LVF Lab
Established in 2021, LVF Lab addresses complex environmental challenges through design research, integrating academic study with practical application in built projects.
Focused on nature-based infrastructure, our research develops implementable approaches that range from plant adaptation management methods for coastal change to novel digital design tools that enable rapid iteration with hydraulic modeling.
Who We Are
LVF Lab is a team of professional researchers and licensed practitioners who excel at identifying knowledge gaps, formulating targeted questions and developing practical solutions.
LVF Partner Michael Luegering is also Co-Director of the Natural Infrastructure Lab at the University of Virginia, which enables us to test design ideas in real time and at scale, providing results that can be seamlessly implemented into our design work.
Areas of research focus
Environmental Dynamics Analysis
To design with a changing system, LVF Lab collaborates with an array of specialist to develop iterative analysis and design methods that enable fluid design development. We specialize in working in wet conditions, in tight coordination with Hydraulics and Hydrology experts.
Adaptive Management
When Nature-Based Infrastructure is at its best, it should change in form and space to guide the evolution of environmental systems. To enable these transformations and address new conditions, strategic adaptive management is a vital part of the design process. LVF Lab works with governmental agencies to study an array of properties exhibited by plants and substrate that can be manipulated to enhance currently known best practices.
Monitoring
For state and federal agencies to fully buy in to Nature Based Infrastructure implementation, there must be effective ways to monitor the evolution of these environmental systems. LVF Lab work with a host of specialists ranging from remote sensing to spectroscopy to plant sciences to develop novel methods of tracking and mapping. This mapping includes discrete plant species, sediment as well as water and wet landscapes.