Source: UF College of Design, Construction and Planning
By: Kyle Niblett
In her years of researching gas emissions and climate change, Dr. Azza Kamal has seen a rapid increase in loss of life, biodiversity, and infrastructure. Knowing the need for addressing circularity and the protection of cultural and built heritage, the University of Florida Sustainability and the Built Environment(SBE) professor took a pair of students halfway across the world this summer in an attempt to ensure the sustainability of historic churches built between the 19th to 20th century in several German municipalities.
Thanks to a Research Tutorials Abroad (RTA) Award from the UF International Center and the Center for European Studies, Kamal and her team partnered with Technische Universität Berlin (TUB) in Germany to create a visualization dashboard for documenting and sharing tangible features related to these historic churches. This web-based platform for data analysis resulted in a Design Support Systems (DSS) tool that will help to prioritize improvement and resource-efficiency decisions.
“This STEMS-focused research not only equipped students with the know-how to apply their Geodesign knowledge in a real-world project on the global level, but enhanced their cross-culture experience and communications,” Kamal explained. “When they graduate, students can apply this knowledge to retrofit various building typologies in the United States, especially as the resources through the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) allows this type of expenses for building adaptation to climate change.”