Research | KieranTimberlake

Our transdisciplinary research group includes individuals with diverse backgrounds and subject matter expertise ranging from human centered design, building science, and computation. | Chris Leaman

A deeply inquisitive approach to design led us to a culture of practice grounded in research. This culture requires the discipline to ceaselessly question how we can do better, and to develop the skills to frame questions and produce knowledge in order to make significant progress.

Our commitment to research has provided a way for deep investigation to be conducted during design—and for the results to stimulate and augment the processes of designing and building at KieranTimberlake. Our leadership in sustainable architecture and innovative buildings springs from this ethos of inquiry.

As our research activities are engaged during pre-design, project delivery, and post-occupancy, our building sites and buildings are the test beds that provide substantive feedback for future solutions. We conduct empirical experiments to generate input for both current and future design problems, which are embraced alongside applied research and a range of vetted and invented design- and science-based methodologies.

Modeling & Simulation

Models are a critical part of our communication strategy—whether physical, digital, mathematical, or conceptual, models enliven and enrich the dialogue between designers, consultants, contractors and clients and develop a collective understanding of our design decisions. Our models study building massing, room adjacency, and spatial quality, assess daylight, embodied carbon, and energy and landscape performance, and even predict the behavior of materials and people. By combining multiple methods and different types of modeling, we choreograph a deeper conversation about the complex systems, conditions, and environments surrounding architecture.

Crowd Simulation

For the Folger Library expansion, we used crowd simulations to optimize circulation—shaping everything from overall building layout to the placement of lobby desks and popular programs.

Energy Modeling

For NYU’s Paulson Center, we developed a custom digital workflow to improve the fidelity and efficiency of moving between design- and energy-models.

Validating Passive Cooling Strategy

Using advanced computational simulations that model changing air pressures and wind-driven ventilation, we validated that Henley Hall’s naturally ventilated offices would maintain thermal comfort without mechanical cooling in Santa Barbara’s climate.

Surveying & Monitoring

We believe the best architecture is responsive to not only its site and surroundings, but to its people as well. Our design process combines both occupancy research—direct observations investigations into how and why real occupants use a space—and environmental research into microclimate, topography, environmental quality, and existing trees, vegetation, and other landscape elements. These kinds of research often necessitate custom mapping and surveying, as well as bespoke tools and techniques for recording and analyzing user behavior across a range of scales, timeframes, and interior and exterior conditions. Melding techniques from the fields of ecology, landscape architecture, anthropology, and environmental studies, our customized methodologies quickly and accurately capture complex site information. This gives us a complete picture of each site’s opportunities and constraints early on in design so that we can integrate building performance strategies, minimize environmental disturbance, and better quantify and incorporate holistic ecosystem services.

Ortlieb’s Thermal Comfort Survey

Using occupant comfort surveys alongside real-time data from over 200 temperature and humidity sensors, we gathered millions of data points to right-size mechanical systems and reduce cooling energy consumption by maintaining comfort at 81°F in our mixed-mode Philadelphia studio.

Occupant Mapping at Jefferson Hospital

Through occupant mapping, environmental monitoring, and user surveys, we quantified how emergency department layout affects healthcare provider communication, movement patterns, and patient care quality.

Designing the 21st Century Ger

Using thermal sensors and air quality monitors installed in traditional Mongolian gers, our team collected environmental data to identify design interventions that can reduce coal consumption in one of the world’s coldest capitals.

Green Roof Vegetation Study

Conducting vegetative surveys across six green roofs from past projects, we documented species composition and ecosystem dynamics to understand how architectural design decisions influence long-term plant health, biodiversity, and performance.

Tools & Applications

In a world where more and more of the built environment is constructed using digital workflows, the ability to extend and reimagine our tools is critical. Our team of architects, coders, software developers, and graphic designers tweak and invent tools so that we can optimize our modeling processes, facilitate play and discovery, and move the architecture industry forward. These tools range from commercial software applications to interactive design and planning interfaces that reimagine previously static processes. In every instance, our tools and apps bring innovation and efficiency into our workflows.

Tally® LCA App for Autodesk® Revit®

In 2014, we released the first BIM-integrated life cycle assessment application to give AEC professionals a tool for reducing embodied carbon.

Roast® Comfort Survey

Our survey application allows users to assess building comfort by recording perceived temperatures, brightness, noise levels, and more, producing data that can be used to improve building performance and employee comfort.

Campus Planning Application

For Rice University’s Integrated Campus Plan, we developed a custom tool to support scenario-based planning, with realtime metrics for program, cost, energy, and stormwater.

Prototyping & Fabrication

Prototyping is central to our research-based culture. Since our founding, we have used prototypes and mock-ups to investigate topics as diverse as building tectonics, material selection, environmental performance, user experience, and technology integration. Constructed at multiple scales, these prototypes have allowed us to test actual materials and assemblies as part of our design process, helping us rethink what architecture can be, how it’s made, and how it can bring positive environmental and social impacts to the communities it serves.

Our workshop and fabrication lab provides much-needed space to create prototypes and mock-ups of all scales. | Chris Leaman

Digital-Physical Prototyping

For the central commons of NYU’s Paulson Center, we leveraged digital and physical prototyping to develop a custom screening element that seamlessly transitions between between opacity and transparency.

Board-form Texture & Pattern

Through physical prototyping for Pendleton West, we tested wood species and surface treatments to develop board-formed concrete walls that balance grain definition with visual richness.

Performative Typography

To balance the needs of visual comfort, energy savings, and bird safety, we developed a custom ceramic frit design for the new east facade that honors the Bulletin Building’s publishing history.

Selected Press & Publications

Grants

US Department of Energy’s Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy (ARPA-E) with the University of Pennsylvania, Texas A&M University, The City College of New York, and Sika. Awarded in 2022.
US Department of Energy’s Buildings Upgrade Prize with Centennial Parkside Community Development Corporation. Awarded in 2023.
McGill University’s Building-Architecture-Research Node (BARN). Awarded in 2021.
Emergency Medicine Foundation Physician Wellness Research Grant with Jefferson, University of the Arts. Awarded in 2020.
Department of Energy’s Office of Energy Efficiency & Renewable Energy’s Advanced Building Construction FOA Award Streamlining BIM/CAD/CAM Conversions for Panel Manufacturing with Signetron Inc, Rocky Mountain Institute, and cocoon construct. Awarded in 2020.
International Aluminum Institute’s Towards Sustainable Cities – Quantifying the In-Use Benefits of Aluminum in Architecture programme with Michael Stacey Architects and the Architecture and Tectonics Research Group of the University of Nottingham, UK. Awarded in 2012.