Syllabus
Sustainable Design: Materials F06/W07
Draft Syllabus - Winter (11/28/06)
Faculty:
Bob Leverich 3253 Lab II (360) 867 6760 leverich@evergreen.edu
Rob Knapp D 3112 Sem II (360) 867 6149 knappr@evergreen.edu
Gretchen Van Dusen (Visiting Critic)
Animating Questions and Ideas:
From this year’s catalog: “How do we shape the Earth, its resources and its living systems to meet our own human needs and aspirations? How can we do that shaping in ways that are ethical, sustainable and beautiful? Sustainable design imagines landscapes, buildings and objects for 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 year we are considering Sustainable Design from a materials-based paradigm, looking at how resources are obtained, processed, shaped, joined into systems, installed, and ultimately, returned to the earth, through a series of hands-on studio design/build projects in different scale, user and site contexts. Our general goal is to develop design skills, experience, and knowledge to creatively and responsibly employ material resources in ways that sustain both people and environments.
Winter Term Program Components:
Studio – As in the Fall, the center of program activities will be a design studio that meets mornings and afternoons on Tuesdays and Thursdays. The studio will be a dedicated space – many of our program functions will meet there, and you’ll have a workspace with a drawing board in the studio where you can work any time. Each student will be part of a larger studio group. Your studio group will be responsible for its work area in the studio. We will ask studio groups to work collaboratively on some projects.
Integrative studio projects will build on skills introduced in the Fall term. We will ask you to create solutions to design problems while continuing to learn design process skills, drawing and drafting skills, selected shaping, joining and construction skills, environmental and building science fundamentals, quantitative reasoning skills, environmental design history basics, 2D and 3D Design fundamentals, and descriptive writing skills. Lectures and workshops in these areas will support the studio projects.
Projects: We’ll continue our materials investigations in the winter term, moving to construction and analysis of full-scale sample wall and roof systems in the first half of the term, and addressing small, applied construction projects on campus and in the community in the second half of the term.. We also hope to introduce students to 3D modeling software (Rhinoceros or SketchUp) in winter term.
Drawing: Each student will keep a sketchbook and a drawing portfolio. Drawing workshops will alternate with introductory workshops using Sketch-Up, a simple 3D modeling software. Work from both workshops will go in your portfolio. Each week, we will emphasize some aspect of for example perspective or presentation drawing, and we may comment on your completed in-studio work before you leave.
Workshops – Lecture/workshops in building science and environmental design history will support studio projects and other program activities. These workshops will generally involve worksheets or in-class quizzes that we’ll ask you to collect in your program notebook. The one or two question quizes at the very beginning of class sessions, are prompts to study and remember some of the “bite-size” information of the program—key facts, definitions, or names.
Seminar – Each student will belong to a seminar group led by one of the faculty, and within that group, will belong to a peer group of three or four students. We will ask peer groups to have pre-seminar discussions, report on them, review one another’s papers, and lead seminars. Seminars will discuss readings and visual images and generate ideas and information for the writing assignments. Seminar will be one important place where you learn how to do constructive criticism about writing, images, concepts, and designs. We will ask you to complete connector cards each week, connecting your own thinking with quotes from the reading. We’ll ask you to collect and present them in your program notebook.
Writing – There will be two main kinds of writing—report and critique. We will assign both in the “revise and resubmit” mode, asking you to do a first draft, get feedback, and then refine your writing and ideas in a second draft.
Critical Assessment – What are good ways to talk about work in this area of sustainable design? What are characteristics of good or bad design, sustainable or unsustainable design, beautiful or unbeautiful work, and so on? How much is this a purely personal matter, and how much can be agreed to or shared with others? Questions like these will be a major theme in the program, and will come up in lectures, workshops, seminars and studio reviews. You can expect strong development in your ability to describe and assess work – the work of artists, engineers, design professionals, and activists, the work of others in the program, and your own work.
Notebook, Portfolio and Evaluations: When it comes to evaluating the work done in the program, each student will be expected to present a comprehensive program notebook and portfolio at the end of each term and to write and edit comprehensive mid-term and final self-evaluations. The program calendar has a checklist of the work items needed in the portfolio. Stay alert for additions to that checklist. You will also be asked to take an active role in work discussions, and to write critical responses to your peers’ work and their end-of-term portfolios.
Credit:
This is a 16 credit, full-time program requiring a time commitment of at least 40 hours each week. Credit may be awarded in environmental design, environmental design history, building sciences, computer-aided 3D modeling, expository writing and critical assessment.
