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Research Centers

The College of Arts + Architecture supports research centers to promote the depth of faculty and student scholarship and the opportunity to collaborate with partners in creative thinking and expression. In addition, the College champions student research as a valuable part of a creative education. Learn about some of our faculty-mentored student researchers here.

In addition to research centers, the College aims to support the research and creative practices of our faculty and staff by helping identify funding opportunities, helping prepare proposals, and providing support in managing awards. We are also a liaison between the college and the Office of Research Services, the Office of Research and Economic Development, and other research-related counterparts across the campus. In these ways, we aim to address our Strategic Planning goals and the university’s mission to facilitate the growth of faculty research and creative practices. Learn more here.

The College of Arts + Architecture's research centers are:

Digital Arts Center

The Digital Arts Center (d-Arts) began as the Digital Design Center in the College of Architecture and, since the founding of the College of Arts + Architecture, has become a lively venue for collaborative, multi-disciplinary activity that generates new arts through new media. D-Arts projects fall into four primary categories: digital fabrication, urban visualization, responsive environments, and performance. The Digital Arts Center also collaborates with the Hight Architecture Library to provide audiovisual equipment for check-out by College of Arts + Architecture faculty, staff, and students.

designLAB 

The designLAB is an architectural design and research-based lab in the School of Architecture that focuses on the role of design as a form of architectural inquiry in the analysis and transformation of the built environment through targeted speculations, experiments, design competitions, and pilot projects.

City.Building.Lab

City.Building.Lab is an interdisciplinary center in the School of Architecture which addresses issues of community development and empowerment through a wide range of advocacy-based practices and strategic partnerships in order to address the challenges facing our diverse communities. The C.B.L focuses on social equity to repair our local landscapes, to enrich our cultural environments, and to create visions for positive change that will lead us well into the 21st century.

Integrated Design Research Lab

The mission of the Integrated Design Research Lab (IDRL) is to advance applied architectural research and knowledge through the dissemination of evidence-based investigation and proactive design leadership. The vision is to lead in design science and building technology and to strategically position the lab at the crossroads of innovative research, education, and architectural practice.

HIGHT ARCHITECTURE LIBRARY

The Charles C. Hight Architecture Library is located on the second floor of Storrs. It is the only branch library at the University. The primary focus of the collection is 20th and 21st-century design, architects, and the built environment. The Hight Library collection includes: books, audio visuals, periodicals, Fifth Year and Graduate Thesis documents, drawings, and plans. The Hight Library operates under the policies of Atkins Library.
 
The Hight Library is also home to the College of Arts + Architecture's Visual Resources Collection and collaborates with the Digital Arts Center to provide audiovisual equipment for faculty, staff, and students. Digital cameras, carts with IMac computers and projectors, TV/VCRs, projectors, lights, backdrop cloths, Smart TVs, portable scanners, various HDMI cords and adapters, digital camcorders, and tripods are available for check-out at the Hight Library circulation desk.