Environmental Design University of Colorado Boulder

Call Directions Website Contact the university

Environmental Design University of Colorado Boulder ENVD connects people with our built and natural worlds. Here, you can create innovative designs for the next generation of buildings and environments.

The Department of Environmental Design at CU Boulder fosters a diverse community of thinkers and doers in architecture, environmental products of design, landscape architecture and sustainable planning & urban design. The Bachelor of Environmental Design (B.EnvD) degree at the University of Colorado Boulder is the state’s first and only undergraduate, pre-professional interdisciplinary design degree. You can customize your education by specializing in one of four career-specific majors: architecture, environmental products of design, landscape architecture and sustainable planning & urban design. You can shape the way we live, work and play. You can explore and impact landscapes, buildings and urban systems.

Recently, Assistant Professor Sophie Weston Chien co-curated an exhibition at the Center for Architecture called Dark M...
10/13/2026

Recently, Assistant Professor Sophie Weston Chien co-curated an exhibition at the Center for Architecture called Dark Matter U: Justice, Pedagogy, Design, the first major U.S. exhibition of the network.

This exhibition brings together years of work by Dark Matter U (DMU), of which Associate Professor Shawhin Roudbari is also a key member and contributor. Across different places, disciplines, scales, and ways of practicing, the exhibition makes visible the connections that have shaped DMU from the beginning: shared commitment to justice, pedagogy, and design, and to imagining more liberatory ways of gathering, teaching, learning, organizing, and producing work in the built environment. The exhibition is as much a reflection on where DMU has been as it is an invitation to think together about where DMU might go next.

Dark Matter U: Justice, Pedagogy, Design is now on view at the Center for Architecture through May 27, 2027.

Curated and produced collaboratively by a Dark Matter U network team coordinated by:
Venesa Alicea-Chuqui (), Jerome Haferd (), Sophie Weston Chien () together with Kiki Cooper (), Pedro Cruz Cruz (), Deena Darby (), George Epolito (), and Victor Zagabe ()

Graphic + Exhibition Design by Green Antarctica .antartica

Community-Engaged Design Education: Power, Culture, and Practice, October 8–9, 2026 | University of Colorado BoulderJoin...
10/06/2026

Community-Engaged Design Education: Power, Culture, and Practice, October 8–9, 2026 | University of Colorado Boulder

Join us for an international symposium exploring one of the most urgent questions in design: How do we teach and practice design ethically across cultural boundaries?

This symposium is a collaborative working forum. Through the case studies, workshops, a gallery exhibition, and dialogue, participants will share grounded experiences from practice and design education. Culture is not treated as a backdrop, but as a central force shaping knowledge, pedagogy, and practice. Together, we will explore questions of power, communication, reciprocity, lived experience, and community knowledge in design education and practice.

The symposium will also serve as the foundation for a forthcoming Routledge edited volume, documenting and reflecting on these experiences and contributing to an emerging conversation about power and culture in community-engaged design.

The event is free and open to participants. You are welcome to register online or simply stop by and join the sessions that interest you. Feel free to share with others that may be interested

We hope you will join us for two days of conversation, shared learning, and collaborative exploration.

Congratulations to Emily Greenwood on her appointment to Teaching Professor at the Department of Environmental Design! ...
10/02/2026

Congratulations to Emily Greenwood on her appointment to Teaching Professor at the Department of Environmental Design!

⁠

Congratulations to Sara Tabatabaie on her appointment to Associate Professor at the Department of Environmental Design! ...
10/02/2026

Congratulations to Sara Tabatabaie on her appointment to Associate Professor at the Department of Environmental Design!

⁠

Students in ENVD's Ecological Systems of Design class take a field trip to Mesa Laboratory, just up the hill from CU's c...
09/09/2026

Students in ENVD's Ecological Systems of Design class take a field trip to Mesa Laboratory, just up the hill from CU's campus. They spent time sketching the site, hearing from the facilities management team on how to care for the 65+ year-old building, and learning about the original design process and the building's architect, I. M. Pei.

The class introduces the essential principles and concepts of ecology as they relate to the design and understanding of the built environment. Students explore interactions between people and nature, the design of resilient ecological systems, and ways that the built world is influenced by its environment. Thank you to Katie, Rebecca, Tim, Leanna, and the facilities team for taking the time to share with us!

