EDRA44Providence

EDRA44Providence takes place May 29 - June 1, 2013 at the Omni Providence Hotel (formerly The Westin) in Providence, Rhode Island.

 

If you have any questions about EDRA44Providence, please email edra44providence@edra.org. 

EDRA44Providence is pleased to present a diverse plenary program with each session exploring different aspects of "Healthy + Healing Places". Click here to view the FINAL detailed schedule, which includes CEU credit availability.

 

EDRA44Providence takes on an unprecedented environmental design applied research goal, focused on Rhode Island’s health policy through the Healthy Rhode Island Environmental Design Summit. Held Wednesday, May 29, this day-long event brings the expertise of researchers converging in Providence together with local initiatives that have health implications, and with policymakers who shape and implement health policy for Rhode Island. MORE

 

Dr. Richard Jackson, Professor and Chair of the Environmental Health Sciences Department at UCLA's Fielding School of Public Health, presents "Designing Healthy Communities" on Thursday, May 30, sharing best practice design alternatives that can sharpen policymakers' thinking in how they look at their communities today. MORE

 

Dr. Aaron Wernham, Director of the Health Impact Project, Elizabeth Roberts, Lieutenant Governor for the State of Rhode Island, and Terrie Wetle, Dean of Brown University's School of Public Health, explore how public health considerations can be factored into decisions beyond the traditional scope of public health practice by building partnerships across sectors in "Health Impact Assessment: Building New Partnerships for Healthier Communities" on Friday, May 31. MORE

 

Susan Goltsman, President of MIG, Daniel Iacofano, Founding Principal of MIG, and Mukul Malhotra, MIG's Director of Urban Design, examine the findings from Re:Streets, a three-year research project that gathered data to inform the redesign of streets, and share outstanding case studies of what streets for living, not just driving, can be in "Streets for Living" on Saturday, June 1. MORE

 

Mobile Sessions

EDRA44Providence is pleased to offer Mobile Sessions with in situ sessions every day of the conference that highlight Providence’s culture and history. Click here to learn about the specific sessions offered throughtout the event. Conference attendees can register for these sessions as part of their conference registration*, or separately by contacting EDRA Headquarters.

**Some sessions may require additional fees to cover the cost of transportation.

 

Program Schedule

The final EDRA44Providence schedule of presentations is now available for download. Click here to view a searchable PDF file of all accepted oral and poster presentations and the CEU credits associated with each session. (updated 5.17.13)

 

Registration

Registration for EDRA44Providence is now open. Registration rates vary by member status and date of registration. Current registration rates are:

  • EDRA Members $550/Non-Members $750
  • EDRA Student & Emeritus Members $265/Student Non-Members $345

WE HAVE CLOSED OUR ONLINE REGISTRATION PROCESS AT THIS TIME. REGISTRATIONS CAN BE MADE IN PERSON BEGINNING TUESDAY, MAY 28 AT 5:00PM.

 

Hotel Accomodations

EDRA has secured a block of rooms at the Omni Providence Hotel (formerly The Westin), One West Exchange Street, Providence, RI. Rooms are available for $169 + tax single/double, and a limited amount of student rooms are available for $119 + tax single/double. To make your room reservation, please click here to be taken to the EDRA room block reservation site or call 1-800-843-6664 and ask for the EDRA room block rate. Students wishing to take advantage of this discounted rate must call the toll-free number listed above; the student rate is not available online. (Please note: all students will be required to show proof of student status upon check in.) The deadline for our room block rate is April 27, 2013. After April 27, reservations are only accepted on space and rate availability. Be sure to mention that you are with the Environmental Design Research Association to receive this discounted EDRA rate. Rooms are sold on a first-come, first-serve basis, so don’t delay! Once they sell out, we are unable to secure any additional discounted rooms, even if it is prior to the April 27 cutoff.

 

Sponsorship and Exhibit Opportunities

Thank you to our EDRA44Providence sponsors and exhibitors:

        
 

  • Routledge
  • Community Development Graduate Program, University of Detroit Mercy
  • Breathing Time Yoga
  • Rapid Modeling Corporation
  • Sodexo Education
  • Greater Providence Chamber of Commerce

Click here to learn about ways you can support EDRA44. Who attends an EDRA conference? Click here to view our attendee profile.

 

Student Volunteers

EDRA is once again pleased to offer a Student Volunteer Program for EDRA44Providence, providing students with the opportunity to volunteer during EDRA44Providence in exchange for a number of benefits including discounted conference registration.

 

Student volunteers will be expected to work for 10-12 hours over a 3-5 day period, at the discretion of EDRA’s executive director.  Volunteer time may include: acting as an assistant to the Session Chairs during presentation sessions, with some preference toward fitting assignments to students’ field of interest; working the registration table and bookstore; conferee traffic management; and administrative support. In exchange, student volunteers will:

  • Receive $100 off a full student conference registration;
  • Be provided with an EDRA t-shirt to wear, which they can keep when their duties are complete;
  • Have access to a volunteer ready room during the conference; and
  • Be given support by EDRA to help arrange for shared accommodations with other students at the conference hotel to further reduce attendance costs.

