Archives: Faculties

Stephen Belton

Stephen Belton

School of Architecture
Associate Professor
352-294-1463
AH 238

M.Arch., Harvard University Graduate School of Design, 2001
Architecture B.Arch., University of California, Berkeley, 1994

Courses Taught ARC4330 Analytical Drawing + Sketching ARC1302 Architectural Design 2 ARC2303 Architectural Design 3 ARC2304 Architectural Design 4 ARC3320 Architectural Design 5 ARC3321 Architectural Design 6 ARC4322 Architectural Design 7 ARC4323 Architectural Design 8 ARC4323 ARC6241 Advanced Studio 1 ARC6356 Advanced Studio 3 ARC4330 Analytical Drawing + Sketching ARC6912 Furniture Design + Fabrication

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Vandana Baweja

Vandana Baweja

School of Architecture
Associate Professor
352-294-1465
AH 242

Ph.D. History and Theory of Architecture, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, USA.
M.Sc. History and Theory of Architecture, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, USA.
M.A. Histories and Theories of Architecture, Architectural Association School of Architecture, London, UK.
Five Year Undergraduate Diploma in Architecture, Sushant School of Art and Architecture, India.

Vandana Baweja is an associate professor of the School of Architecture in the College of Design, Construction and Planning at the University of Florida, Gainesville. She has served as the co-chair of the UF’s University Curriculum Committee since 2021. She got her PhD in architecture at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, USA. She was trained as an architect in New Delhi, India, and got a master’s in architecture at the Architectural Association (AA) School of Architecture in London, UK. Baweja’s areas of research are – global histories of Tropical Architecture, histories of Sustainable Architecture, and their representation in film and photography. From 2023 to 2024, she was the editor of Arris: The Journal of The Southeast Chapter of The Society of Architectural Historians, published by UNC press. At the moment she is working on a book manuscript on Sustainable Architecture and editing a book project titled Narratives of Disease, Discomfort, Development, and Disaster: Reconsidering (sub)Tropical Architecture and Urbanism with Dr Deborah van der Plaat (The University of Queensland), and Professor Tom Avermaete (ETH Zurich). The book project investigates histories of Disease, Discomfort, Development, and Disaster in the field of tropical architecture – a mid-twentieth century global architectural movement that was predicated upon the emerging relationship between architecture and climatology.

Through her publications on Tropical Architecture, she has investigated how ideas about the relationship between architecture and climate were forged in the mid-twentieth century and circulated globally along the networks of the British Empire. She is a recipient of grants from the Florida Humanities Council and the Global Architectural History Teaching Collaborative (GAHTC). She has produced peer reviewed teaching materials and curriculum for the Global Architectural History Teaching Collaborative (GAHTC), which is a pedagogical professional society out of MIT. Vandana Baweja is a member of the governing board of the Undergraduate Sustainability Major offered by the College of Design, Construction and Planning at the University of Florida.

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Michael Volk

Michael Volk

Department of Landscape Architecture, Center for Landscape Conservation Planning
Research Associate Professor
352-294-1444
AH 438

• Master of Landscape Architecture, University of Florida, 2008
• Bachelor of Architecture, Taliesin, Frank Lloyd Wright School of Architecture, 2005

Areas of Focus: Sustainability (Built Environment Resilience) My work is focused on a variety of topics related to climate change and resilient design, including regional conservation planning as the Associate Director of the Center for Landscape Conservation Planning (http://conservation.dcp.ufl.edu/), community resiliency as a partner with Florida Resilient Cities (https://dcp.ufl.edu/frc/), and as a founding member of the Climate-wise Landscape Initiative (https://dcp.ufl.edu/landscapechange/) focused on providing actionable climate change information for landscape architects and educators. Bio: Michael Volk is a Research Assistant Professor in the Department of Landscape Architecture, Associate Director of the University of Florida Center for Landscape Conservation Planning, and a Florida registered Landscape Architect (currently inactive). He has a Master’s Degree in Landscape Architecture from the University of Florida and a degree in Architecture from the Frank Lloyd Wright School of Architecture. Michael currently teaches courses in planting design, landscape management and ecology, environmental and ecological policy, and ecological issues and sustainability in collaboration with faculty in the Departments of Landscape Architecture and Urban and Regional Planning. Michael’s work with the Center for Landscape Conservation Planning (http://conservation.dcp.ufl.edu/) includes applied research with conservation partners throughout Florida on land use, regional conservation planning, and urban green infrastructure; the impacts of sea level rise on natural resources and coastal communities; and climate change adaptation strategies and information needs for landscape architecture students and professionals (https://dcp.ufl.edu/landscapechange/). Michael is also a partner with Florida Resilient Cities (https://dcp.ufl.edu/frc/), an initiative which works with communities across Florida to be more prepared for and resilient to increased risk and future changes.

