The 16th Annual R+D Awards

See the six winners that a jury selected from dozens of entries for their efforts to address environmental and societal needs with the resources, materials, and technologies at hand.

For the 16th Annual R+D Awards, jury and editorial staff alike were astounded by the diversity of solutions and innovations offered by the 2022 award winners, from digital sustainability tools to re-envisioning the age-old materials of wood, glass, and terra cotta. From dozens of entries, jurors Avideh Haghighi, AIA, Kat Schneider, and Doris Sung, AIA, chose six winners that are shaping the future of design.

Jury:

Avideh Haghighi, AIA, associate principal and sustainable design leader, ZGF Architects. As a Sustainable Design Leader, she guides ZGF teams in discovering synergies between building, social, and ecological processes. Avideh has a diverse body of leading edge, high-performance projects including schools, large mixed-use developments, and institutional projects including the largest Net-Zero Carbon building currently under construction in the United States. With a career equally rooted in design and advocacy, Avideh’s long list of affiliations in the AEC community include former Living Future Los Angeles co-facilitator, former AIALA COTE co-chair, current AIA California Climate Action steering committee member, and current USGBC-LA Board member.

Kat Schneider, digital design application specialist, associate, IA Interior Architects. Schneider is a Digital Practice Manager at IA Interior Architects and co-founder of KindredXR. Largely focused on visualization, her experience as a designer, creative technologist, and maker has led to deep research and development in the world of VR, AR, and XR. She has worked with a broad range of clients to build immersive XR experiences across the commercial real estate development, hospitality, commercial interiors, EdTech, and FinTech industries.

Doris Sung, AIA, principal, DO|SU Studio Architecture; associate professor, director of undergraduate programs, University of Southern California. As the founder of DOSU Studio and TBM Designs, Sung publishes, lectures, and exhibits internationally while bringing her patented inventions to market. She has been named a fellow at Google’s R+D for the Built Environment, the United States Artists, and the Rockefeller Foundation. Her TED talk has now surpassed 1.3 million views and her list of awards include a Cooper Hewitt National Design Award, a Good Green Design Award, and a Falling Walls Science-Breakthroughs-of-the-Year Award.