Designing UGI

Research Training Group on Urban Green Infrastructure [RTG UGI]

Urban green infrastructure depends on living plants that grow and change over time. Yet urban trees are often designed around an envisioned mature form, without fully considering how their development may be affected by buildings, infrastructure, soil conditions and microclimate.

At the Professorship of Green Technologies in Landscape Architecture, Subproject 5 of the RTG-UGI explores how tree growth can become part of the design process. Its research develops models and iterative workflows to examine how trees may develop in urban environments and how design and management decisions can respond to that development.

The two research projects address different, connected parts of the tree:

Designing UGIs as dynamic processes — Hadi Yazdi
A design approach that considers tree canopy development and its interaction with the surrounding urban environment.

Designing UGI as a spatio-temporal system — Sissy Xi Chen
A model of root development that considers belowground conditions and potential conflicts between roots and infrastructure.