Renewable bio-based circular material economies in timber, post-agricultural by-products and plant-based bioremediation

we publish our research widely, scroll below to view current publications, and other relevant work by Yale CEA teams, past and present.

publications

Yale CEA

publications

Mandi Pretorius, Inhyeong Jeon, Monica Martinez-Fausto, Nick Novelli, Jorge Luis Galindo Arevalo, Eric Ryberg, Melanie M. Derby, Jae-Hong Kim, and Anna Dyson

Building-integrated Solar Water Disinfection System for Reliable Year-round Drinking Water Safety

npj Clean Water (2026) https://doi.org/10.1038/s41545-025-00539-2

Phoebe Mankiewicz Ledins, Christina Ciardullo, Chunxu Huang, Patrick Pease, Tian Ma, Rebecca Rubright, Charlotte Welch, Michelle L. Bell, Nusrat Jung, Krystal J. Godri Pollitt, Elizabeth Hénaff, Anna Dyson

Assessing building-integrated bioremediation infrastructure within the context of unsustainable rising atmospheric CO2

Energy and Buildings (2026) https://doi.org/10.1016/j.enbuild.2026.118160

De los Ríos, Alejandra Acevedo, Damien Claeys, and Nikitas A. Assimakopoulos.

Anticipating Socio-Ecological Impacts of Artificial Intelligence

Springer, Proceedings of the 12th International UES-EUS Congress

Alejandra Acevedo-De-los-Ríos *, Anna Dyson , Damien Claeys , Ursula Cardenas-Mamani

Systemic operative framework to support the integration of urban agriculture and socio-ecological resilience in informal settlements: A dynamic urban metabolism approach to food security

Ecological Modelling 519 (2026): 111632.

Sarmiento-Pastor, Jaime, Andrés Lira-Chirif, Daniel R. Rondinel-Oviedo, Naomi Keena, Anna Dyson, Marco Raugei, and Alejandra Acevedo-De-los-Ríos

Implications of circular strategies on energy, water, and GHG emissions in informal housing in Lima

Energy & Buildings 344 (2025) 115949

Alejandra Acevedo-De-los-Ríos, Favio R. Chumpitaz-Requena, Daniel R. Rondinel-Oviedo. Úrsula Cárdenas-Mamani, Johan Manuel Redondo

Exploring the urban systemic scenarios of improving socioecological conditions in an informal settlement of a developing country with a system dynamics model

Environmental Science and Policy 169 (2025) 104079

Alejandra Acevedo-De-los-Ríos, Anna Dyson, Damien Claeys, Ursula Cardenas-Mamani

Environmental performance of urban agriculture in the global south: A comprehensive literature review and life cycle analysis approach

Environmental Impact Assessment Review 115 (2025): 108040. https://doi-org.yale.idm.oclc.org/10.1016/j.eiar.2025.108040

Phoebe Mankiewicz Ledins, Chandrima Bhattacharya, Anna Dyson and Elizabeth Hénaff

Growing indoor environmental infrastructure: designing for microbial diversity with implications for pollutant metabolism and human health

Research Directions: Biotechnology Design , Volume 2 , 2024 , e5. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/btd.2024.4

Phoebe Mankiewicz Ledins, Elizabeth Z. Lin, Chandrima Bhattacharya, Krystal J. Godri Pollitt, Anna H. Dyson and Elizabeth M. Hénaff

A deployable film method to enable replicable sampling of low-abundance environmental microbiomes

Scientific Reports 14, 23857 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-024-72341-y

Farming Secure Water: Resituating the Water-Energy-Food Nexus within Recombinant Building Envelopes, by Mandi Pretorius & Anna Dyson in Fabricate 2024

Fabricate 2024: Creating Resourceful Futures, edited by Phil Ayres, Mette Ramsgaard Thomsen, Bob Sheil & Marilena Skavara. UCL Press

Naomi Keena, Daniel R. Rondinel-Oviedo, Alejandra Acevedo De-los-Ríos, Jaime Sarmiento-Pastor, Andr´es Lira-Chirif, Marco Raugei, Anna Dyson

Implications of circular strategies on energy, water, and GHG emissions in housing of the Global North and Global South

Cleaner Engineering and Technology 17 (2023) 100684

United Nations Environment Programme Global Report

Building Materials and the Climate: Constructing a New Future.

