Daniel Phillips is an urban ecologist, and landscape practitioner. He studied Environmental Design at Otis College of Art and Design, and earned a PhD from the University of Michigan’s School for Environment and Sustainability (SEAS). From 2020-24 he served as an assistant professor of Landscape Architecture at Texas Tech University, where he established the Green Infrastructure Landscape Lab (GILL). Daniel is also a regular contributor to The Nature of Cities, and a former Fulbright-Nehru scholar. COMMONStudio, his collaborative creative practice has been widely recognized for its experiments in public installations, interventions, and initiatives that operate at the intersection of art, design, and science. His research has been published in a variety of peer-reviewed journals across design, hydrology, engineering, and urban planning disciplines. Along with a revolving cast of grad student collaborators, Daniel co-hosts the Post Wild Pod, with sporadically released episodes engaging creative practitioners and thought leaders on the meaning and potential of working with and within “Novel Ecosystems”.
Dr. Phillips’s highly collaborative research and design critically and curiously examines the performance and perception of marginalized urban ecosystems at multiple scales, from the gutter to the watershed. Projects span many disciplines, contexts and cultures, and are focused on topics ranging from the dynamics of Spontaneous Urban Plants (SUP) in the American rustbelt, developing strategic urban afforestation initiatives for semi-arid climates, and using computer modelling (SWMM) to improve the cumulative impacts of tactical green stormwater infrastructure in collaboration with local communities.
