Yiwei Huang is an Assistant Professor of Landscape Architecture at Purdue University. Her research mainly focuses on three separate but interrelated areas: landscape ecology, social and environmental justice, and placemaking and community engagement. She believes that a successful landscape project requires true community engagement and that designers need to explore creative and culturally sensitive ways to understand communities' needs and translate that into an ecologically functioned and socially responsive design. Examples of her participated research include: "Franks Tract Futures," a project located in California Delta using intensive community engagement to achieve recreation, ecosystem, and water quality benefits; "Comparative Adaptive Management and Ecosystem Response Assessment (CAMERA)," a project using scenario-driven landscape visualization to convey environmental changes, climate change adaptation strategies, and lived experience for forest users in the Sierra Nevada; and "Xochimilco – Archeology, Ecology, and Urbanization," research on creative urban design strategies to balance urban development, heritage preservation, and environmental protection in Xochimilco, Mexico City. As an interdisciplinary researcher, she utilizes methods from architecture, sociology, psychology, cultural studies, and design. She particularly enjoys working with underrepresented communities, such as women, children, and immigrants.
She was serving as the Student Director of Council of Educators in Landscape Architecture (2018 -2020) and is currently serving on two committees under the American Society of Landscape Architecture (2019 – 2021). She was the receipt of the 2019-20 Outstanding Graduate Student Teaching Award at UC Davis. And she is the instructor for the 2020 Student ASLA Award LEARN, PLAY, THRIVE - Design Guidelines, and "Building Blocks" of Therapeutic Gardens for Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder.
AFFILIATIONS
ASLA Children’s Outdoor Environments PPN Leadership team
ASLA Emerging professional committee
Purdue Climate Change Research Center
Purdue Center for the Environment
EDUCATION BACKGROUND
Ph.D.
Ph.D., Geography, Department of Human Ecology, University of California Davis, 2020
Masters
Master of Urban Design (with distinction), University of Michigan Ann Arbor, 2015
Master of Landscape Architecture (ASLA Merit award for academic excellence), University of Massachusetts Amherst, 2013
Bachelors
Bachelor of Science(Ag) in Landscape Architecture, Huazhong Agricultural University，2007
Minor in English Language and Literature, Central China Normal University， 2007
PUBLICATION
Book
Outdoor Environments for People: Considering Human Factors in Landscape Design. Patsy Owens, Jayoung Koo, and Yiwei Huang (coming 2021)
Journal Article
Seeing the forest for more than the trees: aesthetic and contextual malleability of preferences for climate change adaptation strategies. Ecology and Society. Jeffery Jenkins, Brett Milligan, Yiwei Huang (in press)
Responsibilities and Roles of Landscape Architects in the Establishment of Child-Friendly City. (2020). Landscape Architecture Frontier. 8(2), 110-121
'Separate but Equal?' Understanding the Gender Differences in Urban Park Usage and its Implications to Gender Inclusive Design. Yiwei Huang and Claire Napawan (in review).
Landscape Planning and Design in the Century of the City. Landscape Architecture Journal. Vol. 2014-01, pp 112-119. Jack Ahern, Yiwei Huang
The Research in Bryant Park on Sustainable Vitality Creation in Urban Parks. Urban Planning International Magazine. Vol. 2014-03, pp 126-130. Baoyan Liu, Min Wang, Chi Gao, and Yiwei Huang.
Envisioning for sustainable approach in greenway planning. 2013. Landscape Architecture Journal. 2013-06. 18-23