Energy+Urbanism
Governor’s Chair

How can we accommodate
7 billion people living in cities
by 2050?

Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Skidmore, Owings & Merrill and the University of Tennessee have come together to form a partnership, to bring design and science together to solve the urban problems of our day.

Our Challenges

Our built environments have high dependencies on fossil fuel and face significantly outdated infrastructure. City governments and local communities confront significant hurdles in redirecting development toward a low-carbon future. In addition, our natural ecologies have been compromised and must be restored and strengthened.

Our Opportunity

The Governor’s Chair for Energy + Urbanism is a unique and unprecedented opportunity to establish “common ground” for discussing and researching innovations and next-generation technologies that lead us toward a healthy, low carbon and urban future.