Laure Heland is Affiliate Associate Professor in the Department of Landscape Architecture. She has been teaching as an Associate Professor at the National School of Architecture of Paris La Villette (France) since 2007. As research faculty, she collaborates in several national and European public funded research programs on participatory process for sustainable design and the assessment of environmental and climate change policies at regional, local and building scales.
Trained in Ecology, Urban Design and Planning, she developed her professional experience in environmental consulting for large scale design projects and training programs for professionals. She earned her PhD in 2008 in Paris, studying the neighborhood as a place for experimentation of sustainable design in Denmark and Germany, through bottom-up ecological practices and community-led participatory design. She is the Co-Founder and Director of the Integrated Ecology Lab.
Laure’s current research focuses on the Pacific Northwest experience and leadership in ecological infrastructures and the social, ecological and economical impacts of their implementation in dense urban environments. She also facilitates community-led ecological design projects and participatory processes in marginalized urban communities from various socio-cultural contexts. She is Track Co-Chair for Service Learning and Community Engagement at Council of Educators for Landscape Architecture.