Design and Environmental Analysis

Field Description

The Field of Design and Environmental Analysis brings together some of the world's leading experts in interior design, human factors and ergonomics, facility planning and management, and environmental psychology into a single field and department. Students benefit from a low faculty-to-student ratio and the faculty's integrated approach to the study of the planning, design, and management of the built environment and its effects on those using it.

Graduate students in DEA are admitted within one of three degree programs within the DEA Graduate Field: Masters of Art in Design, Masters of Science in Human Environment Relations or Ph.D. in Human Behavior and Design.

The M.A. degree is a two-year, post-professional degree program intended for students with an undergraduate degree in interior design, architecture, or product design who want to do advanced study and research in interior design. The program culminates in a formal research thesis in which students are encouraged to systemically develop and test research based design solutions, theories, and methods.

The M.S. program is intended for students with a wide variety of undergraduate degrees who want to study the relationship between people and their physical surroundings, some aspect of facility planning and management, or human factors.

The Ph.D. in Human Behavior and Design at Cornell University is a multidisciplinary program integrating the social sciences and design. Research focuses on environmental settings across a range of scales (from products to buildings to cities), that support safe, healthy and productive behaviors and foster sustainable design and lifestyles.

For more information, check the department web site.

Research opportunities:
Much of the research occurs in the field. The department also has a computer-aided design and facility management lab; human factors and ergonomics research labs; an art and environmental design gallery; and a wood workshop.


Contact Information

Website: https://dea.human.cornell.edu/
Email: deagrad@cornell.edu
Phone: 607 255-2809

Graduate Programs
1411 Martha Van Rensselaer Hall
Cornell University
Ithaca, NY  14853

Data and Statistics

Field Manual

Subject and Degrees

Design

Human Behavior and Design

Human-Environment Relations

Concentrations by Subject

Design

  • design + health
  • design for interaction
  • emerging technology for design
  • sustainable design studies

Human Behavior and Design

  • human behavior and design

Human-Environment Relations

  • design + health
  • emerging technology for design
  • environmental psychology and human factors
  • facility planning and management
  • sustainable design studies

Faculty

Gary William Evans

  • Campus: Ithaca
  • Concentrations: Design: design + health; sustainable design studies; Human-Environment Relations: design + health; environmental psychology and human factors; sustainable design studies; Human Behavior and Design: human behavior and design
  • Research Interests: environmental psychology; environmental stressors; children's environments; poverty

Keith E. Green

  • Campus: Ithaca
  • Concentrations: Design: design + health; emerging technology for design; Human-Environment Relations: design + health; emerging technology for design; environmental psychology and human factors; Human Behavior and Design: human behavior and design
  • Research Interests: the design, prototyping, and evaluation of interactive and intelligent environments (architectural robotics) augmenting the healthcare, creativity, learning and literacy, working life, disaster relief, and mass urbanization of an increasingly digital society.

Ying Hua

  • Campus: Ithaca
  • Concentrations: Design: design + health; design for interaction; emerging technology for design; Human-Environment Relations: design + health; emerging technology for design; environmental psychology and human factors; facility planning and management; sustainable design studies; Human Behavior and Design: human behavior and design
  • Research Interests: workplace design for collaboration effectiveness; green building and sustainable development; workplace health and productivity; post-occupancy evaluation

Saleh Kalantari

  • Campus: Ithaca
  • Concentrations: Design: design + health; emerging technology for design; sustainable design studies; Human-Environment Relations: design + health; emerging technology for design; environmental psychology and human factors; facility planning and management; sustainable design studies; Human Behavior and Design: human behavior and design
  • Research Interests: post-occupancy evaluation, technology, facility management

Cindy Hsin-Liu Kao

  • Campus: Ithaca
  • Concentrations: Design: design + health; emerging technology for design; sustainable design studies; Human-Environment Relations: design + health; emerging technology for design; environmental psychology and human factors; sustainable design studies; Human Behavior and Design: human behavior and design
  • Research Interests: intersection of material innovation, human computer interaction, body art

Renata Marques Leitao

  • Campus: Ithaca
  • Concentrations: Design: design for interaction; sustainable design studies; Human Behavior and Design: human behavior and design; Human-Environment Relations: sustainable design studies
  • Research Interests: Communications Design. Her research and teaching focus is on using design to foster social and environmental justice and sustainability, as a means for empowerment and self-determination of Indigenous and marginalized communities.

Janet Elizabeth Loebach

  • Campus: Ithaca
  • Concentrations: Design: design + health; sustainable design studies; Human-Environment Relations: design + health; environmental psychology and human factors; facility planning and management; sustainable design studies; Human Behavior and Design: human behavior and design
  • Research Interests: children's and youth's relationship with the natural and built environment, design for diversity, and research-informed design and planning

Anthony D. Ong

  • Campus: Ithaca
  • Concentrations: Human-Environment Relations: environmental psychology and human factors; Human Behavior and Design: human behavior and design
  • Research Interests: positive psychology, emotion, aging, resilience, racial disparities in health, and health through the life course

Karl Andrew Pillemer

  • Campus: Ithaca
  • Concentrations: Human-Environment Relations: environmental psychology and human factors; Human Behavior and Design: human behavior and design
  • Research Interests: human development over the life course; family and social relationships in middle age and beyond; intergenerational relations in later life; relationships of family members with long-term care facilities; older people and environmental sustainability; intervention research and policy analysis related to aging and health care

Jenny Sabin

  • Campus: Ithaca - (Minor Member)
  • Concentrations: Design: sustainable design studies; Human-Environment Relations: sustainable design studies

Mardelle M. Shepley

  • Campus: Ithaca
  • Concentrations: Design: design + health; sustainable design studies; Human-Environment Relations: design + health; environmental psychology and human factors; Human Behavior and Design: human behavior and design
  • Research Interests: healthcare environments, translational research, global design research, behavioral health facility research

Nancy M. Wells

  • Campus: Ithaca
  • Concentrations: Design: design + health; sustainable design studies; Human-Environment Relations: design + health; environmental psychology and human factors; sustainable design studies; Human Behavior and Design: human behavior and design
  • Research Interests: environmental psychology; housing research, elderly housing, relationship to natural environments

Jay Yoon

  • Campus: Ithaca
  • Concentrations: Design: design + health; emerging technology for design; sustainable design studies; Human-Environment Relations: design + health; emerging technology for design; environmental psychology and human factors; sustainable design studies; Human Behavior and Design: human behavior and design
  • Research Interests: the relation between products and emotion, human factors/ergonomics, design for community well-being

So-Yeon Yoon

  • Campus: Ithaca
  • Concentrations: Design: design + health; design for interaction; emerging technology for design; Human-Environment Relations: design + health; emerging technology for design; environmental psychology and human factors; Human Behavior and Design: human behavior and design
  • Research Interests: design computing, visual simulation, environmental psychology, creative design problem solving

Rana Sagha Zadeh

  • Campus: Ithaca
  • Concentrations: Human-Environment Relations: design + health; emerging technology for design; environmental psychology and human factors; facility planning and management; Human Behavior and Design: human behavior and design; Design: sustainable design studies
  • Research Interests: evidence-based design, human factors in sustainable design, financial effects of environmental quality, post-occupancy evaluation, spatial analysis, high-performance buildings, day-lighting