UNEP & Yale CEA. Lead Authors: Anna Dyson, Naomi Keena, Mae-ling Lokko, Barbara K. Reck, Christina Ciardullo.

Phoebe Mankiewicz, Aleca Borsuk, Christina Ciardullo, Elizabeth Hénaff, and Anna Dyson

Developing design criteria for active green wall bioremediation performance: Growth media selection shapes plant physiology, water and air flow patterns

Energy & Buildings (2022) Vol. 260, Pages 111913, DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.enbuild.2022.111913

Eflux Publication: Hot Air Rising by Mae-ling Lokko

E-Flux Digestion

United Nations Environment Programme

2022 Global Status Report for Buildings and Construction

Yale CEA joins UNEP's Global Alliance for Buildings and Construction in Releasing Updates towards Zero Emission Futures for the Built Environment

Mae-ling Lokko

Colonization of Air. In Nature of Enclosure, edited by Jeffrey Nesbitt. Actar Publishers.

Actar Publishers

Christina Ciardullo; Andreas Theodoridis; Phoebe Mankeiwitz; Mohamed Aly Etman; Anna Dyson. (2022)

Evolving Frameworks Towards Identifying Challenges and Opportunities of Indoor Vegetation Systems

ASHRAE Topical Conference Proceedings (2022)

Iffat Ridwana and Mae-ling Lokko

Investigating scales of performance: Ecomanufacturing of mycelium biocomposites in an informal settlement in Dhaka, Bangladesh.

ARCC 2021 Conference: Performative Environments

Mae-ling Lokko

Eflux Publication: Coconut Diaries by Mae-ling Lokko

E-Flux Survivance

Lokko, Mae-ling and Gustavo Crembil

The Architectural Design Studio as a Site for Investigating Comparative Models of Transatlantic, Academic-Industrial Partnership

Folio Journal of African Architecture Vol 2

Mae-ling Lokko and Alexandra Rempel

Intrinsic Evaporative Cooling and Weather-Responsive Natural Ventilation for Adaptive Thermal Comfort in Tropical Buildings

International Building Physics Conference

Mae-ling Lokko and Ron Eglash

Transforming the Poor Man’s Building Block: Value Creation, Translation and Circulation for Upcycled Indigenous Building Materials

Folio Journal of African Architecture Vol 1

Naomi Keena, Marco Raugei, Mae-ling Lokko, Mohamed Aly Etman, Vicky Achnani, Barbara Reck, Anna Dyson (2022)

A Life-Cycle Approach to Investigate the Potential of Novel Biobased Construction Materials toward a Circular Built Environment

Energies (2022)

Phoebe Mankiewicz, Christina Ciardullo, Andreas Theodoridis, Elizabeth Hénaff + Anna Dyson (In review 2021).

Indoor Environmental Parameters: Considering Measures of Microbial Ecology in the Characterization of Indoor Air Quality

The ASHRAE Journal (2021)

Nick Novelli, Justin Shultz, Anna Dyson + Mohamed Aly Etman (In review 2021)

"Distributed sensing for indoor environments: Comparing measured and simulated indoor airflow data for complex commercial building interiors"

Proceedings of BS2021. Building Simulation 2021, Bruges (2021)

Marco Raugei, Naomi Keena, Nick Novelli, Mohamed Aly Etman + Anna Dyson (2021)

Life cycle assessment of an ecological living module equipped with conventional rooftop or integrated concentrating photovoltaics.

Journal of Industrial Ecology (2021)

Nick Novelli, Kenton Phillips, Justin Shultz, Melanie Derby, Peter Stark, Michael Jensen, J. Craft, + Anna Dyson (2021)

"Experimental Investigation of a Building Envelope-Integrated, Transparent Concentrating Photovoltaic and Thermal Collector."

