Alison Kwok, PhD, FAIA, CPHC, LEED BD+C, LFA is a professor in the Department of Architecture at the University of Oregon. A sustainable future, for the design of buildings, lies in design integration —making key design decisions about energy use early in the process; encouraging designers to evaluate building performance through post-occupancy follow up; fostering discussion among educators, architects, engineers, and students about design technologies; and promoting a better and closer union between the fields of architecture and engineering.
To fill much-needed gaps in architectural education, Kwok's publications include Mechanical and Electrical Equipment for Buildings, 14th ed. (with co-author Walter Grondzik) affectionately known as “MEEB” a preeminent teaching and practice reference for building environmental control systems. The Green Studio Handbook 4th ed. (also co-authored with Walter Grondzik and Tom Hahn) provides forty-three selected environmental strategies including a description of principles and concepts, step-by-step procedures for integrating the strategy, and 10 case studies demonstrating how it all goes together. Passive House Details: Solutions to High-Performance Design, written with UO Professor Donald Corner and CHPC/architect Jan Fillinger, has numerous, clearly drawn construction details and construction photographs and 14 case studies.
Kwok has guided projects the TallWood Design Institute (TDI) Northwest Energy Efficiency Alliance; US Green Building Council (USGBC), Passive House Institute US, American Society of Heating Refrigeration and Air-Conditioning Engineers (ASHRAE), American Institute of Architects (AIA) and was principal investigator of a favorite Agents of Change project, funded by the U.S. Department of Education Fund for the Improvement of Post-Secondary Education (FIPSE) to embed post-occupancy studies into education to learn about the consequences of design. She has served as: board member for the Architectural Research Centers Consortium; past-president of the Society of Building Science Educators; member of several ASHRAE committees; and the USGBC’s Formal Education Committee. Students have also participated with Prof. Kwok on design charrettes, workshops, and presentations in China, England, Japan, Korea, and Singapore.
Kwok is a graduate of the University of California-Berkeley (MARCH, PHD Architecture), University of Hawai'i (MEd Secondary Education), and of Knox College (BA, biology, art) and is registered architect in Oregon and California.
