Resilient by Design: A New Blueprint for Urban Futures

Each year, cities experience the devasting effects of climate change, whether through rising sea levels, searing heat, or destructive storms. As a result, architects and designers find themselves not only reshaping skylines but also rewriting the rules of resilience. Few places embody these challenges and the opportunity to reimagine the built environment, like Houston.

In architecture, resiliency refers to how buildings, neighborhoods, and infrastructure withstand environmental, social, and economic stressors. This includes preparing for threats like floods, extreme heat, storms, and power outages. Resilient design goes beyond durability, adaptability, and recovery. It also integrates sustainable strategies that reduce energy use, conserve water, minimize waste, and promote equity.

At the University of Houston’s Gerald D. Hines College of Architecture and Design, the QuadZero Studio is preparing students to do just that. Founded in 2016 by Hines College architecture professor Dr. Bruce Race, FAIA, FAICP, the studio has become a crucible for exploring what it truly means to design resilient cities. The name reflects the studio’s core mission: zero greenhouse gas emissions, zero energy waste, zero water waste, and zero landfill waste. But this is more than just a sustainability slogan; they are values rooted in lived experience.

“Our students are entering a profession that must be at the middle of the table to design projects mitigating their climate impact and adapting to risks from severe weather events,” Dr. Race explained. “They have lived through floods, freezes, and blackouts. These are not abstract problems. They are personal.”

Indeed, Houston’s extremes make it a natural testbed. According to Dr. Race’s research as the director of the Hines College’s Center for Sustainability and Research (CeSAR), the city suffers from heat island effects that are twice the national average, and median-income families here pay double the national energy bills. These realities, he says, create patterns of energy poverty and exacerbate other systemic inequities in food access, childcare, and healthcare. In this context, architecture is not just about buildings — it is about the far-reaching consequences of climate change.

A Studio Born from Climate Crisis

QuadZero was launched in response to climate science and the urgent needs of Houston communities. From the start, the studio emphasized design grounded in research, data, and real-world collaboration.

“Houston is where our students want to live and work. The city needs them, and they need to be ready,” Dr. Race said.

And ready they are. Over nearly a decade, the QuadZero studio has tackled some of Houston’s most complex challenges, from post-disaster recovery to urban growth designed to face the future. In 2018, the studios responded to Hurricane Harvey’s devastation by focusing on the Brays Bayou Watershed, which led to funding from the Jewish Federation for community planning in the watershed and collaboration with community stakeholders to find solutions for flooding in Keegans Bayou. The closed Ruffino Hills Landfill became the focus for that solution. That plan earned an American Planning Association (APA) Gold Resilience Award from Houston and Texas APA chapters.

Reimagining the Urban Fabric for the Future

Recently, students have turned their attention to Houston’s rapid expansion — an expected 2 million additional residents by 2050. Between 2022 and 2023, a three-semester arc called “Housing the Next 2 Million” asked students to look at the hidden potential of urban infra-structure already in place instead of undeveloped land.

During fall 2022, the studio explored how 30 METRO Park and Ride sites could become mixed-use Transit Oriented Developments (TODs) serving as resilience hubs. METRO sponsored the studio, linking it with a National Science Foundation grant on smart transit.

Then, the spring 2023 semester brought a shift in lens with “Brownfields to Brightfields.” Students inventoried 63 closed landfill sites and reimagined four of them as infill development anchored by clean energy. A collaboration with the City of Houston and UH Energy, the project’s findings were later included in an EPA grant proposal.

In fall 2023, the focus shifted to the hollowing out of retail centers. “Dead Mall Fall” invited students to redesign ten abandoned shopping malls as future community anchors. One group focused on the Northwest Mall, now eyed as the site of a high-speed rail terminal, envisioning a town center for 64,000 new residents. These adaptive reuse strategies underscore the studio’s central tenet: climate resiliency must go together with smart urbanism.

In spring 2024, students partnered with the Houston Land Bank and North Central Houston Management District to propose site-specific solutions for the former Yellow Cab Company site. Their ideas included net-zero housing, energy production, and the reuse of old industrial infrastructure.

Students in the QuadZero studio combined their talents under the moniker “Team Jellyfish” and won the inaugural “Power the Community” International College Design Competition, earning a $7,000 prize for “Distinguished Design – Urban Planning” from the Energy Mentors organization. Team Jellyfish developed concepts for a net-zero neighborhood fueled by emerging biofuel technology in Houston’s Near Northside Community. They began in two stages, first focusing on renewable energy, transportation, and net-zero practices on an urban scale. Then, they designed individual projects to further their energy narrative.

“QUAD Zero students participate in a two-part semester split between urban-scale analysis and developing a building design inside their net zero master plan,” Dr. Race explained. “Students learn how to analyze urban and natural systems and communicate their findings. They use data to demonstrate how to reduce environmental impacts and support new and existing communities with renewable energy and recycled water and waste.”

The impact of QuadZero’s projects is amplified through partnerships with organizations like METRO, the City of Houston, Harris County Flood Control District, Habitat for Humanity, and community development corporations. Collaborators often sponsor semesters, attend juries and reviews, and fund publication of student work, ensuring a reciprocal relationship between the studio and the people it aims to serve.

Including Transportation and Green Spaces as a Resilience Strategy

Recent projects have also focused on the role of transportation in reshaping cities. In fall 2024, students designed TODs along Lockwood Street in Houston’s East End, exploring how nodes like Harrisburg and Navigation Boulevard could transform into sustainable mixed-use corridors.

This spring, the focus turned skyward. The “Aviation City” studio worked with the Houston Airport Authority to plan a vision for 2050 for areas surrounding Hobby Airport. Students envisioned a regional intermodal hub that connects light rail, buses, shuttles, rideshare, and even vertical taxis.

“These students are defining how we rethink movement in a city built for cars,” Race says. “They are showing how multimodal transit can support walkable, inclusive development.”

In fall 2025, the studio will once again expand its definition of infrastructure by looking at parks. The question: How can green spaces be leveraged for energy, hydrology, real estate, and recreation? Students will design net-zero infill developments with parks as their anchors, highlighting how open space can do more than beautify; open space can stabilize neighborhoods, absorb stormwater, and even generate energy.

A Legacy of Impact

For Dr. Race, the long-term goal is not just to teach sustainable design, but to institutionalize it. He envisions former students eventually taking the reins.

With 19 studios behind them and a growing network of alumni, the QuadZero model offers a compelling blueprint for resiliency in design. “They have a lot of work to do — saving the planet requires a career-long commitment. By 2050, they will be 25 years younger than I am now,” he added.

Ultimately, QuadZero is not just teaching design; the studio teaches environmental responsibility. Dr. Race and his students are demonstrating that the future of architecture must be grounded in equity, resilience, and climate action. And in Houston, where disasters are frequent and growth is relentless, that future cannot come soon enough.