Center for the Built Environment

The Center for the Built Environment (CBE) at the University of California, Berkeley, is a National Science Foundation Industry/University Cooperative Research Center. CBE's mission is to improve the design, operation, and environmental quality of buildings by providing timely, unbiased information on building technologies and design techniques.

CBE is located within UC Berkeley's Building Science Laboratory at the College of Environmental Design. It is one of the largest university laboratories devoted to building research in the United States. Key facilities include a controlled environment chamber (designed to resemble a contemporary office, while allowing precise control over the levels of temperature, humidity, ventilation and lighting in the space), and an extensive collection of portable equipment for acquiring and analyzing data from field experiments. The Center for the Built Environment was founded in 1997 under the National Science Foundation (NSF) Industry/University Cooperative Research Center (I/UCRC) program.

CBE's research areas include Indoor Environmental Quality, HVAC (Heating, Ventilation, Air Conditioning) Systems, Envelope systems, and Controls and Information Technology. CBE provides information about its research areas and publications on its website

CBE's research program is guided by its Research Team and Advisory Board. The CBE Advisory Board includes manufacturers, building owners, facility managers, contractors, architects, engineers, government agencies and professional associations. The research team comprises people from departments across the UC Berkeley campus, as well as scientists from the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, graduate students, and international experts from industry or other research institutions.

The center partners with many public and private organizations including design firms, manufacturers, builders and government organizations. Some of the CBE's partners include Arup, HOK, Kling Stubbins, Skidmore, Owings and Merrill, and the US Department of Energy.

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