Pedagogy Overview, Philosophy and Strategies

Fall 2007 Arch. 451: Architecture Design V (UG) Carbon Neutral Studio

Keelan Kaiser, AIA
Professor of Architecture
Interim Chair, Division of Art, Design and Architecture
Judson College
kkaise@artic.edu

This course is located at the fourth year in a six-year degree program. The course is typically structured as a five-week sustainable neighborhood design problem followed by a ten-week building design problem.

I take a rules of thumb approach to “teaching” CND principles in the studio. We need as much land as the footprint of the building for on-site water management, we need to provide roughly the same square feet of PV as gross square feet of facility (in Chicago, IL) in order to approach zero net energy, and so on. Studio pedagogy is as diverse a subject as one could imagine in academia, so my interest is not so much synthesizing a universal approach to CND as it is to hone in on the handful of “first principles” and ensure that students have grasped their importance before beginning future studios...

Program Statement

A 30,000 g.s.f. Magnet High School with an emphasis in Ecology, this program follows an earlier city plan to locate a new school in this area. The neighborhood site is within city and infrastructure, but vacant. The sites sit along the Fox River and include riparian connections.

The neighborhood and building were chosen because of the perceived need to have the students think beyond the perimeter of the building shell when considering the macro scale issues with CND. Since the building would need to be 2-3 stories, PV would not solve the energy needs entirely.

We also looked at health and welfare issues in conjunction with energy issues (e.g. natural ventilation for improved IAQ, passive solar and daylighting, on-site food production, integrated vegetation, etc. (i.e. Kellert: Building for Life).

An ulterior motive was to use the products of the class to educate the local community in sustainable architecture, envisioning this neighborhood being a low-impact alternative to suburban Greenfield development.

The hope was that this would stimulate discussion among the city council and development community to consider the opportunities to develop mixed-use density within the existing city core. Some progress resulted, and the city has a Sustainable City Masterplan RFP out. I would like to think that some of this work has played a small role in encouraging this thinking in city leadership.

CLIMATE TYPE PROFILE

X-Large – residential and mixed use neighborhood land planning/urban design

Large – School building type - Elgin, Illinois

The project will respond to NAAB (CACB) Student Performance Criteria

#15. Sustainable Design
Understanding of the principles of sustainability in making architecture and urban design decisions that conserve natural and built resources, including culturally important buildings and sites, and in the creation of healthful buildings and communities

#17: Site Conditions
Ability to respond to natural and built site characteristics in the development of a program and the design of a project

#19: Environmental Systems
Understanding of the basic principles and appropriate application and performance of environmental systems, including acoustical, lighting, and climate modification systems, and energy use, integrated with the building envelope

#21: Building Envelope Systems
Understanding of the basic principles and appropriate application and performance of building envelope materials and assemblies

#28: Comprehensive Design
Ability to produce a comprehensive architectural project based on a building program and site that includes development of programmed spaces demonstrating an understanding of structural and environmental systems, building envelope systems, life-safety provisions, wall sections and building assemblies and the principles of sustainability (to a more limited degree given the beginning design nature of the course projects)

TEACHING TOPICS PROFILED
1. Building Massing/Site Design
This topic is a critical first step. The building massing must address passive solar as a foundational site opportunity.

2. Indoor Air Quality
The objective then, for the design studio, is for the students to demonstrate that 1) air can move through the environments they have created without relying on fans, and 2) they understand some of the barriers to designing for fresh air.

3. Daylighting, Passive Solar and Solar Control
This topic combines two primary exercises. The first objective is to provide for passive solar gain in during a 5-6 month period of the year to lessen heating demand. The second objective is to integrate effective daylighting in conjunction with the passive solar strategy.

4. Building Integrated Photovoltaics
Combine photovoltaics as an on-site renewable energy strategy with the built form of the studio project.

5. Adaptive Reuse (Alternative Approach 1)
Using existing building stock, transform a building from its original use to a new use as a means of limiting new construction to demolition redesign of existing infrastructure and finishes as needed.

6. Neighborhood Design (Alternative Approach 2)
Design a green community development plan on an existing municipal site.

THE TEACHING TOPICS IN THE CONTEXT OF THE COURSE
Since it is a studio it is hard to partition the decision making flow from one topic to another. They are all introduced and investigated simultaneously. Granted this is senior level and graduate work, so the mature student is able to manage these issues simultaneously better than a beginning or intermediate level student. The neighborhood design actually comes first in the sequence to set the stage for a larger view of sustainable design, then the building project follows with the four topics covered here.

This course is located at the fourth year in a six-year degree program. The course is typically structured as a five-week sustainable neighborhood design problem followed by a ten-week building design problem.

• compilation PDF

• course outline