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Stuart Weitzman School of Design

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Beating the heat: Designing cooling for bodies in motion
Two workers in a lab working on cooling structures.

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Beating the heat: Designing cooling for bodies in motion

Dorit Aviv, director of Weitzman’s Thermal Architecture Lab, studies how humans, technology, and design intersect, paving the way for the development of novel approaches to cooling people efficiently.

5 min. read

Energy Week to explore solutions for transition to clean energy
Two people have conversation in front of research poster.

The annual Energy Week Poster Session is a good way to learn about the energy-related research of Penn students and postdocs.

(Image: Bill Cohen)

Energy Week to explore solutions for transition to clean energy

Penn’s sixth Energy Week, taking place Feb. 23-27, features events that highlight cross-disciplinary research at Penn and bring in leading industry experts.

2 min. read

A design fall studio brings interdisciplinary thinking to Philly’s historic and commercial core
Philadelphia’s Market Street east of City Hall in 1889.

Philadelphia’s Market Street east of City Hall in 1889.

(Image: John Gibb, Courtesy of the Free Library of Philadelphia, Print and Picture Collection)

A design fall studio brings interdisciplinary thinking to Philly’s historic and commercial core

Studio Plus design students at Weitzman focused on working through the future of Philadelphia’s Market East neighborhood, and explored issues of historic preservation, urban planning, and housing.

2 min. read

Preserving the past
Brian Whetstone.

Assistant professor of historic preservation Brian Whetstone.

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Preserving the past

Brian Whetstone, assistant professor of historic preservation at the Weitzman School, explores the intersections between housing and labor equity at museums, historic sites, and preservation organizations.

From the Weitzman School of Design

2 min. read

Sizing up Pennsylvania’s creative workforce
Alex Watrous throwing pottery on a wheel.

Waterhouse Pottery focuses on handmade functional wares for home and garden. Alex Watrous earned her BFA in Ceramics at Edinboro University and has since worked professionally in the ceramics industry through manufacturing, retail supply, gallery management and sales, as well as arts administration.

(Image: Courtesy of Bridge Perspective)

Sizing up Pennsylvania’s creative workforce

A new report prepared by Weitzman faculty for the Pennsylvania Creative Industries, powered by the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts, shows a large and diverse creative workforce in the state.

2 min. read

Penn Forward: Sarah Rottenberg applies design thinking for strategic University initiative
Sarah Rottenberg.

Sarah Rottenberg is assisting three Penn Forward working groups to generate big ideas that will carry Penn into the next decade and beyond.

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  • Who, What, Why

    • Penn Forward: Sarah Rottenberg applies design thinking for strategic University initiative

    Rottenberg, executive director of the Integrated Product Design Program and an adjunct associate professor in the Weitzman School, collaborated with three Penn Forward working groups to optimize idea development.

    3 min. read

    How interdisciplinary teaching becomes climate action

    How interdisciplinary teaching becomes climate action

    Penn graduate students are learning that net zero is a systems challenge requiring fluency across disciplines, and why interdisciplinary teaching is climate action—including how it builds the human capital the clean energy transition demands.

    From Kleinman Center for Energy Policy

    2 min. read

    20 breakthroughs of 2025
    Masoud Akbarzadeh holding up one of the fabricated materials.

    The Polyhedral Structures Laboratory is housed at the Pennovation Center and brings together designers, engineers, and computer scientists to reimagine the built world. Using graphic statics, a method where forces are mapped as lines, they design forms that balance compression and tension. These result in structures that use far fewer materials while remaining strong and efficient.

    (Image: Eric Sucar)

    20 breakthroughs of 2025

    From ancient tombs and tiny robots to personalized gene editing and AI weather models, Penn’s 2025 research portfolio showed how curiosity—paired with collaboration—moves knowledge into impact and stretches across disciplines and continents.

    5 min. read

    Penn Team honored with Charles E. Peterson Prize for work on Nakashima House

    Penn Team honored with Charles E. Peterson Prize for work on Nakashima House

    A recent study of the Nakashima home by students in the Department of Historic Preservation at the Weitzman School have earned the Charles E. Peterson Prize from the National Park Service Heritage Documentation Programs, the Philadelphia Atheneum, American Institute of Architects, and the Association for Preservation Technology International.