The cover pages of Architectural Record and Architecture Magazine for January 2011 shouted out in bold text, "WHAT NOW?" "WHAT NEXT?" Given the widespread criticisms of high-style/low-substance architecture as well as the failure of green models/codes to fully deliver as hoped, now is the time to reinforce the green strategies that are working, raise the priority of the performance fundamentals that are currently optional, and create a coherent sustainably informed road map going forward. In short, create architecture more clearly aligned with the community being served and deliver design excellence that embodies more resourceful and meaningful outcomes.
The course will provide both a historic overview and a participatory critique of green architecture models and will address the pressing questions surrounding these issues in current practice.
While models of green architecture performance have had success in raising awareness and changing the marketplace for the better (USGBC's LEED program being the foremost example), there is an increasing demand for higher energy performance, robust materials screening, and a dramatically more resourceful architecture, landscape, and community. New sustainability models have emerged that incorporate a range of next generation attributes, including specific community and urban contexts, wayfinding, infrastructure, outdoor environmental comfort, and sustainable-transition planning to reach 100 percent renewable energy and net zero energy. The key to remaining competitive as a firm or learning organization, attracting grant funding, and keeping a project current over the typically multiyear process of design and construction is to participate in the evolution of the field and understand how future expectations are already shaping the market.
Case studies of nationally recognized benchmark projects that are currently in design or recently completed are used as real world examples of these concepts. These projects represent a range of building types and ecological strategies, from the Johnson Hall of Science for St. Lawrence University, Canton, NY, to a historic urban infill project for Isles, Inc., in Trenton, NJ, to enterprise-wide infrastructure guidelines for the Port Authority of New York & New Jersey completed in 2010. Architects, planners, engineers, interior designers, developers, attorneys, and educators are presented with a detailed and explicit model addressing the evolving dynamic of sustainability.
Participants will identify the original design values and intentions of the sustainable/environmental movement in the United States, as a framework for their assessment of the current state of the field (USGBC's LEED, Living Building Challenge, etc.),describe the application of sustainable/environmental strategies in a series of case studies in order to provide a pragmatic reference for future design evaluations, and participate in team-based design charrette for a specific project site and program for teaming and interdisciplinary skills required in sustainable design.
Learning Objectives:
- Analyze the strengths and shortcomings of the USGBC LEED current and emerging models.
- Explore the pros and cons of the hyper-green models such as the Cascadia Living Building Challenge and Architecture 2030.
- Understand how architecture and planning rise to a central role in a resourceful future and what is the new nature of design excellence in such a world.
- Describe new sustainability models including specific community and urban contexts, wayfinding, infrastructure, outdoor environmental comfort, and sustainable-transition planning to reach 100 percent renewable energy and net zero energy.
Suggested text: Sustainable Construction: Green Building Design and Delivery, 2nd Edition, Charles J. Kibert (Wiley, 2007).
