The essential research of the CAPLA faculty goes well beyond the fields of design, development, planning and sustainability to the core of how we can live better lives in the built environment.
Faculty research solves problems, impacts decisions and shapes policy. Read our CAPLA faculty research stories:
![Camp Naco](/sites/default/files/styles/az_card_image/public/studio/camp-naco-hdr.jpg?itok=_g36iCHH)
Award-Winning Heritage Conservation Efforts by CAPLA Faculty and Students Lead to $4.6M in State Restoration Funding for Buffalo Soldier Camp
CAPLA Heritage Conservation Program Project Director Helen Erickson and graduate students Sarah McDowell and Teresa DeKoker have been instrumental in efforts to preserve Camp Naco, a borderlands Buffalo Soldier camp located near Bisbee, Arizona, resulting in awards for their story map and new funding to preserve the site.
![Tucson, Arizona](/sites/default/files/styles/az_card_image/public/studio/220611_Extreme-Heat_0002.jpg?itok=WqkBC_53)
UArizona Researchers Awarded $3.5M to Fight Extreme Heat
A UArizona team led by CAPLA Assistant Professor Ladd Keith is collaborating with researchers from Arizona State University and Northern Arizona University on a $25 million project, funded by the U.S. Department of Energy, to study the impact of climate change on Arizona's urban areas.
![](/sites/default/files/styles/az_card_image/public/images/events/II.12_Mueller-diagrams_authors-2.jpg?itok=cnW0PPqC)
Lecture Recap and Video: June Williamson on 'A Retrofitting Suburbia Agenda for Equity, Health and Resilience to Climate Change'
June Williamson lectures on the urgent challenges produced by northern American suburban form and showcases urban design strategies to mitigate and address these challenges.
![Oscar Lopez](/sites/default/files/styles/az_card_image/public/studio/Oscar-Lopez-hdr.jpg?itok=n3Q7qkjN)
Haptics of Place: Oscar Lopez, Senior Lecturer in Architecture
Senior Lecturer in Architecture Oscar Lopez, who joined CAPLA in 2016, teaches undergraduate and graduate architecture studios while practicing architecture and conducting research on what he calls the haptics of place, "essentially, combining both the real and the unreal qualities of architecture."
![Dry border](/sites/default/files/styles/az_card_image/public/studio/dry-field-border.jpg?itok=K0Aj-MNq)
With $6M Grant, Researchers Will Explore How Southwest Communities Can Best Adapt to Climate Change
University of Arizona researchers, including CAPLA's Ladd Keith, are furthering their efforts to examine how water, aridity and heat impact communities in the American Southwest thanks to a $6 million grant from NOAA's Climate Adaptation Partnerships program.
![Map of China](/sites/default/files/styles/az_card_image/public/studio/ingram-china-map-hdr.jpg?itok=HSHvvjzy)
CAPLA Student-Faculty Team Uses GIS to Create Digital Atlas and Award-Winning Poster of Historical Buddhist Sites in Hangzhou, China
This spring, MS Urban Planning student Glenn Ingram, recent MLA graduate Mattea Wallace and Associate Professor Philip Stoker, working with UArizona East Asian Studies Professor Jiang Wu, created the “Regional Religious Systems in Hangzhou China” story map using GIS. This fall, Ingram's poster from the project won an award.
![Sandra Bernal Cordove](/sites/default/files/styles/az_card_image/public/studio/sandra-bernal-hdr.jpg?itok=IsqQ34I1)
Learning as Rich Experience: Sandra Bernal Cordova, Lecturer and UArizona Hispanic Serving Institution Fellow
UArizona Hispanic Serving Institution Fellow Sandra Bernal Cordova, who joined CAPLA in 2018 as a lecturer, uses her built environment research, community service and cross-campus collaborations to inform the classes she teaches and co-teaches, which include Water Efficiency in Building, Equitable Cities and the Sustainable Built Environments Capstone.
![](/sites/default/files/styles/az_card_image/public/images/events/nairobi-kenya.jpg?itok=63Fj0Iem)
Lecture Recap and Video: Seth Okyere on 'Walking the Unwalkable City: An Exploration of Walking Conditions, Experiences and Interventions in the Global South'
Seth Okyere lectures on "Walking the Unwalkable City," a discussion which brings forward conditions and experiences of a walking city that is not walkable and, most importantly, resident improvisations to minimize walking inequities.
![Michael Silver](/sites/default/files/styles/az_card_image/public/studio/mike-silver-hdr.jpg?itok=kYvODg91)
Design Poetics: Michael Scott Silver, Assistant Professor of Architecture
Assistant Professor of Architecture Michael Scott Silver joined CAPLA this fall. His research and practice focus on the relationship between existing cultures of labor and the effects new automation technologies will have on the built environment.
![Sunlit urban street with cyclist](/sites/default/files/styles/az_card_image/public/studio/hot-street-cyclist.jpg?itok=PBJFGEdS)
Timely, Essential ‘Planning for Urban Heat Resilience’ Report Wins Planning Awards
CAPLA Assistant Professor of Planning and Sustainable Built Environments Ladd Keith and ASU Associate Professor Sara Meerow have been honored with the Western Planner 2022 Sheldon D. Gerber Merit Award for Excellence in Environmental Planning and 2022 APA Arizona Open Category (Applied Research) Award for their Planning for Urban Heat Resilience.
![June Williamson](/sites/default/files/styles/az_card_image/public/studio/june-williamson-hdr.jpg?itok=BLLMjqZn)
Designing Suburban Futures: June Williamson, Visiting Professor of Architecture
Visiting Professor of Architecture June Williamson has joined CAPLA for the Fall 2022 semester from The City College of New York. Her research focuses on northern American suburban form and its discontents, documenting how underperforming suburban property types and development patterns are being redeveloped, reinhabited or regreened.
![Daniel Kuhlmann](/sites/default/files/styles/az_card_image/public/studio/daniel-kuhlmann-hdr.jpg?itok=7FQQckH3)
Thinking Innovatively: Daniel Kuhlmann, Assistant Professor of Real Estate Development and Planning
Assistant Professor Daniel Kuhlmann joined CAPLA this fall. He has an MA and PhD in Urban Planning from Cornell University and a BA in International Relations from Carleton College. In his research, he focuses on land-use issues, real estate development and the businesses of residential landlords.