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2017 Conference

June 21–24, 2017

Tuscon, AZ

AESS 2017 Draft Conference Session Schedule

Designing a Carbon and Water Neutral Master Plan: Architects Affecting Policy

Thursday, June 22, 2017 at 10:30 AM–12:00 PM MDT
ENR2 S 230
Abstract

In 2015, the president of the University of Arizona (UofA) signed a commitment to reach carbon neutral by 2050.  In 2016, an upper level architecture course at UofA, took on the challenge of creating a pathway to achievement, adding water neutrality to the 2050 campus goal.  This course was planned in partnership with university administration as a component of the new campus master plan, presently under design.  Campus master plans, traditionally led by teams of architects, have increasingly changed from an exercise in land planning and vision rendering to a focus on strategic resource allocation and management.  The tasks required of architects are expanding, if pedagogy prepares students for the challenge. 

This paper addresses the pedagogical process of teaching architects to operate within a system of limited resources – by having them design the regulatory game.  Students were charged to deliver four components to illustrate the achievement of the 2050 neutrality goals: a “play book” sequenced from short term to long term implementations, carbon and water wedge diagrams illustrating the sequenced reductions based on their prescribed implementations, a detailed timeline of implementation, and exploded axonometric drawings of resulting carbon and water neutral system designs.  Students learned to orchestrate the physical change to their campus through policy mandates and incentives.  This paper argues that by designing their own ladder of regulations, architecture students learn to dissect why policy exists, connect physical outcomes with code, and understand their work as an architect within the complexity of actors and objectives.  Ultimately, the paper provides a new paradigm of architectural education that not only teach students to design, but asks them to design within a system of limited resources with increasingly stringent requirements.

Supplemental URL

https://issuu.com/universityofarizonaschoolofarchitec/docs/chapter_1_2_3_4_5_6_7_8

Primary Contact

[photo]
Courtney Crosson, Courtney Crosson

Presenters

[photo]
Courtney Crosson, university of arizona
Title of paper

Designing a Carbon and Water Neutral Master Plan: Architects Affecting Policy

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Chair, Facilitator, Or Moderators

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