Yestermorrow Design/Build School Certificate in Sustainable Building and Design Instructors: Andy Keller, Chris Jackson, Megan Moffroid, Rudy Polwin Date: 1/17/16 2/5/16 Contact hours: 119 Course Description: Our Certificate in Sustainable Building & Design provides students with a solid grounding in sustainable design principles, along with hands-on experience in the design/build process. Ranging from community-scale planning to the details of photovoltaic installation, the Certificate covers a broad spectrum of topics from small to large scale. Balancing theory with hands-on practice, students have the opportunity to explore alternative, innovative, and experimental design and building methodologies and materials. The certificate program is designed for those wishing to learn the art of design/build while developing a strong understanding of the concepts and methods of green design. The Certificate program includes a three-week Core Curriculum, two additional week-long electives, and four elective weekend workshops. Students enrolled in the Certificate program will also be expected, with the support of an advisor, to participate in a practicum project and presentation after finishing the full curriculum. Through this culminating activity, the student documents his/her theoretical and practical knowledge and skills in the area of sustainable building and design in a hands-on manner before a jury of professional architects and builders. The scope, topic, and form of the Practicum and presentation are determined by the student and advisor, depending upon the skills, interests, and focus of the student. There is no official start or end date to the program, though we strongly suggest that students begin the program with the Core Curriculum. One can participate as classes are available and as one s schedule permits. With careful planning some participants complete the program within six months, while others might chip away at it over several years. There are no prerequisites and no application process for entering the program. It is open to all who are interested.
ECOLOGICAL DESIGN IN THE BUILT ENVIRONMENT COURSE DESCRIPTION The goal of this course is to investigate the broad principles of ecological design and how they may be applied to the built environment to enable both human and non-human systems. The course runs for three weeks, six days a week, and is loosely divided into three interrelated scales of the built environment. The course begins at the scale of the surrounding indigenous landscape, followed by a focus on urban and community design, and finally, consideration of the architectural and human scale. For the sake of clarity, each portion of the course is focused upon one scale of the built environment, yet the prevailing message is that each scale is part of a continuous and interrelated field of spaces and systems. The teaching format is a mix of lecture, experience-based learning, and studio work. As course coordinator, I am the lead instructor for all three weeks, but I am supported by a small interdisciplinary team of other instructors. This teamteaching structure constructively provides different viewpoints within the course. COURSE GOALS Currently, the world s predominant cultural models rely upon overly simplified conceptions of the role that humans play in both their own system and the environmental systems surrounding them. This model can be characterized as human-centered, reductionist, energy intensive, and non-regenerative. In contrast, ecological design is an explicitly holistic and evidence-based philosophy that recognizes the complexity of our total environment and seeks a design process which is inherently concerned with the health of all systems. The first goal of this course, therefore, is to comprehend how the philosophical principles of Ecological Design, and Permaculture, a methodological extension of ecological design, provide an informative and evidence-based model of our world and an effective design process and evaluation tool with which we can work toward the design of a sustainable and resilient world. Originating from a diverse background of fields, ecological design can be aptly described as the product of a combination of the science of ecology and systems-thinking. As such, two fundamental tenets form the platform from which ecological design is defined. The first tenet holds that human and non-human (plant, animal, and abiotic) systems can be conceived of, both individually and collectively, as no less than an ecosystem model, which is primarily characterized as a network of systems which are intrinsically interconnected and interdependent over time. The second tenet holds that resources, or energy within an ecosystem, cycle within a closed-loop, changing form as each resource is processed by the varying needs of that ecosystem. Thus, our primary goal is to consider a new epistemology, what counts as knowledge and as good design (Van der Ryn, 1996). The second, and closely linked, goal is to consider how the application of ecological design principles can be practically conceived of as a broad form of
enablement, empowerment through an opportunity to control, for both humans and non-human systems. Equipped with a working understanding of the broader definition and role of ecological design, this course intends to show how the application of ecological design to the built environment can create greater opportunities for human needs but simultaneously help support and regenerate the indigenous landscape and context creating a more resilient place and sense of place for all. Enablement comes in many forms: sense of identity, political justice, consensus-making through participatory design processes, building systems and spaces that be controlled and transformed by inhabitants, or natural processes and indigenous systems that are provided the opportunity to mature and evolve. Practically, the goal of this course is to sharpen how we see the various elements and relationships that make up our world, how we define problems and outline solutions within a very complex system. Ecological Design in the Built Environment is an opportunity to see an environment we are all too familiar with in a different light, a chance to momentarily make our hidden and implicit relationship with our surroundings explicit, and examine how our relationship with the built environment can be enhanced. Ultimately, this course proposes that ecological design is not an ideologically driven response to the perceived tensions and divisions between people and the natural environment, but an opportunity to achieve a greater range of problem solving tools and shared solutions to support not simply a predictably sustainable environment for both human and non-humans systems, but a resilient one capable of withstanding and incorporating dynamic change. COURSE OBJECTIVES: WEEK 1 The objectives of Week 1 are focused on establishing the philosophical foundation of ecological design and the methodological design process that will support ecological design values. The methodology is presented in two parts: in the form of the principles of Permaculture and as an ecological design process. The second half of the week is largely devoted to synthesizing these topics as part of an environmental site analysis that will be applied to the Week 2 community design project. The first concern is to present the philosophical argument for ecological design principles in lieu of the current design model. As noted above, today s predominate design model is characterized by resource depletion processes, top-down decision making and lack of consideration for indigenous social and landscape patterns. Conversely, ecological design explicitly views the world as an ecosystem model, presumes that resources are consumed within a closed loop system, and that the existing context, human and non-human, is an integral part of any design solution. An extension of ecological design, permaculture was originally concerned with developing self-managed agriculture techniques based on natural systems. The principles of permaculture have since proven to be an effective tool for testing
