Environmental IssuesCourse # ARC 5422

Will Allen

Fall 2010

Course DescriptionThe history of the natural environmental sys-tems and how they have affected/influenced the evolution of the built environment. The current state of the environment and society’s response on political, social, and individual levels to the current and future development of the built environment, more specifically, archi-tecture. The professional role and responsibil-ity of the architect in society today as it relates to environmental issues to foster a level of awareness and understanding on the part of the future practitioner or academic. Challeng-ing or championing those issues as they relate to architecture. Reading, reports, and projects generate discussion of environmental issues. Although the course is conducted as a seminar, lectures on relevant topics generate discussion and bring issues to the forefront for debate and review.

Reading ListCollapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed, Jared DiamondSmall is Beautiful: Economics as if People Mattered, E F SchumacherBiomimicry: Innovation Inspired by Nature, Janine M. BenyusBreak Through: Why We Can’t Leave Saving the Planet to Environmentalists, Michael Shellen-berger, Ted Nordhaus

The Environmental Systems course provided an opportunity to understand the impact of humanity, industry, and the de-sign industry on the natural environment. Through projects such as interviews of the general public, research, project site visits of projects that incorporate sustainable practices, and constructing household items from salvaged materials, the course provided a background on the importance and implementation of sustainable practices. This created a design and technical based framework to allow future proj-ects to incorporate elements discovered in the project sites visited as well as the individual salvaged material construc-tion projects.

A key element of this course was self discovery and personal understanding of environmental issues. By incorporat-ing many ideas of architects, historians, and ecologists, a broad spectrum of topics and environmental concerns were covered. This also allowed each student to address top-ics most interesting to them (visiting site that incorporate energy conservation for example). This self exploration is an important skill as each future project can have a very dif-ferent impact on the environment due to location, program, etc. This course provided the general understanding of the environmental issues but also developed the skills for more directed research on a specific topic.

The course, while developing an understanding on the larger context of environmental issue, also focused on the impacts of buildings on the natural environment. In addition to the recognizable impacts such as energy use and con-sumption, issues such as water usage as well as material life cycle costs were addressed. However, these issues were introduced through multiple mediums in additional to the traditional lecture. Assignments such as “The Man on

Course Reflection the Street” provided an opportunity for students to interview community members to discover what opinions the non-de-signer has on environmental issues. This provided a valu-able knowledge of the wide variety of opinions and thoughts on these issues. This allows the students the ability to work on these issues with individuals who may have a different background and concept of the need for environmental stewardship. This broad approach provided a basic under-standing which allows the students the tools to become educated designers.

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Waste Not, Want NotCourse #ARC 5422

Assignment DescriptionIn Bill’s book, Cradle to Cradle, the concept of waste is to be eliminated. Today we look at that as “insight”. In a world of diminishing resources and an increasing population –7 billion & growing, I recall the phrase, “Waste not, want not”. That was what my mother and my grandmother use to say all the time. Sustainability is nothing new; it has simply been placed on the back burner for the past few generations.

The technology revolution, the information revolution, promised a paperless society. Yet, what it yielded was the ability to gener-ate vast quantities of paper with such ease that we now, as a matter of course, create mountains of “hard copy” backup.

Photo document areas / items of “waste” in the built environment and illustrate how they could be changed to the concept of either the elimination of waste or “waste is food”: not really food you eat, but rather a resource that can be used by another.

This is to be a product, something you make form waste that has an architectural ap-plication.

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Much of the materials used in this project were salvaged from abandoned houses slated

for demolition. In conjunction with Habitat for Humanity, the Indianapolis chapter of the AIA

Young Architects Forum donates their time to assist and remove anything of value for resale.

Habitat sells these salvaged items to assist raising funds for their organization’s mission.

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Book Shelf

The book shelf project started as a solution to a problem.

As my school and professional lives grow, I accumulate

more and more books and files I need to keep. To

alleviate this issue, I decided to construct a bookshelf.

I also wanted to experiment with the typical college

bookcase of wood planks and concrete blocks. However,

I decided it would be more appropriate to discover what

new materials can be used to create a new book shelf.

Using a salvaged closet door (image 1), I cut down the

wood to create appropriate size shelves. Using bricks

left over from a construction project and concrete (im-

age 2), I created legs for the shelving unit. I had also

inserted additional wood supports inside the bricks to

additional lateral support (image 3). The shelves were

then attached to the wood lateral support in the bricks to

complete the shelf.

This project provided experience exploring material

choice and their strengths and limitations. Because this

project focused on salvaged materials, the pallet for this

project was limited. Therefore, creative solutions such

as the additional wood support providing a connection

point for the wood shelves and the lateral support were

required for the project.

ConStruCtion

Image 1 Image 2

Image 3 Image 4

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Wine Storage

This project began when I found the medicine cabinet

and found the function and image very interesting. From

that piece as inspiration, I developed a kitchen wine

storage unit. The project included salvaged cabinet

faces (image 1) as well as a salvaged recessed medicine

cabinet (image 2). A wood frame was constructed to

receive the salvaged materials (image 3).

This project explored the beauty that can be celebrated

in the use of salvaged materials. The new materials

simply provided the necessary structural elements to

hold the decorative and functional salvaged materials.

ConStruCtion

Image 2

Image 1

Image 3

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