Built Environment
Our community of researchers work across disciplines and sectors, engaging with stakeholders and communities, on a wide range of topics relating to the built environment.
Overview
The Built Environment is one of the Earth Institute's seven thematic research areas. Academic members of the built environment theme are drawn from across UCD and represent a wide range of disciplines and approaches.
The Institute works to support new connections and collaborations across disciplines and sectors and to enhance the impact and profile of research in this area.
Get in touch with our Built Environment theme leads to find out more about our work in this area.
Built environment research in UCD
Built environment researchers in UCD are tackling global, national and local challenges - how does the built environment impact on our health, our happiness and our life chances? How can we make our cities and towns smarter and more sustainable? How can we make our new and existing infrastructure more resilient to natural hazards and changing climates? How can our cities and regions be developed and revitalised to make them functional and stimulating places to live in? What can we learn from historical and prehistorical precedents of how communities constructed their environments?
Research on the built environment in UCD is carried out in a range of schools and colleges, centres, institutes and groups including:
Member spotlight
Professor Gerald Mills from the UCD School of Geography works on climates, particularly the processes that operate in the lowest layer of the atmosphere. Gerald is especially interested in the climates that are generated by urban areas and potential for planning and design to create comfortable and healthy outdoor environments.
In this short interview in our Earth Talks series, Gerald discusses his research on urban climatology, green infrastructure and climate resilient cities.
Recent talks
Watch a selection of recent talks, seminars and coffee morning presentations on topics including metamaterials, rare events in engineering systems, sustainable energy communities and how integration of data can tackle vacancy in Irish towns.
Research with impact
At UCD, our research makes a difference. We aim to collaborate and co-design research with the communities most impacted by our work, improving the lives of people throughout the world and working towards the UN Sustainable Development Goals.
The case studies below highlight some of the positive impact that research by Earth Institute members has had on Ireland and the world.
Case study: Protecting the built environment from the effects of wind
Hazardous wind conditions cause problems for everyone. While we can’t stop the wind, we can design our built environment to mitigate its worst effects. Associate Professor Jennifer Keenahan is building and training a team to undertake wind modelling using Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD), a method new to the field of Civil Engineering.
Working towards the UN Sustainable Development Goals