Thank you to all of those students who applied; the deadline for volunteer applications for the 2013 conference has now passed and all applications are currently under consideration.

 

Healthy + Healing Places Exhibition

Everyday our lives are influenced by our surroundings and the objects we encounter. This is never more true than when we are unhealthy or in need of healing. To highlight the power of good, smart and caring design work, EDRA will showcase elements or environments, built or proposed, that can be understood to actively promote health and healing through the 2013 Healthy + Healing Places Exhibition, curated by Anne Tate from the Rhode Island School of Design. These healthy + healing places could be anything from public spaces designed to encourage more active lifestyles, to redesigned therapeutic spaces, to objects of everyday use. EDRA is pleased to expand the opportunity to recognize excellence in design in this very special exhibition on display from May 29 – June 1, 2013 during EDRA’s 44th annual conference in Providence, Rhode Island.  A dedicated area for the exhibition will be designated at the conference venue with regular attendance hours posted. Click here to learn more and for instructions on how to submit a project.

 

15th Annual Great Places Awards

EDRA is pleased to honor work that combines expertise in design, research, and practice, and that contributes to the creation of dynamic, humane places through our Great Places Awards program. Held in conjunction with EDRA44Providence, these projects reflect an interdisciplinary approach that is enduring, sustainable, and concerned with human factors. Click here to learn more about the program and submission process. The deadline for submissions is January 27, 2013.

 

Conference Theme: Healthy + Healing Places

The architecture of settlements, landscapes, buildings, and interiors is sensual, influ­encing our physical, social and emotional health—be it for good or ill. 

 

At their best, environments inspire, empower, and encour­age. They stimulate kinesthesia, engender sociability and enable access to fresh foods, all of which support population health and prevent disease.

 

At their worst, environments depress, restrict, isolate, subjugate, demoralize, create stress, and discriminate, in­creasing inhabitants’ allostatic load (an elevated levels of dis­ease-causing hormones due to environmental stress or what traditional practitioners called bad Feng Shui). They also in­crease contagion and contami­nate the body with toxins as we breathe, drink and eat—all of which undermine health, on individual and societal levels.

 

Healing requires above all to do no harm and buildings can go a long way to prevent iatrogenic disease by averting the spread of infections or accidents. While we typically think of a “caregiver” in terms of a healthcare provider, it is also the architect's responsibility to provide “care” and help restore health and promote recuperation. Envi­ronments can support caregiv­ers’ activities at every step of the process, greatly expanding their power to heal. The physi­cal environment can comfort patients, strengthen their physi­cal and emotional condition, provide hope, and alleviate fear.

 

EDRA44 has a special fo­cus on health policy implications for environmental design in addition to promoting the value of research for advancing environmental design and theory building. The 2013 conference is co-sponsored by the Rhode Island Department of Health and together we invite EDRA44 participants to con­tribute to developing health policy through environmental design research.

 

As a state where the most remote location is no more than 50 minutes from the capital, Rhode Island is an ideal place to test new policies and measure their outcomes.  We hope to report back to EDRA in years to come that EDRA44 was the spearhead of new national and global initiatives.
 

The Governor, the Mayor of Providence, and the planners of the 39 Rhode Island towns and cities invite EDRA44 participants to address lofty goals and enjoy Ocean State specta­cles.

 

Submissions

The deadline to submit a presentation for EDRA44Providence has expired. Want to learn about the types of submissions presented at EDRA44? Click here for the Call for Proposals.

 

Student Scholarships

A limited number of conference scholarships in the form of reduced or complimentary conference registration and/or travel reimbursement are available for EDRA Student Members, with a maximum award value of $500 to help offset the varying costs of travel from a student’s institution to the conference site. Student Conference Scholarships will first be disbursed in the form of a complimentary student member registration to EDRA44Providence (a value of $175) with any remaining scholarship funds awarded in a check payable in U.S. dollars. Thank you to all of those students who applied; the deadline for the 2013 conference has now past and all scholarship funds have been awarded.

 

 

Want to learn more about what Providence has to offer? Click here to view a message from the EDRA44Providence Co-chairs, Lefteris Pavlides and Jeremy Wells.

 

 

EDRA44Providence Conference Committee

Lefteris Pavlides, Co-Chair
Jeremy Wells, Co-Chair
Peter R. Simon, Rhode Island Department of Health
Saif Haq
Debajyoti Pati
Anne Tate
Marcella R. Thompson
Richard Wener

Kate O'Donnell, Executive Director

photo ©WaterFire Providence, credit: Barnaby Evans.