The Prince Charitable Trusts, a private foundation active in Chicago, Washington DC, and Rhode Island has awarded the Chicago-based Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat (CTBUH) a grant to move forward its ambitious plans to increase the funding and frequency of research on high density urban developments. The CTBUH has embarked on an effort through its Research, Academic and Postgraduate Working Group to develop tools and activities that connect urban researchers with research opportunities. In addition, the working group hopes to foster more collaboration in the field with a goal of making cutting edge technologies available more quickly.

The position of the CTBUH is that high density developments, especially tall buildings, are a very viable solution to issues such as fast growing urban populations, inefficient land use, and unsustainable growth and energy consumption. With a grant from The Prince Charitable Trusts, the CTBUH’s working group will develop an on-line database that will centralize information relevant to researchers such as funding sources and current global research efforts in the field. The first draft of the database is expected to go live in the second quarter of 2012.

CTBUH Chairman Timothy Johnson of NBBJ Architects responded to the news by stating:

“This is truly a wonderful affirmation of our work and we deeply appreciate the generosity of the Prince Charitable Trusts which has a long track record of making critical investments in solutions to the difficult issues that plague communities. Our Research Working Group is one of the most active and committed teams at the CTBUH,  and I am confident that their work along with the assistance from the Prince Trusts will mark the beginning of a real and significant effort to make our communities more environmentally responsible.” 

The CTBUH Research Working Group was formed in early 2010 when more than 80 researchers from around the world convened in Venice, Italy to explore how they could increase building technology to address modern social issues and increase the safety and sustainability of urban spaces. The recommendations that came from the inaugural meeting led to the planning on the database as well as parallel efforts such as informing the public on tall building research needs and developing opportunities to seed new research projects.