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UW IDL Projects & Publications

The Integrated Design Lab carries out research to advance knowledge and policies that support the healthiest and highest performing buildings and cities. It measures and analyzes modeled and actual building performance data in order to influence the building industry’s understanding of how to radically improve the design and operation performance of buildings. Our performance research includes energy efficiency, daylighting, electric lighting, occupant energy use behavior, human health and productivity in buildings, and advanced building management systems.


  • University of Washington's Behavioral Health Teaching Facility Seattle, WA -- SRG Partnership

    University of Washington's Behavioral Health Teaching Facility Seattle WA Architect: SRG Partnership UW IDL's Role: Energy Consultant Photo: SRG Partnership The UW IDL, in collaboration with UW, SRG Partnership, and SOLARC Energy Group, provided technical assistance on the UW's new Behavioral Health Hospital, located at Northwest Hospital - a 150 bed teaching facility with behavioral…

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  • Rosetta Stone: A Translational Tool for Research Informed Practice

    The Rosetta Stone Translational Tool for Research-informed Practice is a joint collaboration between the University of Washington’s Integrated Design Lab (UW IDL) and design industry partners. The tool developed out of a collective desire to clearly communicate the synergies of high performance design, in a way that is backed by research and evidence. Learn more about…

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  • AIA Design and Health Research Consortium

    The Integrated Design Lab is part of a University of Washington interdisciplinary team recently selected to join the AIA Design and Health Research Consortium, an initiative seeking to further research and recognition of the strong influence of design on public health. Over a three-year period, the American Institute of Architects (AIA) and the Architects Foundation…

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  • Targeting 100!

    Targeting 100! provides design, delivery and ownership teams with tools to meet the 2030 Challenge in hospitals with very little additional up-front capital investment. It is a research project that provides a conceptual framework and decision-making structure at a schematic design level of precision for hospital owners, architects, and engineers to radically reduce energy use…

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  • Austin Central Library, Austin, TX -- Lake Flato Architects

    Overlooking Shoal Creek and Lady Bird Lake, the LEED Platinum Austin Central Library is a building shaped by light and designed to respond to the context of its place. Aspiring to be the most daylit public library in the nation, the heart of the building is the six-story atrium, which provides daylight for more than…

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  • Daylighting Design in the Pacific Northwest

    In addition to conserving energy, the use of daylight in architecture can be a powerful aesthetic tool. The effective employment of natural lighting is an important component of sustainable design, and some of the best work in this area comes from the Northwest. This practice-based book focuses on fourteen projects ranging from schools to community…

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  • Vasché Library Renovations, Cal State Stanislaus, Turlock, CA -- EHDD

    The UW IDL performed a glare assessment for the newly renovated J. Burton Vasche Library on the Stanislaus State University campus in Turlock, California. A clerestory adjacent to the circulation desk was determined to be a potential source of glare for library staff, and the UW IDL worked with the design team to identify mitigation…

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  • St. Michael's Medical Center Silverdale, WA -- NBBJ

    The UW IDL, in collaboration with NBBJ and SOLARC Energy Group, provided technical assistance on St. Michael’s Medical Center, a ne w 144 bed (550,000 ft2 ) hospital in Silverdale, Washington, which opened in December 2020. With a stated goal of 135 kBtu/ft2 -yr in the RFP, its current energy performance is estimated to be…

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  • Louisiana Children’s Museum, New Orleans, LA -- Mithun

    IDL supported Mithun as a daylighting consultant for the project. The experience of light was core to the project: “The Reggio Emilia child development philosophy—a child-centered approach that emphasizes multisensory nature play—guided the design of experiential and haptic elements that cast changing shadows and inspire interactive rainwater engagement while providing energy reductions and stormwater utility.”…

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  • Lick Wilmerding High School Renovations, San Francisco, CA -- EHDD

    IDL supported EHDD as a daylighting consultant for the project. Jury Comment from 2022 AIA COTE Top Ten Award: "This project beautifully demonstrates how you can restore and renovate existing buildings, taking existing structures and flipping them to be extroverted and embracing street culture. Lick-Wilmerding shows how historic buildings can be net zero; [these two…

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  • NEEA BetterBricks Energy Efficient Technologies

    The UW IDL developed three case studies of groundbreaking implementation of Luminaire Level Lighting Controls (LLLCs) for the Northwest Energy Efficiency Alliance. Projects included the Madrona Elementary School (Mahlum Architects), UW Founder’s Hall (LMN Architects), and Star Lake Elementary/Totem Middle School (McGranahan Architects). The case studies highlighted learning and synthesis of best practices for individually…

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  • Olympic High School, Seabeck, WA -- SKL Architects

    Description of project

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  • Building Retrofit Strategies for Low Income Multi-Family Buildings

    The UW IDL has been working with the Seattle Housing Authority on developing retrofit strategies that reduce energy use and improve indoor air quality and thermal comfort for the housing provider’s existing building stock. The UW IDL is also developing a tool that leverages parametric energy modeling that allows the housing provider to assess energy…

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  • Seattle Building Tune-Up Accelerator

    As part of a team that was awarded a $3.1 million, three-year grant from the US Department of Energy, Prof. Meek led implementation of a municipal-scale building-owner engagement and technical assistance process aimed at accelerating voluntary deep energy retrofits (20- 50% carbon emissions reductions) in the existing medium-sized (approximately 20,000-100,000ft²) commercial building stock in Seattle,…

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  • AIA Energy in Design Awards

    The UW IDL, under Prof. Meek’s direction and with funding from the Northwest Energy Efficiency Alliance (NEEA), developed and delivered the inaugural Energy in Design Award as part of AIA Seattle’s annual Honor Awards.  Beginning in 2016, all submissions in the BUILT category are required to submit energy use data in consideration of the Energy…

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