for ecological systems-thinking in general. Viewed as a model of systems-thinking strategies and attitudes, the permaculture principles are presented as a companion to the urban/community design and architectural principles. The design process plays an explicit role in ecological design. The typical iterative design process now includes a built-in feedback loop, including roles for participatory design and environmental site analysis. It is in part based on Christopher Alexander s definition of a good fit : the ensemble comprising the form and its context (Alexander, 1964). In other words, the design solution cannot be adequately solved without consideration of the needs of the surrounding environment. With this observation in place, in preparation for the urban/community design studio project during Week 2, the remainder of the week is dedicated to environmental site analysis using Alexander s pattern language as a vehicle to deconstruct the relationships in the physical environment that are so familiar, and hidden, to us. To illustrate the potential benefits of an integrated design solution between form and context, examples of design solutions are provided, displaying, for example, how microclimate, permaculture gardening and agriculture, landscape ecology, water management, and human waste might be holistically addressed. Finally, the second half of Week 1 is largely devoted to introducing techniques to analyze environmental site factors. These tools include preparation of thematic overlay maps, SWOT analyses, bubble diagrams, and niche analyses. This first week then culminates with a presentation of the observed existing opportunities, obstacles, needs, and yields of the environmental patterns and relationships that will inform the community design project in Week 2. COURSE OBJECTIVES: WEEK 2 During Week 2, the course shifts its attention from the non-human landscape to the human-built landscape. Three interrelated themes are introduced: the language of personal spaces and social spaces, control as a fundamental aspect of interacting with the physical environment, and design as enablement. In sum, the main objective for Week 2 is to learn how to enable individuals and communities, and their implicit relationship between social conventions and form, by providing a more diverse physical environment and opportunities to control and transform that environment. Week 2 begins by investigating the language of personal space and social space. As a product of both bio-physical perception and culture, personal space is presented as the primary building block of human scaled design. First, group exercises are performed, quickly highlighting the conditions which spur our sense of personal space and how we react. This is followed by a discussion of the cultural and bio-physical components and mechanisms (Hall, 1969) that lay behind our personal space receptors and reactions. The language of social space is introduced through the work of Kevin Lynch. First, we will consider how city form is culturally conceived through metaphor applied to form, such as the cosmic city, and the city as organism (Lynch, 1981).
Then, as an introduction into analyzing city form, the students are given Lynch s 5 elements. With these tools in hand, the students analyze the City of Montpelier, VT, in search of the environmental images that define our perception of Montpelier and offer opportunities to marry the strikingly similar landscape ecology principles of physical habitat structure. Later, basic concepts of spatial organization and our perception of them will also be added to the discussion. The second theme is how our perception of control is a fundamental aspect of our interaction with our physical surroundings. Using a combination of cognitive science and linguistics (Searle, 1995), and observation-based research on environmental control and transformation (Habraken, 2000) we will investigate how our innate capacity for language is at the center of the relationship between social conventions and the built environment. The role of transitional spaces and dimensional capacity will also be visited.
Discussion of the concept of enablement, the opportunity to control (Hamdi, 1991) is intended to refer back to how our capacity for language is linked to our ability to communicate control through our surroundings, and ultimately to our innate ability to build and transform cities, towns, buildings, and spaces. Based upon the work of Nabeel Hamdi, we will explore how enablement can be achieved through participatory design, cues in the arrangement of physical form (control and enclosure), building systems, and institutions. The final group project for Week 2 is an opportunity to apply and explore the ecological design principles and process explored thus far. The groups are asked to address a program over three sites and conditions in Waitsfield, Vermont: an infill site along the west side of Rte. 100, Rte. 100 itself, and directly opposite, a property located within a flood plain adjacent to the Mad River. The program typically includes housing, community and business spaces, individual gardens, commercial agriculture, improvements to the pedestrian experience on Rte 100, and a design proposal to reconnect the town with the river. Finally, there is a general requirement that all un-built spaces in the landscape, big and small, near and far, be productive and regenerative. COURSE OBJECTIVES: WEEK 3 The final week, ecological architecture, is in many ways simply an extension of the lessons, techniques, and skills collected throughout the course so far. Observations from environmental site analysis, and how we interact with, control, and transform our environment, now serve to inform design at the architectural scale. The objective of Week 3 is primarily to illustrate ecological relationships and opportunities at the architectural scale, rather than architectural composition for its own sake. Discussion will continue to include many of the topics from Weeks 1 and 2, including: the theme of control as it relates to the efficient continuity of spaces inside and outside; how a building can be physically integrated into the landscape and support vegetation, wildlife, and water paths. Buildings will be interpreted from a whole systems point of view, such as green building systems, strategies, and construction types and how they might address energy use, embodied energy and life cycle analyses, air quality, and even the potential economic benefits over time. Additional attention will be given to the following: programming; articulating goals; generating form through the design process; observing patterns between our activities, rituals, and the surrounding environment; constructing full-scale mockups; and applying the twin factors of control and enclosure within hierarchies of private and public spaces. The final project for Week 3 will be to design a building on a site selected by the student from the site plan that was developed during Week 2. As noted earlier, while investigation of the building s formal composition will be welcomed, the conceptual presentation of the whole systems strategy will be the focus of the design review at the end of the week.
