The role of research at UCLA Architecture and Urban Design is to produce new forms of knowledge.

These forms can be expressed in a variety of ways: from the design of spaces, objects, buildings, urban environments, urban strategy, and images, to a carefully curated exhibition or the writing of a compelling story or scholarly text.

As a Tier 1 public research university, our permanent faculty bring their ongoing research agenda to the context of teaching through advanced-level work. Our collective research interests are diverse and international in their focus, but we often engage city departments and officials around issues impacting the growth of Los Angeles as a case study for a rapidly evolving urban metropolis. While the format of this work can vary, we train future architects and scholars to seek, shape and produce new forms of knowledge in their respective fields.

Research at AUD takes two essential shapes: research conducted via our curriculum and especially our year-long Research Studios, and research led via our Research Centers.

Research Studios

At a public research university like UCLA, new knowledge is a constant pursuit.

AUD's curriculum fosters both research itself, as well as the tools and perspectives that enable the lifelong pursuit of insight and discovery.

Each of our academic programs brings both the spirit and the act of research into their respective curricula. MArch students each take on a year-long Research Studio in their third year of study; therein, they focus their design skills and interests on a substantial, capstone-style project or topic of inquiry. The MSAUD program engages research to question, challenge, and expand the current conventions of architectural practice. For our MA and PhD programs, research is simultaneously purpose, method, and outcome, as students pursue scholarship that aims to provoke and operate within architecture’s public, professional, and scholarly constituencies.

Our course descriptions (current and historical) offer portal into the different questions, topics, and interests that animate our research and propel our pursuit of new knowledge and ways of designing.

Research Centers

One of the avenues through which UCLA AUD accelerates research is its Research Centers.

AUD currently has two: cityLAB-UCLA co-founded by Dana Cuff and Roger Sherman, and directed by Dana Cuff, and xLAB founded and directed by Hitoshi Abe. Depending on grant funding secured each year by individual faculty members, students have the opportunity to apply for student researcher positions to support these creative and scholarly efforts.