Sustainable Design: A new building for the Organic Farm

What defines "sustainable building?" How are buildings shaped by environmental concerns, materials and systems choices, communities of users and builders, and time/budget constraints? What building systems and construction techniques are currently used to build environmentally friendly buildings? How are these alternatives, green or sustainable, incorporated during the design process?

This program offers students an opportunity to be significantly involved in advancing a design for a new teaching and learning facility for the College's Organic Farm, recently funded by the State Legislature. Students will build on existing information and ideas for the project and will develop programming and schematic designs in consultation with the various user groups of the Farm-the College community, Facilities staff, and the architects and engineers that will oversee the project. Students will engage in all aspects of the design process, and will learn about sustainable site and building design principles, community engagement in design, along with environmentally responsive and responsible building technologies and construction practices.

Students should be prepared to generate and develop design ideas in a highly collaborative setting, to back up those ideas with competent reasoning and research, and to effectively present their work graphically and with models, orally, and in writing. Students can expect to be actively involved in all the diverse activities that constitute the practice of sustainable design-careful site studies, intensive engagement with users, meticulous listening and documenting, drawing and modeling lots of ideas, researching and testing, presenting and persuading, revising and improving-to arrive at a design that integrates sustainable building principles with practice at the Evergreen Organic Farm.