CENTER FOR TECHNOLOGY AND ENVIRONMENT

The Center for Technology and Environment (CTE) was founded in 2000 to provide a research component, executive education, and outreach service based at the Harvard University Graduate School of Design. The Center is concerned with topics related to derelict and contaminated real estate, the processes of land reclamation, and the reuse of environmentally disturbed sites. The Center improves and adds value to post-industrial and developing environments through progressive land use planning and design and the application of innovative landscape technologies. The Center enters into partnerships with industry, federal and state agencies, and institutions to address national and global solutions to environmentally compromised landscapes and sites. It also provides and initiates research related to landuse, technological advances in remediation methods, and sustainable urban development.

As cities continue to struggle with the demands of urban growth and its effects on today's built and natural environments, the Harvard Design School has founded the Center for Technology and Environment (the Center). A research initiative, the Center is dedicated to improving the quality of post-industrial sites and adding value to the development of environments through progressive land planning and design and the application of innovations in emerging technologies.

Mission Statement

The mission of the Center for Technology and Environment (CTE) is to improve and add value to post-industrial environments through innovative and progressive land use planning and design and the application of advanced site technologies and tools. The Center supports the Harvard Design School's overall mission of excellence in the built environment.

Mission The envisioned long-form mission of the Center includes the following:

• Promote innovation and discovery of environmental solutions by bringing diverse ideas, technologies, and people together.
• Provide support to agencies and developing communities where environmental planning, design, and development knowledge is limited.
• Provide design solutions to environmental challenges that are integrated with regional social and economic imperatives.

Relationship of Center to Harvard Design School

The Center is uniquely positioned to fulfill its mission for the following reasons:

• The Center can springboard off the expertise, authority, reputation and influence of Harvard University and the Harvard Design School as an international leader in the design professions, training, and research.
• Due to Harvard Design School's existing local and global influence and recognition, the Center will be uniquely positioned to extend and reinforce its collaboration with policymakers and practitioners around the world.
• The Center can effectively build on existing partnerships with like-minded organizations, becoming the international focal point for the dissemination of all information as it relates to developing environmental issues and sustainable development.
• Harvard Design School's recognition, sophistication, and success in disseminating information through media and academia will uniquely enable the new center to speak with authority regarding its mandate.
• Harvard Design School's unparalleled caliber of educators, practitioners, and researchers will immediately set an anticipated standard of excellence and create credibility for the new Center.

Programs

The Center will advance its goal through integrated programs of research and intervention initiatives partnering with international and national business, governments, and nonprofit organizations. The Center will also mobilize landscape architects, planners, designers, communities, business and real estate organizations, and city governments through training and executive education courses on the technologies and design of post-industrial sites.

Research

International in focus, the action-based Center will initially focus on the following broad initiatives.

• Environmentally disturbed sites and the research fields of advanced reclamation planning and progressive design tools and strategies.
• Research into brownfield restoration and development, including sustainable brownfield models for smart growth, urban regeneration, open space, infrastructure, and housing reuse.
• Site Technologies for Site Planning and Landscape Architecture that utilize emerging scientific and environmental design approaches.