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Sheila Bosch

Sheila Bosch

Department of Interior Design
Associate Professor
(352) 294-1439
AH 348

Ph.D. Georgia Institute of Technology

Dr. Sheila Bosch is an associate professor and graduate coordinator for the Department of Interior Design. For more than two decades, Sheila has been engaged in research exploring the relationships between environmental design and human well-being, primarily in healthcare and educational environments. Healthcare design research has investigated environments serving patients of all ages, from birth to the very end of life, including intensive care units, medical-surgical units, emergency departments, behavioral health units and skilled nursing facilities. In 2014, Sheila was honored to receive the national-level HCD10 top researcher award for her contributions to healthcare design research. Her current research focuses on how the design of healthcare spaces may help reduce stress and support mindfulness among healthcare workers. Research on learning environment design has included investigations in both K-12 and higher education environments, including an externally funded investigation of mixed-use learning environments at the university level. Sheila teaches both undergraduate and graduate courses, all of which include a research component. For undergraduates, she regularly team-teaches a senior design studio in which students develop innovative healthcare spaces, oftentimes working with design practitioners. Sheila also teaches both undergraduate and graduate level environment-behavior courses where students explore the complex relationships between the environment (built or natural) and the people who occupy those environments. Other graduate courses taught include Readings in Design Studies and Research Methods in Interior Design. Prior to UF, Sheila served as the Director of Research for Gresham Smith, a global design firm headquartered in the southeastern US. Having earned her PhD in 2004 from Georgia Tech’s College of Architecture, Sheila also hold an MS (life science, environmental toxicology) and a BS (science education), both from the University of Tennessee.

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Margaret Portillo

Margaret Portillo

Department of Interior Design
Professor
(352) 294-1406
AH 331C

Ph.D.

In the College of Design, Construction and Planning, Margaret Portillo, Professor of Interior Design, is serving as Associate Dean for Research + Strategic Initiatives. As a researcher, she leverages mixed methods, to explore human-centered design innovation.  Recently, she was a co-recipient of an EDRA Research Excellence commendation on mixed-use learning zone spaces and typologies, a study, funded by ASID. This national award recognized the study’s translational significance and practice impact.  Currently, she is collaborating on a study examining design transformation within university library, part of a larger Association of College and Research Libraries initiative. Through books, articles, and essays as well as academic and industry-invited presentations, her work has been shared nationally and internationally.  Portillo also is committed to high impact scholarly service. For example, she chaired the CIDA standards development project that involved an extensive three-year process of exploring, evaluating, and testing societal influences that informed a major revision of international interior design accreditation standards.  Portillo served two as editor-in-chief of the Journal of Interior Design (2006-2015), published under the auspices of IDEC, successfully moving to a quarterly publication schedule and a revisioning of the journal’s focus, reach, and readership that appreciably elevated the journal’s ranking.

In addition to advising MID and PhD students, Portillo developed a course on design innovation and also has taught applied color theory and environment and behavior at the undergraduate level.  Portillo also created a graduate seminars on creativity seminar and has taught research methods.  She regularly participates in studio reviews and gives guest lectures. Representing design education, IIDA invited her to jury for the IIDA MidAmerica and InWards competitions, in Kansas City and Seattle respectively.

 

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