https://faa.illinois.edu/units/sustainable-design/, https://linktr.ee/susdesignil

Sustainable Design at Illinois, Champaign, IL (2026)

06/24/2026

The University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign and our surrounding community is a living lab for sustainability! These photos are from a tour of key sustainable building sites in the area led by professor Mark Taylor this April, as part of FAA 330 Making Sustainable Design. The field trip included stops at the Solar Decathalon House in Rantoul, the Gabel Home at the Energy Farm, and the Miscanthus Lab Facility at the University of Illinois.

About this core course: All Sustainable Design majors take FAA 330, which introduces techniques and tools for representing and realizing sustainable design at multiple scales. The class includes hands-on assignments, tutorials, workshops, and field trips.
Students visited the Solar Decathalon House in Rantoul, IL, a home designed to optimize energy efficiency alongside comfort and livability.

The Gabel House, nearby, is an earlier iteration and learning prototype for advancing ongoing research in sustainable residential design.

The tour concluded at the Miscanthus Lab Facility, a research and demonstration space exploring alternative bio-based building materials. The lab features experimental wall assemblies, including miscanthus, hemp-based materials, and conventional insulation. The facility connects material research to real-world applications, highlighting how agricultural byproducts can shape the future of sustainable construction.

06/22/2026

BSSD is hiring a gallery assistant! Application Deadline 5:00 pm June 29! Undergraduate and Graduate Students are Encouraged to Apply for this Student Hourly Position.

8-10 hours per week, $16-19 per hour, hybrid location

To apply, email your materials to Karin Hodgin Jones, Director, Sustainable Design Program [email protected] with the subject line Gallery Assistant Application
Include the following materials: Resume; Cover Letter describing your interest and qualifications; and Work Samples (photography, design, video, writing, or related work) as a single PDF or link

The Sustainable Design Program seeks an undergraduate / graduate student hourly Gallery Assistant to work with program staff in support of exhibitions, events, communications, and gallery operations for the Sustainable Design Gallery. Located in the Architecture Building, the Sustainable Design Gallery is the University’s first exhibition space dedicated to sustainable design, presenting exhibitions and public programs featuring students, faculty, researchers, visiting designers, and campus partners. This position provides hands-on experience in exhibition production, arts administration, photography, marketing, and event planning.

Responsibilities:
- Assist with exhibition installation and deinstallation
- Support receptions, lectures, workshops, and special events
- Prepare exhibition and promotional material
- Photograph and document exhibitions and events
- Maintain physical and digital archives
Support outreach, submissions, and research activities
- Assist with social media and communications

Required Qualifications:
- Strong organizational skills and reliability
- Availability to assist with gallery events
- Ability to work independently and collaboratively
- Excellent communication skills
- Timely and professional email communication
- Willingness to learn and take direction
- Access to a computer
- Photography experience
- Ability to perform light physical tasks, including lifting 20 pounds and using a ladder

Preferred Qualifications:
- Experience with Registered Student Organizations or community groups
- Familiarity with Google Docs and Sheets
- Graphic Design skills u

06/17/2026

Our alumni go on to do incredible work and we couldn’t be prouder! This week we’re featuring Sasha Vry, who you may have seen recently in the Chicago Tribune! Sasha graduated this spring and now works with FARMZERO, a vertical farming company in Chicago that grows food in vacant office buildings.

Sasha Vry: “Since graduating, I have had the opportunity to work with a bunch of passionate people to spearhead the conversion of vacant office buildings into vertical gardens. Through hydroponics, we nurture a seed into a plant, and a plant into food for consumers. I am constantly learning from my environment, and FARMZER0 is where I bridge what I have learned from Sustainable Design into reality. For my capstone project, I researched how plants cannot only communicate with other plants but also interact with humans. Like my project, my desire is to become a vessel of information about the world of plants and to create connections to our environment. With all their intricacies, plants thrive around other plants, just as humans need connection to reach their highest form of self, and I hope to bridge the educational wealth around what keeps us alive and in community.”

FARMZER0
Chicago Tribune

05/19/2026

Congratulations to our graduates, the BSSD class of 2026! 🎓🎉🙌

05/15/2026

🌱 As we close out the semester, we are highlighting Charley Marchis, another student supported by a Fall 2025 BSSD Opportunity Scholarship!

Charley used the Opportunity Scholarship to prepare for an take the LEED Green Associate exam.

🌱 CM: “The BSSD Opportunity Scholarship supported my academic and professional development by covering the cost of registering for the LEED Green Associate exam. Preparing for this exam has deepened my understanding of sustainable building principles and helped me connect coursework in sustainable design with real-world industry standards. The credential aligns closely with my academic interests and career goals in sustainability and the built environment.”

Congrats, Charley!

05/14/2026

It was great to see so many of you at last week’s opening of the 2026 BSSD Capstone Exhibition. If you missed the reception, the work remains on view in the Sustainable Design Gallery on the second floor of the Architecture Building through September 6! Free and open to the public.