WORKS CITED Alexander, C. A City is not a Tree. Architectural Forum April 1965: Vol 122, No 1, 58-62 (Part I) and May 1965: Vol 122, No 2, 58-62 (Part II) Alexander, Christopher. Notes on the Synthesis of Form. Cambridge: Harvard UP, 1964. Print. 1-72. Anderson, Stanford. On Streets. Cambridge, MA: MIT, 1978. Print. 1-28. Connell, John. Homing Instinct: Using Your Lifestyle to Design and Build Your Home. New York: Warner, 1993. Print. 25-30, 68-79. Dramstad, Wenche E., James D. Olson, and Richard T. T. Forman. Landscape Ecology Principles in Landscape Architecture and Land-use Planning. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Graduate School of Design, 1996. Print. 9-48. Habraken, N. J., and Jonathan Teicher. The Structure of the Ordinary: Form and Control in the Built Environment. Cambridge, MA: MIT, 1998. Print. 125-142, 225-234, 297-318. Habraken, N.J. Supports: An Alternative to Mass Housing. London Architectural Forum 1972. Print. 6-77. Hamdi, Nabeel. Housing without Houses: Participation, Flexibility, Enablement. New York: Van Nostrand Reinhold, 1991. Print. 38-75. Hall, Edward T. The Hidden Dimension. Garden City, NY: Doubleday, 1966. Print. 131-164. Hardin, G. 1968. The Tragedy of the Commons. Science 162: (1968) : 1243-1248. Print. Hester, Randolph T. Community Design Primer. Mendocino, CA: Ridge Times, 1990. Print. 2-55. Lynch, Kevin. Good City Form. Cambridge, MA: MIT, 1984. Print. 37-50, 73-98. Lynch, Kevin. The Image of the City. Cambridge, MA: MIT, 1960. Print. 14-45, 123-139. McPhee, John. The Control of Nature. New York: Farrar, Straus, Giroux, 1989. Print. 3-94. McDonough, William, and Michael Braungart. Cradle to Cradle: Remaking the Way We Make Things. New York: North Point, 2002. Print. 17-44, 68-91, 157-187. Moore, Fuller. Environmental Control Systems: Heating, Cooling, Lighting. New York: McGraw- Hill, 1993. Print. Nash, Roderick. The Rights of Nature: A History of Environmental Ethics. Madison, WI: University of Wisconsin, 1989. Print. 3-54. Rapoport, Amos. House Form and Culture. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall, 1969. Print. 46-125. Ryn, Sim Van Der, and Stuart Cowan. Ecological Design. Washington, D.C.: Island, 1996. Print. Ryn, Sim Van Der, and Peter Calthorpe. Sustainable Communities: A New Design Synthesis for Cities, Suburbs, and Towns, San Francisco: Sierra Club, 1986. Print 130-166. Sanoff, Henry. Community Participation Methods in Design and Planning. New York: Wiley, 2000. Print. Schama, Simon. Landscape and Memory. New York: A.A. Knopf, 1995. Print. 385-446. Searle, John R. The Construction of Social Reality. New York: Free, 1995. Print. 802.522.8841 info@andrewkellerdesign.com 5 summer st, montpelier, vt 05602 6 of 6
BIBLIOGRAPHY: DIGITAL Holmgren, David. A summary of Permaculture: Principles and Pathways beyond Sustainability [http://burlingtonpermaculture.weebly.com/uploads/4/2/8/9/4289790/essen ce_of_pc_ebook.pdf]. Jacke, Dave. Ecological Culture Design, [http://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=1&ved =0CC8QFjAA&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.ecologicalculture.org%2Fdocuments %2FEcologicalCultureDesign.doc&ei=9zVUe20Gav84APc24GICg&usg=AFQjCNGjQAtnuGZ7IyD_jc QjWqf9gtVlw&sig2=jbBq9CMaOjGXRRX1OnpUDA&bvm=bv.48705608,d.dmg]. Steiner, Frederick et al. The ecological imperative for environmental design and planning, [http://www.esajournals.org/doi/pdf/10.1890/130052]. Glanzberg, Joel. Permaculture - A Way of Seeing', [http://patternmind.org/permaculture-a-way-of-seeing/]. BIBLIOGRAPHY: Video Mather, Evan. Image of the City Whyte, William H. The Social Life of Small Urban Spaces