Renewable Energy (2021)

Nick Novelli, Justin Shultz, Mohamed Aly Etman, Kenton Phillips, Michael Jensen, Jason Vollen + Anna Dyson (In review 2021)

Towards Energy-Positive Buildings Through a Quality-Matched Energy Flow Strategy

Proceedings of SDEWES. SDEWES, Dobrovnik (2021)

Nick Novelli, Justin Shultz, Mohamed Aly Etman, Kenton Phillips, Melanie Derby, Peter Stark, Michael Jensen + Anna Dyson (In review 2021)

System-scale modeling of a building envelope-Integrated, transparent concentrating photovoltaic and thermal collector

Proceedings of IBPC. International Building Physics Conference, Copenhagen (2021)

Mohamed Aly Etman, Naomi Keena + Anna Dyson (2020, November)

Socio-Ecological Visual Analytics Environment “SEVA”: A novel visual analytics environment for interdisciplinary decision-making linking human biometrics and environmental data

In IOP Conference Series: Earth and Environmental Science (Vol. 588, No. 3, p. 032062). IOP Publishing (2020)

Anna Dyson, Naomi Keena, Alan Organschi, Lisa Gray, Nick Novelli, Kipp Bradford + Mark Radka (2020, November)

Built Environment Ecosystems Framework towards Sustainable Urban Housing Infrastructure

In IOP Conference Series: Earth and Environmental Science (Vol. 588, No. 4, p. 042027). IOP Publishing (2020)

Nick Novelli, Kenton Phillips, Justin Shultz, Melanie Derby, Peter Stark, Michael Jensen, Jesse Craft + Anna Dyson (2020)

Experimental Investigation of a Building Envelope-Integrated, Transparent Concentrating Photovoltaic and Thermal Collector

In Proceedings of SDEWES. Cologne (2020)

Naomi Keena, Mohamed Aly Etman + Anna Dyson (2021)

Mapping the Built Environment Process (BEP) Ecosystem via a Data to Knowledge Framework

In Proceedings of the 2020 AIA/ACSA Intersections Research Conference: Carbon. Pennsylvania State University, virtual conference (2020)

Naomi Keena + Anna Dyson (2020)

State of play for circular built environment in North America. A report compiling the regional state of play for circularity in the built environment in North America across the United States of America.

Yale Center for Ecosystems in Architecture, Yale University and United Nations One Planet Network Sustainable Buildings and Construction Programme (2020)

Anna Dyson, Naomi Keena, Alan Organschi, Lisa Gray, Nick Novelli, Kipp Bradford, Mohamed Aly Etman, Matt Gindlesparger, Hind Wildman, Jonathan Duwyn, Martina Otto, Sophie Loran, Catherine Beltrandi + Mark Radka (2020)

Built Environment Ecosystems Framework towards Sustainable Urban Housing Infrastructure.

Proceedings of the World Sustainable Built Environment Conference, 9 (2020)

Naomi Keena, Marco Raugei + Anna Dyson (2019)

The Benefit of Integrating Emergy Synthesis and LCA towards More Comprehensive Analysis of Advanced Building Systems.

In Emergy Synthesis 10, Proceedings of the 10th Biennial Emergy Conference (2019)

Naomi Keena, Marco Raugei, Mohamed Aly Etman, Daniel Ruan + Anna Dyson (2018)

Clark’s Crow: A design plugin to support emergy analysis decision making towards sustainable urban ecologies.

Ecological Modelling, 367, 42-57 (2018)

Nick Novelli, Brandon Andow, Scott Overall, Christopher Morse + Mohamed Aly Etman (2018)

Toplighting Technology for Transient Spaces

In Proceedings of the International Building Physics Conference. Syracuse, NY (2018)

Nick Novelli, Robert Gordon, + Igor Varfolomeev (2018)

Separating Direct from Diffuse: Observations of Visible Transmittance through a Tracking Photovoltaic Envelope

In Facade Tectonics Institute 2018 World Congress Proceedings Volume 2, 355–64. Los Angeles (2018)

Jayamary Divya Ravichandar, Anna Dyson, Cynthia H. Collins (2017)

Phylogenetic and Functional Profiling of the Microbiome Associated with a Phytoremediation System Targeting Air Quality in the Built Environment

AIChE Annual Meeting, 2017

Mae-Ling Lokko, Anna Dyson + Alexandra Rempel (2017)

Development of Affordable Building Materials Using Agricultural Waste By-Products and Emerging Pith, Soy and Mycelium Biobinders.

