Graduate level carbon-neutral design studio requires a trans-disciplinary approach to design similar to integrated practice. It should be stressed that designers need to put simple and effective passive strategies into place before considering active and mechanical solutions. The designer needs to take responsibility for the ultimate performance of the project, so should extensively model and refine the design using many available and appropriate tools. All scales must be considered from regional to site, to building, to detail. And all building systems must be integrated. A beautiful result should be achieved, otherwise it isn’t loved or sustainable.
I find that these projects work best when interdisciplinary respect is encouraged. Master planning, programming, site analysis and conceptual design (all the early on activities) are best for interdisciplinary teams… sorta like integrated design in practice. In the 2006 studio teams developed program, did research and site analysis, and created a master plan during the first 8 weeks of the studio. During the later 8 weeks each individual developed a bit of the master plan as his/her comprehensive design project. This studio was exceptionally successful. I wrote a PLEA paper about the comparison of the studios, which I up loaded to your site earlier this fall. (see Resources)
Toward a Carbon Neutral Future: McCall Field Campus
(SYLLABUS excerpt)
This project is undertaken in response to Ed Mazria’s challenge to the architecture profession to produce carbon neutral buildings by 2030. His case is well-articulated on his web site www.architecture2030.com. Both the AIA and the Association of US Mayors have endorsed Mazria’s challenge. Mazria reckons that each year in the U.S. we tear down about 1.75 billion square feet; renovate 5 billion, and build 5 billion. Therefore, in 30 years 300 billion square feet will be renovated or built new; about 75% of the built environment. If this is accomplished with carbon in mind, global warming can be controlled.
Our studio will be one of the first in the country to take up Mazria’s challenge. In the recently released AIA COTE report Ecology and Design, when asked by students to recommend a place to study green architecture, Randy Croxton FAIA noted, “I can only give partial recommendations since the progress that has been made is usually in partial content of the main design studio, or more likely, a separate course or activity. Until there are faculty who have fully integrated sustainability as a central design value, an inherent dimension of design excellence in the design studio, there will be no good answer to this request.” ...
Synoptic View
“To affect the quality of the day, that is the highest of arts.” (Henry David Thoreau).
Increasingly, designers are engaged in projects that transcend the specificity of the projects themselves in their impact. We are becoming progressively more aware of the mutual global, cultural, economic, environmental, and technological impacts of and on our design and planning decisions. We are also gaining perspective and momentum as we respond to the complexity inherent in real design scenarios. This complexity demands that we become intentional in our interdisciplinary pursuits as we approach a design problem, define and articulate it, explore its depths and expanses, and envision alternative solutions. Through this engagement with a problem, care must be taken not to become hindered by boundaries of disciplinary knowledge and expertise, but rather allow the freedom of exploration to emerge from an integrated open systems approach; conceptualizing the work of the team as a whole as an eco-system, where boundaries become blurred, interdependencies abound, and a dynamic and flexible reconfiguration of roles occur.
Of particular interest at this point of time are issues dealing with our sense of place, place identity, security, access, sustainability, and participation. This semester we will explore ways to create places that enrich the soul and imagination while simultaneously solving real design problems, be cognizant of regenerative design schemes, and employ an interdisciplinary perspective to address contemporary societal concerns. At this point of your academic journey, you have acquired skills and perspective that will assist you in lending expertise to and learning from an interdisciplinary conversation.
This phase simulates the work of an integrated practice where architects, interior designers, and landscape architects and their clients and consultants initiate a project and develop its master plan. We’ll work with Steve Drown’s LArch459 students and Rula Awwad-Rafferty’s ID451 students as well as with our client group and carbon-neutral collaborators. ...
TEACHING TOPICS PROFILED
1. Integrated Master Plan
Prepare a well-integrated master plan for the site. Form a collaborative team to set goals and create the plan. The final master plan is presented by the team in a studio critique.
2. Daylighting Performance
Design for good daylighting performance. Use Ecotect software to predict daylight levels for morning, noon, and afternoon for all seasons. Document the investigation. Make sure daylight levels are adequate and cooling season sunlight penetration is controlled.
3. Integrated Building Enclosure
Design an integrated building enclosure that uses appropriate materials and model the enclosure in three dimensions, develop connection details, and make sure that the envelop is fully insulated, daylighting and natural ventilation are allowed, and appropriate materials are used.
4. Integration of Systems
Design for integration of systems, opting for passive systems first with active/mechanical systems as well-integrated back-ups. Use sectional drawings to demonstrate strategies. Ecotect was used to model thermal and lighting systems and procedures from The Green Studio Handbook were used to size the cistern.
5. Sustainable Building
Design a sustainable building. Analyze the strengths and weaknesses of twenty-two facets of the design. Use the SBSE Regeneration-Based Checklist for Design and Construction as the evaluation tool.
6. Complimentary Daylighting and Ventilation System
Design complementary daylighting and ventilation systems. Model the proposed design iteratively in HEED to refine its thermal and lighting strategies. Use HEED to compare the performance of the proposed design to a similar design that simply meets code.
7. Storm Water Management
Design for responsible storm water management. Design roofs to drain to cisterns. The building’s metal roof was designed to make the water collection apparent and an aesthetic statement. Perform cistern sizing calculations using techniques in InsideOut or The Green Studio Handbook. Show how the system is integrated with other technical systems and design aesthetics.
8. Affordable Housing: Local Underutilized Materials
Use local and underutilized materials to reduce cost and carbon. Research availability of local underutilized materials. Opaque software from UCLA was used to model the thermal properties of the wall, while HEED was used to model the thermal performance of the building.
9. Affordable Housing: Small Lots/Small Enclosures
Develop a master plan that doubles the density of an existing neighborhood while holding individual floor plans to 800 sq.ft. or less.
Structure of Project within the Design Studio
