Dorit Aviv, PhD, AIA, is an Assistant Professor of Architecture at the Weitzman School of Design, specializing in 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.