PLEA 2016 Los Angeles: Towards Regenerative Environments (2017)

Eli Lichter-Mark, Mohamed Aly Etman + Anna Dyson (2017)

Simulation of building integrated solar energy storage system in hot humid climates

PLEA 2016 Los Angeles: Towards Regenerative Environments (2017)

Naomi Keena, Mohamed Aly Etman, Josh Draper, Paulo Pinheiro + Anna Dyson (2017)

Interactive Visualization for Interdisciplinary Research

Electronic Imaging 2016, no. 1,1-7 (2017)

Keena, N., Aly M., Diniz, N., Rempel A., Dyson A. (2017)

Towards an Emergy Evaluation Framework to Visualize and Map Emergy and Material Flows of Built Environment Life Cycle Analysis

In Proceedings of the 9th biennial emergy conference. Center for Environmental Policy, University of Florida Gainesville, FL (2017)

Mohamed Aly Etman, Naomi Keena + Anna Dyson (2017)

A New Parametric Framework: Developing Design Options in Real Time

Edinburgh: 33rd International Conference on Passive and Low Energy Architecture. Design to Thrive. (2017)

Anna Dyson, Naomi Keena, Mohamed Aly Etman + McCusker, J (2017)

Data Visualization Framework.

Poster and Demonstration at the Grand Challenges Meeting, Washington D.C. (2017)

Naomi Keena + Anna Dyson (2017)

Qualifying the quantitative in the construction of built ecologies.

Embodied energy and design (pp. 196-205). New York: Columbia University GSAPP Lars Müller (2017)

Berardo Matalucci, Kenton Phillips, Walf, A., Anna Dyson + Josh Draper (2017)

An experimental design framework for the personalization of indoor microclimates through feedback loops between responsive thermal systems and occupant biometrics.

International Journal of Architectural Computing, 15(1), 54-69 (2017)

Kenton Phillips, Alexandra Rempel + Anna Dyson (2017)

A Solar Thermal Diurnal Cooling Strategy for Net-Zero Energy Buildings

PLEA 2016 Los Angeles - 36th International Conference on Passive and Low Energy Architecture. Cities, Buildings, People: Towards Regenerative Environments (2017)

Naomi Keena, Brennen, A. + Anna Dyson (2017)

Visualization with the Data Journey Platform.

Presentation at Grand Challenges Meeting, Washington D.C. (2017)

C.W. Letchford, D.C. Lander, P. Case, A. Dyson, M. Amitay (2017)

Bio-mimicry inspired tall buildings: The response of cactus-like buildings to wind action

Reynolds Number of 104, Journal of Wind Engineering and Industrial Aerodynamics, Volume 150, Pages 22-30 (2017)

Elise Patton, Jayamary Divya Ravichandar, Matthew Urschel, Kristin Bennett, Anna Dyson, Rogers, K., Claire Collins + McGuinness, D. (2016)

Augmenting Functional Microbiome Research using a Semantically-Enabled Analytical Infrastructure

In Proceedings of the Bio-Ontologies 2016 conference. International Society for computational biology (2016)

Naomi Keena, Mohamed Aly Etman, Josh Draper, Paulo Pinheiro + Anna Dyson (2016)

Interactive Visualization for Interdisciplinary Research

Electronic Imaging, no. 1,1-7 (2016)

Chris Letchford, Daniel Lander, Peter Case, Anna Dyson + Michael Amitay (2016)

Bio-mimicry inspired tall buildings: The response of cactus-like buildings to wind action.

Reynolds Number of 10x4, Journal of Wind Engineering and Industrial Aerodynamics, Volume 150, Pages 22-30. (2016)

Nick Novelli, Justin Shultz + Anna Dyson (2015)

Development of a Modeling Strategy for Adaptive Multifunctional Solar Energy Building Envelope Systems

Symposium on Simulation for Architecture and Urban Design (SimAUD), Washington DC, April 2015. Society for Computer Simulation International (2015)

Building Integrated Concentrating Solar Facade and The Active Modular Phytoremediation System

Architecture and Urbanism (2015)

Bess Krietemeyer, Brandon Andow + Anna Dyson (2015)

A computational design framework supporting human interaction with environmentally-responsive building envelopes

International Journal of Architectural Computing 13.1 (2015): 1-24

Shane Ida Smith + Anna Dyson (2015)

Framework for Tetra-functional Control of Viscoelastic Molecular Entropy in Biopolymeric Hydrogel Dynamics for Environmentally Responsive Metabolic Processes in Morphological Architectural Membranes.