UNIVERSITY OF IDAHO | |
ARCH 464
|
Reducing Environmental Impacts
The design of buildings and cities is a contributing cause of every major
environmental problem today. Buildings use a third of the energy in the
US; consume vast quantities of finite, non-renewable resources;
produce one-half of the world's CO2 emissions, which encourage
global warming; and represent half of the world's CFC consumption,
which contributes to atmospheric ozone depletion. Architectural design
decisions are responsible for 1) environmental externalities, such as the
off-site effects of energy and materials production and consumption; 2)
on-site effects, such as destruction of local ecosystems, habitat, and the
pollution of air, water, and soil; 3) indoor air pollution, caused by toxic
building materials, poor construction practices, and poorly designed
ventilation. Students must learn the consequences of their future design
decisions.
Process-Integrated Technology
Students learn about technological questions in terms of their design
context. Systems are presented as integrated with design process, with
appropriately detailed methods applied at each stage. For instance,
rule-of-thumb methods and graphic analyses are used for preliminary
design and more detailed analytical calculation procedures are
introduced as more detail about the design emerges. In this way,
analysis can be integrated with the generative and iterative process of
architectural design. The interrelationships among different technical
systems and between technical systems and other design concerns is
stressed, particularly the aesthetic, formal, and experiential opportunities
in environmental control systems.
Holistic Systems Thinking
Educationally, technology is usually approached scientifically and
analytically, rather than aesthetically or integratively. Designers must see
technology as a part of several larger wholes. Technological issues are
presented holistically, including their aesthetic, social, and formal
implications. Architects do not usually begin a design by thinking
analytically about particular individual issues, such as saving energy.
Instead, the early stages of design are process of synthesis in which
graphic, diagrammatic images are used to generate and represent
several ideas simultaneously. This holism and simultaneous
consideration aligns well with a systems approach to understanding,
rather the mechanistic Cartesian approach that had been the hallmark of
technology education in the 20th century.
Formal Implications of Technology
Technology is most often thought of as a subject of practicality,
considered after the more glamorous activity of "design." Rather than
learning about technology as a means to more lofty ends, it is more
important to understand the formal implications of technological
systems, and the possibility for the convergence, overlap, and tension
between technical agendas and other architectural intentions. The
course aims to enable designers to create a building as a light fixture, a
building as a heat exchanger, a building as an energy storage system, as
a catchment system, and ideally, as an ecosystem. The approaching
requirements for exclusive use of renewable energy, within the life-span
of buildings built today, mandate that the architecture addresses issues
of sustainability, while still offering opportunities for beauty, delight, and
affection.
GOALS | TEXTS | SOFTWARE | LABS |
GRADING | READINGS | EXTRA CREDIT | SCHEDULE |