About

Michael Garrison is a Professor at the University of Texas at Austin School of Architecture, where he holds the Cass Gilbert Centennial Teaching Fellowship in Architecture. He earned a Bachelor of Architecture degree from Louisiana State University and a Master of Architecture degree from Rice University. Since joining the faculty in 1975, his research has focused on green building design, with particular attention to the building sector’s contribution to global warming and ways to mitigate negative impacts through sustainable architecture practices. Prof. Garrison has authored several books on building envelopes and passive solar design, and has been the principal investigator on numerous research grants from agencies such as the U.S. Department of Energy, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, and the National Park Service. His work includes innovative concepts like Microclimate Regionalism, Double-Box Building Configurations, and Passive Solar Isolated-gain Solar Greenhouses. He has also led student design projects that have won multiple awards and competitions, including the Solar Decathlon. In addition to his research and teaching, Prof. Garrison has been actively involved in professional and community service, including serving as a founding member of the City of Austin Downtown Commission and chairing the City of Austin Resource Management Commission.

Research topics

• Geology
• Computer Science
• Political Science
• Astronomy
• Cell biology
• Astrobiology
• Linguistics
• Physics
• Biology
• Remote sensing
• Ecology
• Environmental science

Selected publications

• L’Ralph: A Visible/Infrared Spectral Imager for the Lucy Mission to the Trojans

  Space Science Reviews · 2023 · 14 citations

  • Remote sensing
  • Astronomy
  • Physics

  Abstract The Lucy Mission to the Trojan asteroids in Jupiter’s orbit carries an instrument named L’Ralph, a visible/near infrared multi-spectral imager and a short wavelength infrared hyperspectral imager. It is one of the core instruments on Lucy, NASA’s first mission to the Trojans. L’Ralph’s primary purpose is to map the surface geology and composition of these objects, but it will also be used to search for possible tenuous exospheres. It is compact, low mass (32.3 kg), power efficient (24.5 W), and robust with high sensitivity and excellent imaging. These characteristics, and its high degree of redundancy, make L’Ralph ideally suited to this long-duration multi-flyby reconnaissance mission.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Regeneration: Ending the Climate Crisis in One Generation

  Technology|Architecture + Design · 2022 · 73 citations

  1st authorCorresponding
  • Political Science
  • Environmental science
  • Political Science
  PublisherDOI

• Map Storytelling to Improve Climate Change Communication

  AGU Fall Meeting Abstracts · 2020

  1st authorCorresponding
  • Computer Science
  • Computer Science
  • Linguistics
  Publisher

• NexusHaus: UT/TUM Solar Decathlon house

  WIT transactions on ecology and the environment · 2016-09-06

  articleOpen access1st authorCorresponding

  Solar Decathlon house, is called NexusHaus because it combines UT Austin and TUM students in a modular green building that demonstrates transformative technologies in Zero Net Energy, Positive Net Water and Carbon Neutrality. The NexusHaus building configuration consists of two modular rectangular structures with layers and components attached that interact with the environment to provide a resource-efficient and affordable home. The thin width of each module allows for ease of highway transportation and the shape configuration achieves energy and spatial efficiency through indoor/outdoor living, shading, cross ventilation and daylighting. The roof mounted 6kW photovoltaic system provides for the home's power needs. And the roof canopy collects rainwater to provide for the home's water needs. The extensive use of wood in the design enables the embodied energy of the home building materials to be more carbon neutral.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• THE NEXUSHAUS: GET CONNECTED IN CENTRAL AUSTIN

  Journal of Green Building · 2015-01-01 · 4 citations

  articleOpen access

  INTRODUCTION The NexusHaus is the entry for the U.S. Department of Energy Solar Decathlon 2015 competition of the cross-cultural team The University of Texas at Austin (UT) and Technische Universität München (TUM). It demonstrates a, solar-powered and zero-water capable home designed for Central Texas. Its innovations serve as catalysts for change, leading the residential housing industry toward more sustainable practices. NexusHaus offers homeowners the chance to directly participate in the energy economy, moving from energy consumers to becoming energy producers. This potential source of rental income can be used to defray increasing property taxes. The energy and water concepts in NexusHaus make the house more marketable for property owners to a growing group of ideologically motivated people, who want to have a low-impact lifestyle. The target resident is also less interested in the total square footage of the unit but places a premium on location in a city where access to recreation and downtown is increasingly important. NexusHaus was recently voted “Best What's Next in Austin Architecture” in this year's The Austin Chronicle Best of Austin.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Designs for the Global South: a sustainable primary school in Uganda

  WIT transactions on the built environment · 2014-08-20 · 1 citations

  articleOpen access1st authorCorresponding

  Austin (UTSoA) seeking design assistance for a new rural primary school in Uganda.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• BLOOMhouse: a zero net energy house

