Designing Green

Description

Sustainable design imagines landscapes, buildings and objects of use that are responsive and responsible to environments and communities, that reuse and renew materials and energy, that draw lessons from natural systems and forms, and that use and build on the native design intelligence of human cultures. This program digs intensively into these topics, building on the background developed in Designing Green Futures (Fall 2010) or equivalent study elsewhere.

This program pays special attention to buildings—their history and traditions, design challenges and potentials, modes of construction, life cycles—within a general framework of sustainable design. Students will read, attend lectures, engage in hands-on workshops and do field research addressing ecological impacts, materials, building science, graphics and design process (including computer methods) and environmental design history. They will bring lessons from these disciplines to an integrative design studio—the pivotal activity of the program. Studio projects will address drawing and design fundamentals, thinking in three dimensions, programming, user involvement, ecological design responses, materials choices and construction systems, energy use and presentation skills. Readings, seminars and writing will ground students in current issues and ideas in sustainability, and enrich their design efforts. Work will build toward application projects on campus or in the surrounding community during Spring Quarter. These projects will involve students in real-world processes, constraints, and trade-offs—essential experience for those who wish to make a difference.