The Design Across Scales Lab investigates the dynamic relationships between and across the built environment to discover and design for the changing world. 

DAS Lab is founded by J. Meejin Yoon and is co-directed by Alexander Kobald

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Aerial perspective of trees and buildings in a digital rendering showing how much shade trees are providing.

Recent Work

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Aerial perspective of trees and buildings in a digital rendering showing how much shade trees are providing.

Tree Folio NYC

A digital twin of New York Cities Urban Canopy.

Tree Folio is a suite of tools to better understand and quantify the local impact of urban trees. Tree Folio extracts 3d models of every tree in NYC from publicly available, high-resolution LiDAR scans, simulates their local shading environments, and quantifies the amount and quality of shade they provide. The goal of the project is to develop strategies that are responsive to local needs and add up to have the maximum effect in mitigating climate effects for the future 'climate changed' city.

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Recent Work

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Animated diagram of natural gas pipeline networks in the eastern US

Routes of Power

This visualization of pipeline networks by operator/owner re-contextualizes the natural gas pipeline network, not as a static all-encompassing national system, but as dynamic navigation of political boundaries, local geographies, and economic inequalities between regions of extraction and centers of consumption. This is seen in the variance of pipeline networks ranging from the fan-like collection networks in the mid-west and sunbelt, to the coastal collection rings of the gulf coast, and the transmission corridors of the east and west coasts.

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Animated diagram of natural gas pipeline networks in the eastern US

Image of woman laying down and reading a book in the shade of a tree.

Recent News

Image of woman laying down and reading a book in the shade of a tree.

October 9, 2023

When It Comes to Urban Trees, More Isn’t Always Better

Alexander Kobald, co-director of the Design Across Scales Lab, uses Tree Folio NYC to illustrate the need for cities to develop better tools that help understand the individual climate vulnerabilities residents face and develop adaptation strategies that respond to local needs.

Bloomberg CityLab

Contact

Alexander Kobald
Associate Director, Research Lead
akobald@cornell.edu

Address

Design Across Scales Lab
129 Sibley Dome
Department of Architecture
Cornell University
Ithaca, NY 14853

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