2024-05-01T16:29:06-04:00 https://archinect.com/news/article/35085998/urbanlab-at-california-college-of-the-arts Places Journal 2012-01-19T17:47:00-05:00 >2012-01-19T17:57:06-05:00 <img src="https://archinect.gumlet.io/uploads/jb/jbvmh25tjq6mug4n.jpg?fit=crop&auto=compress%2Cformat&enlarge=true&w=1200" border="0" /><em><p>Academic institutions have a mandate to contribute to public knowledge, but the structures that support the transfer and dissemination of research, and the application of research within urban design practice, are often weak. There is a widening gap between what happens within the academy and what happens on the ground in cities &mdash; often a retrograde, generic and ad hoc agglomeration of politically or financially motivated initiatives.</p></em><br /><br /><p> Places interviews Ila Berman, director of architecture at the California College of the Arts, and Mona El Khafif, project coordinator of&nbsp;<a href="http://ulab.cca.edu/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">URBANlab</a>, about research + design initiatives at the lab. The feature includes a slideshow of faculty and student work, including design proposals for projects in the San Francisco Bay Area, Jerusalem, and Tianjin.</p> <p> This is the second installment in an ongoing series of profiles of university-based design centers. Previously: <a href="http://places.designobserver.com/feature/venture-design/25918/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Stephen Luoni and the University of Arkansas Community Design Center</a>.&nbsp;</p> <p> &nbsp;</p> <p> &nbsp;</p> <p> &nbsp;</p>