Department of Architecture

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    ItemOpen Access
    Mainstreaming zero carbon: lessons for built-environment education and training
    (Ubiquity Press, 2020-11-04) Stevenson, Fionn; Kwok, Alison
    Education and training are identified as a key means of reducing carbon emissions from buildings to help address the climate emergency. Institutional, industry and organisational responses are shown to be failing in this regard. This editorial introduces the themes and individual papers in the special issue and then explores the current state of the art through pedagogy, theory, training, policy, practice and standards. These areas are interrogated through three fundamental questions. How can education and training be rapidly changed to ensure the creation of zero-carbon built environments? How can this transition be implemented successfully? What positive examples and models can be drawn upon or adapted? In proposing an agenda for change, a new approach to education is set out which combines learning outcomes with new standards and personal values within a continual questioning and holding to account of all stakeholders involved through evidenced outcomes. This draws on evidence from the special issue and Capability Theory which allies competency with personhood to create capability through agency. The process to make this change requires: (1) government intervention, to ensure that the lowest common denominator is zero-carbon best practice within a negotiated, holistic approach to developing the built environment sustainably; (2) new ethical, interdisciplinary and collective educational working practices underpinned by new pedagogical theory and accreditation processes; and (3) rapid auditing and upskilling in climate literacy to bring pressure to bear on governments and institutions to carry out reforms.
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    ItemOpen Access
    Evaluating Volatile Organic Compound Emissions from Cross-Laminated Timber Bonded with a Soy-Based Adhesive
    (MDPI, 2020-10) Yauk, Michael; Stenson, Jason; Donor, Micah; Van Den Wymelenberg, Kevin
    Volatile organic compound (VOC) emissions from indoor sources are large determinants of the indoor air quality (IAQ) and occupant health. Cross-laminated timber (CLT) is a panelized engineered wood product often left exposed as an interior surface finish. As a certified structural building product, CLT is currently exempt from meeting VOC emission limits for composite wood products and confirming emissions through California Department of Public Health (CDPH) Standard Method testing. In this study, small chamber testing was conducted to evaluate VOC emissions from three laboratory-produced CLT samples: One bonded with a new soy-based cold-set adhesive; a second bonded with a commercially available polyurethane (PUR) adhesive; and the third assembled without adhesive using dowels. A fourth commercially-produced eight-month-old sample bonded with melamine formaldehyde (MF) adhesive was also tested. All four samples were produced with Douglas-fir. The test results for the three laboratory-produced samples demonstrated VOC emissions compliance with the reference standard. The commercially-produced and aged CLT sample bonded with MF adhesive did not meet the acceptance criterion for formaldehyde of ≤9.0 μg/m3. The estimated indoor air concentration of formaldehyde in an office with the MF sample was 54.4 μg/m3; the results for the soy, PUR, and dowel samples were all at or below 2.5 μg/m3.
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    ItemOpen Access
    Mainstreaming zero carbon: lessons for built-environment education and training
    (Buildings & Cities, 2020) Stevenson, Fionn; Kwok, Alison
    Education and training are identified as a key means of reducing carbon emissions from buildings to help address the climate emergency. Institutional, industry and organisational responses are shown to be failing in this regard. This editorial introduces the themes and individual papers in the special issue and then explores the current state of the art through pedagogy, theory, training, policy, practice and standards. These areas are interrogated through three fundamental questions. How can education and training be rapidly changed to ensure the creation of zero-carbon built environments? How can this transition be implemented successfully? What positive examples and models can be drawn upon or adapted? In proposing an agenda for change, a new approach to education is set out which combines learning outcomes with new standards and personal values within a continual questioning and holding to account of all stakeholders involved through evidenced outcomes. This draws on evidence from the special issue and Capability Theory which allies competency with personhood to create capability through agency. The process to make this change requires: (1) government intervention, to ensure that the lowest common denominator is zero-carbon best practice within a negotiated, holistic approach to developing the built environment sustainably; (2) new ethical, interdisciplinary and collective educational working practices underpinned by new pedagogical theory and accreditation processes; and (3) rapid auditing and upskilling in climate literacy to bring pressure to bear on governments and institutions to carry out reforms.
  • ItemOpen Access
    SCHOLARS’ BANK YIELDS A GREAT RETURN ON INVESTMENT
    (2009) von Bargen, Jean E.
    Institutional repositories are becoming an important point of discussion on many university and college campuses. Academic libraries can be integral to collecting and preserving locally produced work. AASL is proud to offer this faculty perspective on how the library can play an important role in the institutional repository.