Alison Mears, AIA

In the last nine years, my academic research and creative practice have focused on investigating the problematic relationship between human health and the built environment. Traditional definitions of sustainability situate this field within the context of the planet, its environment, and economics. My design led research, creative practice, and teaching resides within an expanded definition of ecological definition of sustainability, which places human health at the center of the system and in harmony with planetary health. I focus my research on innovative design strategies that disrupt the building supply chain to incorporate human health as criteria for evaluating building products and designing and constructing healthier buildings.

Noteworthy Recognitions + Achievements

Architectural Record Women in Architecture-Innovators Award 2023, Alison Mears and Jonsara Ruth

Design Observer Twenty 2023, Alison Mears and Jonsara Ruth recognized as “re designers”, expanding the definition of design in service of a better world.




Grants

Alison Mears is co PI on The Healthy Affordable Materials Project (HAMP) a three-year, $7.5 million grant renewed for an additional three years 2018 ($7.5 million), funded by The JPB Foundation. The project is a collaboration with Healthy Building Network, Green Science Policy Institute, and the Health Product Declaration, a group composed of green chemists, materials scientist researcher, architects and designers, and environmental policy professionals who conduct research and change current building practice to reduce the use of toxic building products

-National Endowment for the Humanities $200, 000 for the production of HML podcast Trace Material season 2 “Plastics”.

-Mount Sinai and Parsons Research Project Tooth Biomonitoring Report Back Project

-Don Services New Castle PA. Pennsylvania State grant, Renovation of wood framed housing in a postindustrial city Prototypes and IAQ testing for supportive, accessible affordable housing using non petrochemical based, benign construction materials for renovation.




Publications

2023

Mears, Alison, Ruth, Jonsara, edits, Material Health: Design Frontiers, Lund Humphries, NY 2023

Included in best new books in architecture, design, and sustainability. Metropolis Magazine, 2023.

ILFI, The Regenerative Materials Movement: Dispatches from Practitioners, Researchers, and Advocates, Ecotone 2023 (Final chapter Mears and Ruth)




Symposia and Lectures Numerous but including:

I lecture widely and participate in various media to disseminate current Material Health thinking to a wide audience including

2023 Harvard Embodied Climate Conference

2019.20 HML Material Health Symposium, Organizer and speaker.