Dorit Aviv, PhD, AIA, is an Assistant Professor of Architecture at the Weitzman School of Design, specializing in sustainability and environmental performance. She is also a faculty member of the Material Science and Engineering (MSE) graduate group in the School of Engineering and Applied Sciences.
She is the director of the Thermal Architecture Lab, a cross-disciplinary laboratory at the intersection of thermodynamics, architecture and material science. Her work examines paths to decarbonization of the built environment through design and policy. Specifically, she looks at the potential synergies between renewable environmental forces and architectural materials and forms, and their impact on buildings' energy performance, air quality, and human health.
Aviv's work has been supported by federal grants from the U.S. Department of Energy, the National Science foundation, and the National Park Service, as well as by industry collaborations with Microsoft, Ripple, and Armstrong World Industries. In 2024 she received a Ramboll Foundation grant to investigate architectural applications of membrane-assisted radiant cooling. In 2021 she was awarded a Holcim Award for Sustainable Design and Construction for a prototype of passive cooling in desert climate.
At Penn, she’s been the recipient of Kleinman Center research grants, Environmental Innovation Initiative grants, and a Penn4C award. Through the Penn4C collaboration, Aviv has led the development of a mobile urban cooling station to tackle the Urban Heat Island (UHI) in North Philadelphia.
Aviv holds a PhD in architectural technology (energy and computation track) from Princeton University, an M.Arch degree with a certificate in urban policy from Princeton University, and a B.Arch from The Cooper Union. Prior to Penn, she taught at The Cooper Union, Pratt Institute, and Princeton University. She is a licensed architect and has practiced in design roles at Tod Williams Billie Tsien Architects, KPF, and Atelier Raimund Abraham. She participated in the 2021 Venice Architecture Biennale, and was the co-curator of the energy pavilion in the 2017 Seoul Biennale for Architecture and Urbanism. She was a co-chair of the Association for Computer Aided Design in Architecture (ACADIA) 2022 conference.
Her research papers have been published in leading scientific journals such as Applied Energy, Indoor Air, and Urban Climate. Aviv's recent peer-reviewed publications include:
Aviv, Dorit, Kian Wee Chen, Eric Teitelbaum, Denon Sheppard, Jovan Pantelic, Adam Rysanek, and Forrest Meggers. "A fresh (air) look at ventilation for COVID-19: Estimating the global energy savings potential of coupling natural ventilation with novel radiant cooling strategies." Applied Energy 292 (2021): 116848.
Aviv, Dorit, Miaomiao Hou, Eric Teitelbaum, and Forrest Meggers. "Simulating invisible light: a model for exploring radiant cooling’s impact on the human body using raytracing." Simulation 99, no. 11 (2023): 1147-1166.
Ma, Nan, Alex Waegel, Max Hakkarainen, William W. Braham, Lior Glass, and Dorit Aviv. "Blockchain+ IoT sensor network to measure, evaluate and incentivize personal environmental accounting and efficient energy use in indoor spaces." Applied Energy 332 (2023): 120443.
Hou, Miaomiao, Dorit Aviv, Arnab Chatterjee, Eric Teitelbaum, Mohamad Rida, Forrest Meggers, and Dolaana Khovalyg. "Resolving indoor shortwave and longwave human body irradiance variations for mean radiant temperature and local thermal comfort." Energy and Buildings 301 (2023): 113581.
Aviv, Dorit, Julie Gros, Hayder Alsaad, Eric Teitelbaum, Conrad Voelker, Jovan Pantelic, and Forrest Meggers. "A Data-Driven Ray Tracing Simulation for Mean Radiant Temperature and Spatial Variations in the Indoor Radiant Field with Experimental Validation." Energy and Buildings (2021): 111585.
Aviv, Dorit, Hongshan Guo, Ariane Middel, and Forrest Meggers. "Evaluating radiant heat in an outdoor urban environment: Resolving spatial and temporal variations with two sensing platforms and data-driven simulation." Urban Climate 35 (2021): 100745.
Aviv, Dorit, Aletheia Ida, et al. “Hydrogel-Based Evaporative and Radiative Cooling Prototype for Hot-Arid Climates.” Proceedings of the Symposium on Simulation for Architecture and Urban Design, May 27 2020: 273-280.
Teitelbaum, Eric, Kian Wee Chen, Dorit Aviv et al. “Membrane-Assisted Radiant Cooling for Expanding Thermal Comfort Zones Globally without Air Conditioning.” Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, August 18, 2020, 202001678. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2001678117
Hou, Miaomiao, Jovan Pantelic, and Dorit Aviv. "Spatial analysis of the impact of UVGI technology in occupied rooms using ray‐tracing simulation." Indoor air (2021).