At the opening, Director Karin Hodgin Jones shared remarks on the creativity, tenacity, and care of BSSD students reflected through their projects:

“It has been my honor to work with you over the four years that I have led the BSSD program, and to grow with you as this program has grown and changed. I’m so pleased to see your work hanging in the new Sustainable Design Gallery for the entire community to see.

At this moment—a full step into the middle of the 21st century—you are confronting, interrogating, and constructing new forms and types of work. Some of your paths emerge from, and tackle, decades-old problems that have reached their most urgent need for attention. Some of you are recognizing newly emergent matters that require urgent care.

You are the visionary leaders who can think across scales, across disciplines, and between communities to imagine true solutions for our collective future. I may be a bit biased, but I am firmly of the belief that your work is essential for visioning and implementing creative and viable solutions to this moment in history. I hope you all believe that about yourselves, too.”

05/12/2026

✨ You are warmly invited to join the BSSD Senior Celebration to celebrate the collective journey and individual successes of our accomplished students. Whether you can attend the entire event or just a portion, we hope you will join us!

🍰 As graduation approaches, we are excited to celebrate our Sustainable Design seniors! We will kick off the weekend of celebration with a delicious BBQ and engaging activities that reflect on the seniors’ experiences and accomplishments during their time at Illinois.

🎉All are welcome to this celebration!🎉

📅 Friday, May 15
🕐 12-3 PM
📍 Illini Grove (Pavilion & Oak)

05/11/2026

🌱 BSSD Students, this is the final bimonthly calendar of the semester! Let’s celebrate our graduating seniors and finish the semester out strong!

📚 May 8-14 | Final Exam Period
📢 May 11 | Application Due for the BSSD Social Media and Communications Internship
🎓 May 15 | BSSD Senior Celebration, 1:00 pm Illini Grove
🎓 May 16 | Illinois Commencement
🎓 May 17 | Sustainable Design Convocation, 11:30 am Siebel Center for Design
🖼️ ONGOING | Capstone Exhibition, Sustainable Design Gallery, Architecture Building 2nd floor

Wishing you a happy summer. Congrats to our graduating class. Looking forward to seeing everyone else back on campus in the fall.

05/06/2026

Students installing their work for the 2026 BSSD Capstone Exhibition

Opening Tonight - You’re Invited!!

When: Wednesday, May 6th, 5:30 - 7:30 pm, opening remarks at 6:00 pm

Where: Sustainable Design Gallery, Architecture Building, 2nd Floor, 608 Lorado Taft Dr.

The Capstone is the culmination of every BSSD degree, and a demonstration of how students learn to apply creativity, systems thinking, and sustainability to solve real-world challenges. Guided by faculty, students have spent the last year leveraging knowledge gained throughout their college career to design solutions to a critical sustainability concern they are most passionate about. With a shared commitment to cultivating a better future, the diversity of Capstone projects reflects the truly individualized, interdisciplinary paths each student follows.

The BSSD Capstone posters will be on view in the Sustainable Design Gallery through September 6.

All are welcome to this free, public program celebrating the class of 2026!

05/05/2026

🌱 Today, we are highlighting Dale Sink's project, another student accomplishment supported by a Fall 2025 BSSD Opportunity Scholarship!

BSSD: Tell us about your project and how the scholarship supported your development

🌱 DS: “Like many urban waterways, Boneyard Creek has developed alongside Urbana, Illinois. The highly industrialized, man-made stretch through West Urbana lacks a natural riparian shore and has lost many ecological functions. Some cities now use artificial wetlands to purify water through phytoremediation while restoring habitat for native species. I am designing a habitat box suspended from the retention wall in Boneyard’s shallow waters. Functioning like a floating ecosystem, it works in only inches of water to revitalize the creek as a protected corridor for riparian plants and wildlife. I have researched native plants, built two prototypes, and assembled a design team.”

“The BSSD Opportunity Scholarship is funding the materials for this project, allowing me to apply sustainability principles learned in class. The project focuses on protecting clean, healthy waterways and sharing them with plants and animals. I hope to ground my future professional design career in water management and urban waterway design. This BSSD support makes the project possible on a student budget and enables me to explore solutions to a complex problem using concepts from my coursework. This project supports both my academic growth and professional development.”

BSSD: What are your future goals for the project?

🌱 DS: “After the working prototype is installed, this project will be pitched to the City of Urbana to be installed as a permanent ecological intervention on Boneyard Creek. This project intends to further my understanding of artificial wetlands as either compatible or incompatible solutions for anthropogenic waterways. I foresee more exploration, either professionally or academically, in advancing the exploration of the ideas in this project to develop a series of hanging wetlands that would line segments of Boneyard Creek to create a riparian corridor for small animals and insects.”

Congrats, Dale! We're excited to see the project move forward!

Sustainable Design at Illinois

06/24/2026

06/22/2026

06/17/2026

05/19/2026

05/15/2026

05/14/2026

05/12/2026

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05/06/2026

05/05/2026

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