Arch 558 LECTURE 1 introduction with narrative

Editor's Notes

• #2: Slide 1. Welcome ARCH 558 class I am Andrea Wheeler and your instructor for this class. It was a delight to see the class list and to see so many names of students I already know and am so happy are here in the class, as well as those of you I do not yet know and am looking forward to teaching. As you might have read on the email I sent you I am away from the University this week, and maybe a further two week, however, I might also be back sooner than this (like next week).. The schedule will remain the same, however, for the first three week and this is also in your syllabus that I have sent to you. The name of this class is Green and Sustainable Architecture and really there should be a question mark after the title. This is a class about Green and Sustainable Architecture, a questioning of it, and an imagining of what it could be. You could say the first issue, first question, then, is to try to indentify what it is: what is green and sustainable architecture? This is not a simple question for me, but still I would like you to help me answer it in the next couple of weeks. Before we start however, I do want to tell you something abut myself for those who do not know me well. I have been teaching in ISU 4 years and this is my 5th. I am originally British. My field has been sustainable architectural design for some years, and this is me on a visit to Melbourne Australia to a conference and to see my friend Elizabeth Hartnall-Young a geographer and educationalist, rather famous in Australia for her work on the use of mobile phones by children in classrooms for educational purposes. But, the interest in this photos is however in the background and her house you can just see.
• #3: Slide 2. It is a self-built house, made all of recycled materials, everything. Adobe bricks were made on site. It is off-grid for electricity with solar panels on the roof. It is set in the outskirts of Melbourne and you might well feel romantic some sense of romance about this house, it might evoke something in you…some feeling (I like this house)  
• #4: Slide 3. Elizabeth, her husband and some friends built it. I calls it an exercise in serendipity, others have said maybe architectural bricolage. But just because it is beautiful and seems so very ecological, and I might even raise it up and say “this is green and sustainable architecture” – the best I have seen – it is not without criticism, --- you might criticize that it is on land on the outskirst of Melborne which is very expensive, it sits on its own large plot, it is used as a holiday/ weekend home. All social questions, that are as much a part of sustainable design as is materials choice and energy efficiency.
• #5: Slide 4. That was just a small question, but it is the flavour of what this course is about. It is not just about the tools and methods of sustainable architecturl design - LEED, passivhous, the circadian house (this is a new one), My own background is rich and varied. I has qualifications in architecture, fine art, and engineering. I am a researcher above all and have many years post-doctoral experience and worked as a consultant for government. She also had a company to carry out research for architects, called White Buffalo Eco Designs (it is a Native American Indian reference) working for architects on conservation projects, making conservation plans, on publicity focused case studies and carrying out competition work.
• #6: Slide 5. My own scholarship andcCurrent research themes are sustainable architecture and a criticisms of methods and tools, of course, and affect and feeling and its role in sustainable design (otherwise called ecological aesthetics).
• #7: Slide 6. Over the summer I have been travelling to a number of conferences over the summer, This is Edinburgh where I went to PLEA (a sustainable architecture conference)
• #8: Slide 7. To Rome to a conference in Roma Tre (all in Italian she found out when she got there!)
• #9:   Slide 8. I also have a small research grant to look at ecological aesthetics and has been to work at the British Library in London
• #10: Slide 9. Last week I presented a workshop at the Institute of Contemporary Arts, London a couple of days ago entitled: “How can we imagine an environment for the birth of a new human being” working with the public and with drawing and text. In this sense it is not only criticism that interests me but imagination and how we can imagine our futures differently, in more just and more environmentally ethical ways (and I am going to ask you to do this too).
• #11: Slide 10. As she has told you, I am not here for the couple of weeks (but could be back sooner). Your schedule will remain the same, I will give a short lecture by video or recorded video and then there will be film or documentary. I will ask you for each of these documentaries to identify three statements of fact, or interesting questions or issues for you that arose in the film. This is the beginning of thinking towards the research exercises I will be asking you to do in class. Please email me you three interesting facts of issues about the film!