Photo credit to Lanie Burris, Sophie Weston Chien, and Anna Bradburn

Join us on Wednesday, September 9th at 12:20pm for a lecture by Billy Fleming on his new book Building Postcarbon Future...
09/01/2026

Join us on Wednesday, September 9th at 12:20pm for a lecture by Billy Fleming on his new book Building Postcarbon Futures: Land, Justice, and Energy Transitions!

Can't make it on Wednesday? Meet Billy Fleming on Thursday, September 10th at Trident Bookstore and Cafe from 6:00 to 7:30 pm for a deeper discussion on his new book.

Billy Fleming is a leading voice on the role of design in responding to the climate crisis in our cities, communities, and landscapes. He is founding codirector of the Climate and Community Institute, a progressive think tank focused on climate and political economy, and assistant professor of landscape architecture at Temple University’s Tyler School of Art and Architecture in Philadelphia. Fleming was the inaugural Wilks Family Director of the Ian L. McHarg Center at the University of Pennsylvania and an urban policy advisor to the Obama administration. He is coeditor of Design with Nature Now (2019) and A Blueprint for Coastal Adaptation: Uniting Design, Economics, and Policy (2021).

ENVD is excited to introduce one of our new Assistant Professors, Nettie Skievaski. 📐⁠Nettie is an urban designer and ed...
08/22/2026

ENVD is excited to introduce one of our new Assistant Professors, Nettie Skievaski. 📐
⁠
Nettie is an urban designer and educator who believes great design begins with curiosity. She is fascinated by how places shape the way we live, play, and connect, and loves helping students build confidence through creative exploration. When she's not in the studio, you'll probably find her exploring a new city or relaxing at a neighborhood café.
⁠
⁠

ENVD is excited to introduce one of our new Assistant Professors, Priyanka Sen. 📒Priyanka Sen is a PhD Candidate at Corn...
08/21/2026

ENVD is excited to introduce one of our new Assistant Professors, Priyanka Sen. 📒

Priyanka Sen is a PhD Candidate at Cornell University in the History of Architecture and Urban Development program. Her research investigates the intertwined histories of the built environment and agricultural practices specifically tied to South Asian migration as a system of operational values that reconfigured land, labor and citizenship. As a native Coloradan, she is excited to return home and to join the CU Boulder faculty in Spring 2027!

⁠

ENVD is excited to introduce one of our new Assistant Professors, Pol Fité Matamoros. ✏Pol Fité Matamoros is an Assistan...
08/20/2026

ENVD is excited to introduce one of our new Assistant Professors, Pol Fité Matamoros. ✏

Pol Fité Matamoros is an Assistant Professor of Environmental Design at the University of Colorado Boulder. His research explores the intersections of design, visual culture, fascist studies, and racial geographies. His current book project, Fascist Spatial Imaginaries, examines fascism as a spatial matter and as the boomerang effect of colonialism through the Spanish case. He is also the co-editor, with Anna Livia Brand, of a forthcoming volume in the Urban Affairs: Rights to the City book series on urban greening and racial inequality in the United States. Before joining CU Boulder, he taught at the University of California, Berkeley, where he completed his Ph.D.

Find Pol's LinkedIn Profile here:
⁠
⁠

ENVD is excited to introduce one of our new Assistant Professors, Sophie Chien. 📚️Sophie Weston Chien is a designer-orga...
08/19/2026

ENVD is excited to introduce one of our new Assistant Professors, Sophie Chien. 📚️

Sophie Weston Chien is a designer-organizer. Her practice and research involve organizing in the design fields, participatory textile research and fabrication, theorizing contemporary design practice, and teaching. She often does this work in collaboration—Sophie is a leader in the Design As Protest Collective, Dark Matter U, and the partnership just practice. With these collectives, she aims to infiltrate institutions to proliferate anti-racist design. Her work is in the permanent collection of the MIT Museum and the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture. She is an Assistant Professor in Environmental Design at the University of Colorado Boulder.

⁠

Address

1060 18th Street
Boulder, CO
80309

Opening Hours

Monday 9am - 5pm
Tuesday 9am - 5pm
Wednesday 9am - 5pm
Thursday 9am - 5pm
Friday 9am - 5pm

Telephone

+13034928010

Website

Alerts

Be the first to know and let us send you an email when Environmental Design University of Colorado Boulder posts news and promotions. Your email address will not be used for any other purpose, and you can unsubscribe at any time.

Contact The University

Send a message to Environmental Design University of Colorado Boulder:

Shortcuts

Share

Category