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A $300,000 grant awarded to Portland State University will create an architecture research laboratory.

The money from the Los Angeles-based W.M. Keck Foundation will purchase equipment to test green building techniques, transform a space in Shattuck Hall and establish faculty fellowships.

The new lab is slated to open in September in the PSU School of Architecture, said Corey Griffin, an assistant architecture professor. He will lead the lab as part of school’s Research-based Design Initiative, which pairs graduate architecture students with local firms to conduct building science research on actual projects.

Participants in the program currently use the Green Building Research Laboratory in the Maseeh College of Engineering and Computer Science at PSU. The new architecture school lab with computers, sensors, a 3-D printer and laser-cutter will be used by these students as well as provide more research opportunities within undergraduate courses, Griffin said. Lessons will be developed in the lab, which he is hopeful will be used by the university’s engineering and urban planning programs.

The grant money will go toward efforts to expand the successful Research-based Design Initiative model, where architecture firms have gleaned information for design decisions through student research using university equipment and computer modeling software, Griffin said.

鈥淭he lab is really interested in increasing interest in research-based design,鈥� he said.