• #12: I also need however today to explain the syllabus to you. I have emailed you all the syllabus. The class objectives (I have a little already) It teaches students to think critically about approaches to sustainable architectural design and gives them the skills to determine the validity of the claims made about sustainable architecture. The content of the class (my lectures) will deliver studies the many different approaches to sustainable architecture and will examine the tools and accreditation systems of sustainable architectural design – LEED Passivhaus BREEAM- The Living Building Challenge- Cradle to Cradle Systems – Biomimicry – the Cercadian House (even – this is a new one to me) . Earthships. The exercises you do will provide you with skills to make informed judgments about both the technical behaviors and cultural aspects of sustainable design. So, as it says in the syllabus “The class is not simply about the energy performance of buildings; nor green building methods and materials, although it includes discussion of both of these aspects of sustainable design. Neither is it only about the design of city infrastructure nor sustainable patterns of behavior, but nevertheless presents each of these aspects of sustainable design. It is rather about how to engage critically with, and evaluate, sustainable architectural design practices”. Hence, the course develops around the position that the challenge of sustainability in design is a matter of situationally specific interpretation (context specific – and you do are context in this way of thinking) rather than the setting of universal goals [1]. It introduces philosophies and social science methodologies to do so, and in so doing it helps you understand the breadth, interconnectedness, and global nature of a sustainable architecture. Important statement from the syllabus: “The aim of the class is for students to develop their own critical positions on what it means to design, build, maintain (and live in) sustainable architecture” And this means even as of today we will start with a few exercises about what is sustainable architecture, to you!
• #13: The aim for the students in this class is to acquire : The ability to think critically and independently about architecture. To understand green architecture as a social, technical, and cultural discourse. To understand sustainable architecture as a global concern.
• #14: Here’s an important point now, pedagogical framework, which really means how are you going to learn. The class adopted a teaching method that is called Team-Based Learning. This learning approach was chosen to align with the philosophical position taken by the course, in that determining the kind of architecture we want to create for the socio-ecological world of the future has to be a collective activity (we can discuss this in the class if you don’t agree). This method is characterized by the requirement for individual accountability for out-of-class work such as reading or preliminary homework being done prior to the class meetings. This accountability is ensured by what is called the Readiness Assurance Process (RAP) { or a test] in which students (a) take a short (5–15 multiple choice question) individual readiness assurance test (iRAT) and (b) immediately afterward take the same test again with members of their team working on a single answer sheet (tRAT). These are the tests that will be carried out before each lecture (when I’m here so not yet). It is also characterized by in-class application exercises that promote both learning and team development – this means discussion and questions to think about And really Team-based learning in education can be important for developing skills and abilities that enhance employability and are useful for businesses, organizations, and industries where many projects and tasks are performed by teams. So this approach is particularly suited to the topic of sustainable and green architecture. We will look also at the beginnings of sustainable architecture, some of the maverick designers, sustainable design before there was sustainable development. I will divide you into teams as soon as I return. This is only a small percentage of the overall grade for the class – it can however affect your grade if you don’t do well in them All the usual things are in the syllabus about conduct. If you cannot attend a class let me know beforehand. If you can’t find the readings let me know or are in any way confused about what has been asked as preparation for a class let me know.
• #17: So what is green and sustainable architecture? What do you think? What is your immediate response. I cannot ask you this in class, now, but think about it. What is your IMMEDIATE response and is this right, is this really sustainable architecture.
• #18: Sustainability is so misunderstood in architecture it is becoming a misused and meaningless term. This is possible. If I asked you to tell me what sustainability means, would you have a good answer? Would you feel uncertain a little anxious even?
• #19: I am not going to suggest that this is in any way easy. In fact it is all a bit of a mess and there is even deceit and there is good motivation for it. We will come back to the mess.
• #20: This is Gro Harlem Bruntland. Those of you who I have taught before might recognize her. She is Norwegian, and was the Prime Minister and was the chair of the Bruntland Comission, It is from her that we have the most used definition of sustainable development
• #23: The pressures to change could be identified as: the problem that we are consuming to much, too mny products, too much waste, we are living beyond own means, and producing conditions of inequality in access to resources. We are living beyond our limits, using all planetary resources, we will have nothing left. A depleted planet. But we cannot just address one issue: the environmental is directly related to the social, economic and social issues are directly related. We could say, and some do, we need to save the earth, but it is not the earth that needs saving, but us!
• #24: And of course buildings are bad, they use resources inefficiently – and they use so much of them… think what a change architects could make.
• #25: We need to recraft … I will come back to that...
• #26: Innovation – you could argue that we need technical innovation – this is transparent solar glass, it contains PVs (solar volaic cells within it – you can’t see them, but it make electricity) But what’s the problem… we could cover all those big tall glass buildings in them – making electricity to run the HVAC systems to stop the overheating the the buildings? Or we could design differently? More passively? The cells are very expensive too.
• #27: This is Huangbaiyu a village in China a sustainable village, design by the very famous guys that invited Cradle to Cradle principles. never lived in ,derelict… I will come back to this problem too.
• #28: So what to do?
• #29: And sustainable design is not all about technical performance, this is the living building challenge, it include an imperative, a must, for beauty.
• #31: This is a little British BBC program called Grand Design Woodsman’s cottage… You may find it on YouTube.