This longstanding annual program researches a topical issue such as sea level rise, soft engineering, eco-districts, or industrial landscapes in order to inform a sited design proposal. The intent of the program is to forge ties between academia, theory, professional practice, and stakeholders though a four-week project with a select group of invited graduate and undergraduate students pursuing urban design, planning, and landscape architecture studies. Findings have included insights on the future of mobility, coastline projections, and urban forestry. XL Lab currently runs a research segment within the Summer Studio. Methods of research include GIS mapping, interviews with local stakeholders and residents, fieldwork and site visits, and dialog with public officials. In addition to research, the students each produce and present a design proposal before joining an SWA studio to work on projects already in progress.
PROJECTS:
Baywatch SF. San Francisco, 2018
Port Houston: Moving Landscape. Houston, 2017
Leveraging Lost Linkages. Dallas, 2016
22nd Century City. Dallas, 2015
The LA River: Taylor Yard and Union Station, Los Angeles, 2014
The Infrastructural City. Los Angeles, 2013
A Study of San Francisco’s Central Corridor as an Eco-District. San Francisco, 2012
Shifting Shorelines: Sea Level Rise on the Sausalito Waterfront. Sausalito, 2011
Vallejo, California. Sausalito, 2010
The Greater Third Ward. Houston, 2009
Super Neighborhood 22: Between the Bayous. Houston, 2008
Greater East End District. Houston, 2007
Reconnecting the Old Sixth Ward. Houston, 2006
Various. 1972-2005
STUDENT PARTICIPANTS:
Chih Wei Chang
Hui Qing Kuang
Emily Manderson
Miza Moreau
Todd Strawn
Miao Chi Tsai
Henry Dalton
Sang Soo Lee
Mandana Parvinian
Irene Duan
Eric Schuchardt
Adam Schatz
Amy Sullivan
Anna Park
Ailyn Mendoza
Meng Cai
Gyoung Tak Park
Elise Hubbard
Soomin Shin
James Lively
Yu-Chung Li
Ho Young Lee
Po-Shan Chang
Shannon Bronson
Yizhou Xu
Mia Scharphie
Fan Qi
Hyunjoo Nam
Kate Hayes
Richard Crockett
Katherine Jenkins
Jessica Rossi-Mastracci
Frank Hu
Ji-Hee Chung
Tina Chee
Timothy Campbell
Gwendolyn McGinn
Rachel Vassar
Chunlan Zeng
Ian Mackay
Binbin Ma
Esther Korteweg
Marta Gual-Ricart
Stephanie Kopplin
Bingjie Shi
Emily A. King
Marie Salembier
Sara Fallahi
Lovisa Kjerrgren
Sam Sikanas
Adrian Duncan Smith
Johanna Cairns
Lorenzo Centioni
Heena Gajjar
Siyang (Autumn) Jing
Ruichao Li
John Wischmeyer
Tian Wu
Faranak Khas Ahmadi
Ishaan Kumar
Ho-Ting Lui
Yiqing “Ethan” Wu
Alison Ecker
Zhoufei Zhou
Andre Rioux
Zixuan (Ann) Tai
Qun Cai
Abdallah Labib
Na Wang
Roberto Astudillo, University of Michigan
Yinghua Hua, Washington University in St. Louis
Adele Meidine, Ecole Nacionale Superieur de Paysage (ENSP)
Jesse Foster Thomas, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Phia Sennett, Harvard University
Sujing Sun, University of Washington
Xuezhen (Esther) Xie, Cornell University
Hanqing Zhao, UC Berkeley