Cross-Disciplinary Research to Reshape the Built Environment: DesignIntelligence Interviews Research Associate Dean Barbara Bryson
“There are many reasons for believing research in the built environment is extraordinarily important right now,” says Barbara Bryson, associate dean for research at the College of Architecture, Planning and Landscape Architecture at the University of Arizona. “Almost nothing impacts our health, our economy, our culture, our wellbeing, our resources or our climate quite as much as the built environment does.”
Bryson was interviewed this spring in DesignIntelligence in a wide-ranging conversation not only about research but also UArizona’s innovative RESTRUCT research symposium and “how design, construction and ownership communities can use research to build for the future.”
Bryson also discusses what is necessary for successful project management, which stems in part from the research she’s undertaken for her forthcoming book, Creating a Culture of Predictable Outcomes.
“We’ve been asking the wrong questions related to project delivery for a long time,” she says in the interview, noting that “decision-making discipline” is essential to gathering the right knowledge and ensuring decisions are informed.
Read the interview now to gain more insight into the importance of cross-disciplinary research and much more in shaping—and reshaping—the built environment.
Bryson was the University of Arizona vice president of strategic planning and analysis before joining CAPLA in 2016. Her research interests include the future of the architecture profession as well as integrated planning and master planning for university campuses. After practicing architecture within major firms for nearly two decades, she turned to higher education in 1996, with stints as university architect at the University of Miami and associate vice president for facilities, engineering and planning at Rice University. The co-author of The Owner’s Dilemma: Driving Success and Innovation in the Design and Construction Industry, she holds a doctorate in higher education from the University of Pennsylvania, MBA from the University of Miami and BS in Architecture from the University of Texas at Arlington.
