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Sustainable Design: Larger Issues and Detailed Methods
This seminar looks broadly at sustainable architectural design, reviewing environmental issues, key documents, and larger-scale strategies and, then narrowly, at the current and emerging detailed methods used to support design development of sustainable buildings, communities, and cities. This seminar reviews the evolution of the notion and need for sustainability; considers case studies of innovative community, urban, and regional-scale strategies of sustainable design; surveys recent sustainable design assessment methods, design guidelines, and standards; considers case studies of innovative buildings shaped by these methods; and provides a broad overview of advanced simulation methods used in the design development of these innovative buildings and communities.
Team partner: Haley Gilbert |
Various projects:
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| Cities after Peak Oil / Cuba |
| Peak oil as a term was investigated in relation to its history, causes, effects and possible remediation steps relating to cities and societies as a whole. The presentation showed various diagrams made for my sustainable urban design project in South Boston, investigating the effect of various measures to reduce reliance on oil and other energy sources. The presentation recognised the current (2007) state of the oil reserves where some countries seem to have peaked, and other are on the brink of peaking. Cuba was added as a special case study of a society post peak oil due to its peculiar political situation. Download the presentation in PDF format (5mb). |
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| Case Study: Ecolonia, the Netherlands |
| This case study investigates the execution of a certain method of environmentally conscious design. Ecolonia is a part of a larger new suburb in Alphen aan de Rijn in the Netherlands. Its sustainable, social and practical improvement methods were an early (1989) attempt at better coordination between government, industry and trade, with as little involvement of the end user as possible. It is an interesting project that was developed before the sustainability trend took off and uses some remarkably efficient solutions that improve environmental conditions as well as the quality of the spaces. Download the presentation in PDF format (4mb). |
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| Designed Experiment: Biological Designed Experiment in Arid Urban Regions |
Multi scale faceted experiments for effective testing of vegetative growth, design tools,
bio groups and their effect.
A designed experiment is an expensive and difficult under taking. Various groups need to be involved and funding secured for the costly operations involved. It would be a shame to waste effort on singular experiment. In the proposed designed experiment there is prescribed a cumulatively faceted spatial layout in which a large number of measures and tools can be tested.
Exerpt from the write-up:
Construction of urban areas in arid regions is occurring at an alarming rate across the globe. As desertification fringes upon more and more land and population increases drive the demand for more urban areas, there is more development taking place in arid regions. Desertification and urbanization work in opposition traditionally, with urbanization exacerbating desertification but what if urbanization reversed the trend towards desertification. Could urbanization reduce the amount of land that is converted to desert? Download the board in PDF format (9mb).
Download the write-up and explanation in word format. |
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| Eco Quantum / Institute for Forestry and Nature Research (Alterra) Wageningen |
| These two quick case studies investigated a design evaluation tool and a project executed with it. Since no project could be found that had been designed using Eco Quantum, an investigation was made in how it would affect the design of the Institute for forestry and nature research by architect Stefan Behnish. Download the presentation in PDF format (1mb). |
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