Architect Alison Kwok's research looks at adaptive and mitigation strategies for climate change, materials and carbon, thermal comfort, natural ventilation in tropical schools, building performance post-occupancy evaluation, zero net energy strategies and building energy metrics. She believes that the integration of these architectural issues yields better buildings. 

Kwok is a professor in the Department of Architecture at the University of Oregon. She is the Director of the Technical Teaching Certificate program, the NetZED Laboratory, and is co-director of the Ph.D. program.
Kwok's current research examines "carbon narratives" with a grant from the TallWood Design Institute and schools research on teaching and learning with the California School Facilities Research Institute. She has guided projects with the Northwest Energy Efficiency Alliance; US Green Building Council (USGBC), Passive House Institute US, American Society of Heating Refrigeration and Air-Conditioning Engineers (ASHRAE), American Institute of Architects (AIA) and was principal investigator of the Agents of Change project, funded by the U.S. Department of Education Fund for the Improvement of Post-Secondary Education (FIPSE). She has served as board member for the Architectural Research Centers Consortium; past-president of the Society of Building Science Educators; member of several ASHRAE committees; and the USGBC鈥檚 Formal Education Committee. Her students have also participated with her in design charrettes, workshops, and presentations in China, England, Japan, Korea, and Singapore.

Kwok's publications include Mechanical and Electrical Equipment for Buildings, 13th ed. (with co-author Walter Grondzik) affectionately known as 鈥淢EEB鈥� a preeminent teaching and practice reference for building environmental control systems. The Green Studio Handbook 3rd ed. (also co-authored with Walter Grondzik) provides forty-three selected environmental strategies including a description of principles and concepts, step-by-step procedures for integrating the strategy, and 10 case studies demonstrating how it all goes together. Passive House Details: Solutions for High Performance Design, introduces the concepts, principles, and design processes of building ultralow-energy buildings.