Sustainable design course brings disciplines together
Dartmouth students have sustainability on the brain these days, a fact made
clear to Thayer School of
Engineering Professors Benoit
Cushman-Roisin and Peter
Robbie. So they decided to offer a team-taught class on sustainable
affordable housing design, with Karolina Kawiaka, architect and a senior
lecturer in studio art, during the winter term.
"In listening over the last few years to environmental engineering
students, I noticed that a significant number of them were keenly interested in
sustainable architecture, or green buildings," says Cushman-Roisin.
"Coincidentally I had a hallway conversation with Peter Robbie who told me
that he and Karolina Kawiaka were entertaining similar ideas. We were coming to
the same idea from opposite ends: I was thinking of extending my teaching on
pollution prevention and industrial ecology to architecture, and they were
thinking of extending courses on architecture into sustainability. We decided
to join forces."
Juliana Lisi '05 Th'06 and Adam Slutsky '06 prepare for the final presentation
of their design for an environmentally sustainable house. (Photo by Genevieve
Haas)
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The course, offered through Thayer, immediately attracted an overflow crowd
of engineering and studio art students. Working in teams of three, they were
asked to "design a private residence for a low-income family of four that
must be affordable, attractive, connected to the landscape and benign to the
environment," says Cushman-Roisin. Kawiaka says she believes the course
struck a nerve with students because it provided "a way to bring together
the new technology in terms of sustainable materials, efficient heating and
cooling systems, and their interest in affordable housing, which is
increasingly on the radar." She adds, "Students really have a desire
to make the world a better place."
Sally Smith '05 Th'06, a student in the course, agrees. "We need to spend
our efforts inventing technologies that imitate and nurture natural systems
rather than destroy them," she says. "Sustainable design is really
about looking at everything with a wider lens-product lifecycles from design to
death, materials from source to consumption, and energy from fuel to
atmosphere, water, soil, and beyond. It's our generation's turn to design
technology that will reverse the harmful effects of the past while providing
for the next generation and generations to come."
The faculty team loaded the syllabus with guest speakers who addressed various
aspects of sustainable design and the need for affordable housing. Among the
guest speakers were Malcolm Lewis Th'71, a national leader in energy efficient
construction, and William McDonough '73, a world-renowned architect and leading
proponent of sustainable design. Students were able to choose any site they
wanted for their design. Some teams designed housing for sites in the Upper
Valley, others looked farther afield in places like the hurricane-damaged Gulf
Coast or water-poor Colorado. Whatever site they chose, they were required to
crunch the numbers relating to energy, water, and land use and incorporate the
best technological solutions into the home's architecture, all while keeping in
mind the short-term and long-term costs of building the house.
Perhaps the most significant outcome of the course so far is that several of
the students' ideas may come to life. One student team worked with Upper Valley Habitat for Humanity
to modify an existing house model, drastically improving the house's energy
efficiency. Another worked with the Dartmouth Real Estate Office to design an
affordable, sustainable house for a specific site on Grasse Road in Hanover.
Currently, the College is looking at ways to use the resulting design.
As the concept of sustainability attracts more and more attention, classes like
this joint offering by architecture and engineering faculty are only expected
to grow in popularity. Kawiaka says she looks forward to team teaching the
course again, and to exploring the deepening connection between form,
sustainability, and public service.
By GENEVIEVE HAAS
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