UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — The Pennsylvania Housing Research Center (PHRC), housed in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at Penn State, will host two concurrent conferences on March 27-28 at The Penn Stater Hotel and Conference Center, with two full days of educational panels, talks, exhibits and events.
The research-focused seventh biennial Residential Building Design & Construction Conference (RBDCC) will provide an academic forum for researchers, architects, engineers and other design professionals to share state-of-the-art technologies and groundbreaking developments in their fields. The annual PHRC Housing Conference will bring together all sectors of the housing industry to highlight best practices, regulation and innovation.
Attendees are encouraged to mix and match sessions from either conference with no additional registration or fees required. Wednesday’s “Networking on the Exhibit Floor” event will offer opportunities for attendees of both conferences to network; enjoy exhibits from product manufacturers, suppliers and professional services; and see highlights from various student competition teams.
RBDCC presentations and posters are based on submitted abstracts and peer-reviewed papers, which become a part of the published conference proceedings and are available online as a free service to the public. The RBDCC will feature two keynote speakers. Vivian Loftness, the Paul Mellon Chair in Carnegie Mellon University’s School of Architecture, will speak on “Environmental Surfing at Home for a Resilient Future” on the morning of March 27. Graham Finch, senior building science specialist at RDH Building Science Inc., will present “Lessons in the Development of Innovative Prefabricated Façades for Mass Timber Buildings” on the morning of March 28.