Reid Coffman, Rui Liu, and Adil Sharag-Eldin
Fun in Seattle
At a break in the conference the team bike shared 'Lime Bikes' to visit great neighborhoods, parks and places in Seattle. We climbed the hill at Gas works park (designed by Richard Haag), rode the greenway to Freemont for chocolate and Korean food, and looked over Elliot Bay from the captivating new Olympic Sculpture park (designed by Weiss Manfreidi). And the coffee was good too!
We want to thank Environmental Design Group , Firestone Skyscape and the Cleveland Industrial Innovation Center for supporting our students with research and travel opportunities. Many thanks.