Field Trips and Other Expenses:
You should plan on at least one field trip, possibly overnight. You should budget $15-$30 for admissions, meals and misc. for the day trip, and $75- $100 for an overnight trip. Budget $100-$150 per term for drawing equipment and supplies, $30 per term for a wood & metals shop materials fee, and $20 for a shared studio resources fee.
Weekly Schedule (boldface indicates required sessions):
Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday
9-10 Shop Business Mtg. 9-12 Studio/Workshop 9-10 Pre-Seminar 9-12 Studio/Workshop [[9-12 Studio—
10:30-11:30 Program Peer Group Meetings; studio available,
Business Meeting Faculty Seminar not required]]
(Faculty & Student Reps.) 10-12 Seminar
1-3 All Program 1:30-4:30 Studio/Workshop (College-wide 1:30-4:30 Studio/Workshop (Open)
Meeting Governance) 3:30 All Program Weekly
Wrap-up
(College-wide
Governance)
Reading List:
Sinclair, Cameron and Stohr, Kate. Design Like You Give a Damn. New York: Metropolis Books, 2006. 1933045256
Miller, David E. Toward a New Regionalism: Environmental Architecture in the Pacific Northwest. Seattle: University of Washington Press, 2005. 0295984945
Davis, Howard. The Culture of Building. New York: Oxford University Press, 2006. 0195305930
Reid, Esmond. Understanding Buildings: A Multidisciplinary Approach. Cambridge: The MIT Press, 1999. 0262680548
Ching, Frank. Design Drawing. John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 1998. 0471286540 (One copy for each Peer Group; we’ll organize that the first week. If you want your own copy, that’s fine.)
FIRST CLASS: Monday, January 8, 2007, 1-3PM, D1105 Seminar II
Sustainable Design: Materials F06/W07
Syllabus
Faculty:
Bob Leverich 3253 Lab II (360) 867 6760 leverich@evergreen.edu
Rob Knapp D 3112 Sem II (360) 867 6149 knappr@evergreen.edu
Gretchen Van Dusen (Visiting Critic)
Animating Questions and Ideas:
From this year’s catalog: “How do we shape the Earth, its resources and its living systems to meet our own human needs and aspirations? How can we do that shaping in ways that are ethical, sustainable and beautiful? Sustainable design imagines landscapes, buildings and objects for 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 year we will consider Sustainable Design from a materials-based paradigm, looking at how resources are obtained, processed, shaped, joined into systems, installed, and ultimately, returned to the earth, through a series of hands-on studio design/build projects in different scale, user and site contexts. Our general goal will be to develop design skills, experience, and knowledge to creatively and responsibly employ material resources in ways that sustain both people and environments.
We have organized Fall Quarter to follow three main phases of this cyclic process of materials. First we will look “upstream” at the sources of materials, then study uses for materials and the design processes that generate them, and finally look “downstream” at the possible fates of materials after a given use has ended. To help us remember that materials always move in cycles, we will pay particular attention to reuse and recycling in our design projects and investigations.
Program Components:
Studio – At the center of program activities will be a design studio that meets mornings and afternoons on Tuesdays and Thursdays. The studio will be a dedicated space – many of our program functions will meet there, and you’ll have a workspace with a drawing board in the studio where you can work any time. Each student will be part of a larger studio group. Your studio group will be responsible for its work area in the studio. We will ask studio groups to work collaboratively on some projects.
Integrative studio projects will ask you to create solutions to design problems while learning design process skills, drawing and drafting skills, selected shaping, joining and construction skills, environmental and materials science fundamentals, quantitative reasoning skills, environmental design history basics, 2D and 3D Design fundamentals, and descriptive writing skills. Lectures and workshops in these areas will support the studio projects.
Projects: Fall term’s projects will fall into three phases, following the overall movement of the quarter—upstream, design/use, and downstream—as indicated above. After an initial week setting up the physical arrangements in the studio, we will investigate sources for reclaimed, recycled, and reused materials in the Olympia area and on campus, and we will make one or two small-scale items as a focus for these investigations. Then we will enter the main project for the quarter, to design, fabricate, and present a functional form. The quarter’s final project will be to hand the materials of the functional form on to their next stopping place in the cycle. We will approach this, too, as a matter caling for design.
In parallel with design and fabrication, there will be a research assignment about the properties, technologies, histories and impacts of one of five key families of materials—wood, metal, concrete, paper, and earth. We will divide research topics between members of each studio group, and your work will involve locating and understanding background information, writing it up, and designing and executing a unified studio group presentation on it.
