Introduction
Yiwei Huang is an Assistant Professor of Landscape
Architecture at Purdue University. Her research and teaching circulate the
intersection of ecology, social factors, politics, and planning. She is
interested in places with conflicts, where local residents may share different
aesthetic values, restoration strategies, cultural practices, or ways of
living. Through her research, she eagers to find out how these conflicts
emerged and how designers and planners could better articulate their design and
participatory strategies so that the whole community engagement and co-design approach could
function as a transforming agent that respect, facilitate, and even empower the
local communities, especially those who were historically underrepresented in
the planning processes. Examples of her leading and participated research
include: "User Perception of Public Parks: A Pilot Study Integrating
Spatial Social Media Data with Park Management in the City of Chicago," in
which she works with environmental engineer and geographer to discover the
environmental (in)justice issues through mapping and spatial social media
analysis; Park design and women's everyday
experiences in San Francisco Chinatown, where she used behavior mapping and interview
discovered severe gender separation patterns and the reasons behind it; Child-friendly city establishment
and the role of landscape architects, in which she challenged the "problem
solving" attitude of landscape architects, but encourage more
children-initiated placemaking strategies; "Franks Tract
Futures," a
project located in California Delta using intensive community engagement
efforts and co-design approached to achieve an inclusive park design that meet
recreational, ecological, and economic benefits for the surrounding region.
Dr. Huang currently have several research projects ongoing,
including recently funded project “Downscaling and visualizing climate change
scenarios to advance environmental justice and promote local action” ($74,861
by PCCRC), therapeutic and edible gardens in low-income communities;
public perception of sustainable outdoor design; and the diversity, equity, and
inclusivity of landscape architecture education.
Research keywords: participatory design and planning methods;
diversified landscape; evidence-based design and POE; social sustainability;
therapeutic and edible landscape in cities; green infrastructure and ecological
sensitivity.
Teaching
Dr. Huang as an instructor
who advocates for students voices and encourages her students to seek wider
acknowledgements beyond university course work. She served as the Student
Director of Council of Educators in Landscape Architecture (2018 -2020), and
she currently serves on two committees under the American Society of Landscape
Architecture (2020 – 2022) to advocate for more inclusive student engagement
efforts. She is selected as the outstanding graduate student teaching award in
2019, and her students’ works have won national acknowledgement which implies
the next generation’s idea to transform the future for landscape architecture.
- ASLA
Student Honor Award research Category (2020) Learn, Play,
Thrive - Design Guidelines, and "Building Blocks" of Therapeutic
Gardens for Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder. By Wenxi Huang (student).
Faculty Advisor: Yiwei Huang
- A Visible
Solution - 2020 EPA RainWorks Challenge Honorable Mention, (2021),
by Chris Curnell, Ethan Fleig, Jeffery Tseng, and Harland Nadeau (students).
Faculty Advisor: Yiwei Huang.
- Landscape Architecture Foundation (LAF) 2022 Case Study
Investigation program. Student Research Assistants: Wanting Zhang and Yahan
You. Research Fellow: Yiwei Huang.