  ARCC Conference Repository (Architectural Research Centers Consortium) · 2013-08-27

  articleOpen access1st authorCorresponding

  The 2007 University of Texas Solar Decathlon House is called the BLOOMhouse because it represents the "seed" of new ideas for zero net energy housing.The University of Texas student team developed a prefabricated 7.9 kW stand-alone solar-powered modular house that sits lightly on the land and forms the superstructure for photovoltaic technologies and a sustainable approach to the building envelope.The prefabricated house can be adapted to a specific site and modified for the needs of a different site within a different climatic zone, and client context.Recognizing that consumers look to Solar Decathlon entries for ideas of how to integrate renewable energy technologies into their own homes this house will serve as a working example to homeowners, homebuilders, and architects.The Solar Decathlon is an international initiative and University competition sponsored by the U.S. Department of Energy, designed to stimulate research, industry and education to advance renewable energy technologies, with a specific focus on building-integrated photovoltaics.Now entering its fourth cycle, the Decathlon provides a unique opportunity to envision, fabricate and test the possibilities of highly efficient modern dwellings.Our team of architecture and engineering faculty and students under the direction of Professor Michael Garrison, Professor Samantha Randall, Professor Atila Novoselac, and Lecturer Russell Krepart constructed a completely stand-alone solar-powered home that serves as a catalyst for change, leading the residential housing industry toward more sustainable practices while addressing the need for well designed, appropriately diverse, economically viable, and environmentally responsible housing.Through use of solar power and energy efficient design, this project offers homeowners the means to directly participate in the energy economy, moving from energy consumers to energy producers.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• A regenerative high-rise tower in Shreveport, Louisiana for community renewal international

  WIT transactions on ecology and the environment · 2010-09-28

  articleOpen access1st authorCorresponding

  Zero Net Energy Buildings are increasingly being designed and constructed in response to the demand for sustainable buildings. But, we must now go beyond merely sustaining our environment for future generations we must provide regenerative designs that restore our natural environment. This paper will document the design of a regenerative high-rise tower in Shreveport, Louisiana, which will serve as a facility to train individuals in a non-profit organization's renewal strategies and demonstrate by example the pedagogy of regenerative design.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• A Regenerative High-Rise Tower in Shreveport, Louisiana

  OakTrust (Texas A&M University Libraries) · 2010-08-01

  articleOpen access1st authorCorresponding

  Zero Net Energy Buildings are increasingly being designed and constructed in response to the demand for sustainable buildings. But, we must now go beyond merely sustaining our environment for future generations we must provide regenerative designs that restore our natural environment. This paper will document the design of a regenerative high-rise tower in Shreveport, Louisiana, which will serve as a facility to train individuals in a non-profit organization’s renewal strategies and demonstrate by example the pedagogy of regenerative design. The 16-story structure — built in the 1950s and named the Petroleum Tower, reflecting the commodity that then ruled the local economy — was vacant and asbestos-laden when given to the non-profit Community Renewal International (CRI) in 2001. In 2006, funded by a grant from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, workers removed the asbestos. Through a follow up grant from the U.S. Department of Energy to support the design process of a new CRI headquarters building, the University of Texas at Austin School of Architecture completed architectural design studies for the building renewal. The principles of this new design include: day lighting, envelope configuration, building integrated photovoltaic systems, green surfaces, ventilation strategies, advanced mechanical cooling systems, regenerative elevator systems, energy management systems, water harvesting, grey water systems, trigeneration systems and a combined heating, hot water and power biodiesel plant.

  Publisher

• Integrating energy performance software into Arc 334L; Environmental Controls II

  Texas ScholarWorks (Texas Digital Library) · 2010-06-21

  article1st authorCorresponding

  This paper contains reviews of various software packages designed to allow architects and engineers to analyze the functional and energy performance of a building. The reviews were conducted to facilitate the integration of new energy performance software into the Environmental Controls II course (ARC334L), offered by the UT School of Architecture. The applications considered include: gbXML, Manual J, Rhvac, Google SketchUp solar shading analysis, eQUEST, and Rainwater Calculator (for analyzing rainwater harvesting systems).

  Publisher

Frequent coauthors

• Atila Novoselac

  The University of Texas at Austin

  2 shared

• Russell Krepart

  The University of Texas at Austin

  2 shared

• Petra Liedl

  2 shared

• Adam Pyrek

  The University of Texas at Austin

  2 shared

• S. D. Wall

  University of KwaZulu-Natal

  1 shared

• Aaron Dingler

  1 shared

• Sean McCormick

  1 shared

• Carolyn Fish

  University of Oregon

  1 shared

Labs

• Materials LabPI

Awards & honors

• NCARB Education Honor Award (2005)