We will develop drawing, design, research and writing skills as an integral part of these projects. We’ll continue these material investigations in the winter term, moving to construction and analysis of wall and roof systems and, we hope, small, applied construction projects on campus and in the community. We also hope to introduce students to 3D modeling software (Rhinoceros or SketchUp) in winter term.
Drawing: Each student will keep a sketchbook and a drawing portfolio. There will be drawing exercises in most studio sessions, to be completed during studio time. These will go in the portfolio. Each week, we will choose some aspect of drawing for emphasis, for example line work or cues to depth, and we may comment on your completed in-studio work before you leave.
Shop: There will be weekly access to the college wood and metal shop. After 2-3 weeks of building basic skills with the shop equipment, you will be able to apply them to the design/fabrication project as needed. The final 2-3 weeks of the quarter will go back to skill building, at the next level.
Workshops – Lecture/workshops in materials science and environmental design history will support studio projects and other program activities. These workshops will generally involve worksheets or in-class quizzes that we’ll ask you to collect in your program notebook.
Seminar – Each student will belong to a seminar group led by one of the faculty, and within that group, will belong to a peer group of three or four students. We will ask peer groups to have pre-seminar discussions, report on them, review one another’s papers, and lead seminars. Seminars will discuss readings and visual images and generate ideas and information for the writing assignments. Seminar will be one important place where you learn how to do constructive criticism about writing, images, concepts, and designs. We will ask you to complete connector cards each week, connecting your own thinking with quotes from the reading. We’ll ask you to collect and present them in your program notebook. We will also ask that each week you bring an image of sustainable building, materials in use, or some related subject to show the group and retain as part of an image collection in your notebook.
Writing – There will be two main kinds of writing—report and critique. We will assign both in the “revise and resubmit” mode, asking you to do a first draft, get feedback, and then refine your writing and ideas in a second draft.
Critical Assessment – What are good ways to talk about work in this area of sustainable design? What are characteristics of good or bad design, sustainable or unsustainable design, beautiful or unbeautiful work, and so on? How much is this a purely personal matter, and how much can be agreed to or shared with others? Questions like these will be a major theme in the program, and will come up in lectures, workshops, seminars and studio reviews. You can expect strong development in your ability to describe and assess work – the work of artists, engineers, design professionals, and activists, the work of others in the program, and your own work.
Notebook, Portfolio and Evaluations: When it comes to evaluating the work done in the program, each student will be expected to present a comprehensive program notebook and portfolio at the end of each term and to write and edit comprehensive mid-term and final self-evaluations. The program calendar has a checklist of the work items needed in the portfolio. Stay alert for additions to that checklist. You will also be asked to take an active role in work discussions, and to write critical responses to your peers’ work and their end-of-term portfolios.
Final Exam: If there were a final exam for this program, what material should it cover? This will be an active discussion topic. Most weeks we will have whole-group discussion of candidate questions and answers. We will often ask you to formulate such questions. (By the way, there will not be a final exam: we want you to do that kind of serious thinking about the material, but we want the last week to be about finishing your projects well, not about sitting in an exam.)
Credit:
This is a 32 credit, full-time program requiring a time commitment of at least 40 hours each week. Credit may be awarded in environmental design, environmental design history, environmental and material sciences, computer-aided 3D modeling, expository writing and critical assessment.
Field Trips and Other Expenses:
You should plan on at least one field trip per term. Budget $15-$30 for admissions, meals and misc. (One overnight field trip in one of the two terms is a possibility, as well. Budget $100 for that trip.) You should budget $100-$150 per term for drawing equipment and supplies, $30 per term for a wood & metals shop materials fee, and $20 for a shared studio resources fee.
[[weekly schedule to be added]]
Reading List:
McDonough, William. Cradle to Cradle. North Point Press, 2002. 0865475873
Steele, James. Ecological Architecture: A Critical History. Thames & Hudson, 2005. 0500342105
Berge, Bjorn. Ecology of Building Materials. Architectural Press, 2001. 0750654503
Dean, Andrea Oppenheimer, and Hursley, Timothy. Proceed and Be Bold: Rural Studio After Samuel Mockbee. Princeton Architectural Press, 2005. 1568985002
Ching, Frank. Design Drawing. John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 1998. 0471286540
FIRST CLASS: Tuesday, September 26, 2004, @ 9AM in the 3D Studio of the Art Annex
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