At the Intersection of Sustainable Theory and Practice, a Seminar: Architecture 407/507

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https://hdl.handle.net/1794/11188

This Scholars' Bank collection contains work by students in the Portland Center Architecture Program in Portland, Oregon.

The goal of this theory seminar class, At the Intersection of Sustainable Theory and Practice, is to provide a theoretical orientation and grounding, within the context of the current dominant architectural theories, Deconstructivism and Sustainability. The class examines the intersection of theory and practice – the gaps and the overlaps, what we know vs. what we can build, where the theories fall apart, and where technologies fall short.

In these case study projects, students research, evaluate and document the sustainable design theories discussed in this class, including ecological design, smart growth and new urbanism, natural capitalism, natural step, community design, environmental justice, and the spiritual aspects of wholeness, truth and love.

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Now showing 1 - 8 of 8

Open Access
Cyclism & Sustainable Urban Design Strategies to Increase Bicycle Ridership
(University of Oregon, Dept. of Architecture, Portland Program, 2014) Wilson, Richard H.; Suzanne Zuniga
Cyclism as an ideology should be taken into serious consideration by every resident of Earth. Questioning current beliefs concerning urban planning will help educate human kind and biofuel the Sustainable Revolution. This research paper provides reasoning for why bicycles should be treated as the new means of primary transportation. On average bikes are two times more efficient than other primary means of travel, compared to bus, car, and walking. Bikes require substantially less space than the Single Occupancy Vehicle, or SOV (which this report will generally use as an opposing factor). The primary issue for increasing ridership is that a large percentage of the human population may be interested in biking, but concerned due to safety. Rightly so. In the United States riding a bike in the urban setting in not yet supported by current social culture. This social culture may only be altered by educating people, providing the infrastructure for bikes, and encouraging ridership as a primary goal aimed at a sustainable future. Some successful ways of increasing safe riding in the urban setting are repainting the streets for bike lanes, permanent infrastructure improvements, or implementing the most revolutionary urban retrofit the Multimodal Tri-Split (MTS). The MTS involves cutting dedicated motor vehicle streets to 1/3 existing conditions, and converting the other 2/3 into dedicated cycle and transit routes. This may only happen in conjunction with another currently socially unacceptable idea, urban densification. Altering cultural believes about SOVs will be a major hurtle. This research will be intended to convert all non-followers of the bi-cycled machine to Cyclism.
Open Access
"A Setting in Search of a City": A Research Project
(University of Oregon, 2013) Shanks, Nicholas; Gast, Gerald
Modern day Vancouver is perhaps one of the finest cities of today not only for its beautiful natural setting but because of its progressive planning efforts that have taken place over the past 50 years. The following research paper will discuss the history of the city, the evolution of its planning efforts, and conclude with some of its exemplary waterfront development projects.
Open Access
Bogotá: An analysis of urban design, transportation, and accessibility in a developing, sustainable city
(University of Oregon, 2013) Prassas, Alina Grace; Gast, Gerald
Bogotá is a complex city, one that has evolved for hundreds of years, and has always been framed by the ebb and flow of large amounts of people. In this case study, I hope to evaluate modern urban design plans through the context of social equality. Enrique Peñalosa, a former mayor of Bogotá, frames the problem third world countries have eloquently “If we in the Third World measure our success or failure as a society in terms of income, we would have to classify ourselves as losers until the end of time,” declares Peñalosa. “So with our limited resources, we have to invent other ways to measure success. This might mean that all kids have access to sports facilities, libraries, parks, schools, nurseries.” For decades Colombia has been plagued by violence brought on by the drug trade and its gangs. Bogotá was perhaps the first city in Bogotá to try and curb the violence through urban upgrades, and was very influential throughout the entire country. Through examination of the history of Bogotá, its land use patterns, transit approaches, affordable housing projects, public parks, and libraries, a thorough picture of the city’s urban design will be painted.
Open Access
Barcelona, The New Districts: 1992 Olympics, 2004 Forum of Cultures, & 22@ BCN
(University of Oregon, 2013) Pairolero, Jenna; Gast, Gerald
Barcelona is one of the major metropolitan centres in Europe. It is located in the Northern region of Spain known as the autonomous community of Catalonia. The city of Barcelona is situated adjacent to the Mediterranean Sea between the Llobregat and Besos rivers. Its location exemplifies its economic dominance and global acknowledgement. Barcelona’s population is one of the highest in Spain at 1.6 million, just behind Madrid with a population at 3.2 million. It is one of the densest cities in Europe with an average density of 15,926 inhabitants per square kilometer. Barcelona’s high density and growing population demands economic and political dominance in Spain. Because of its density and global recognition, Barcelona has presented many opportunities for metropolitan urban design projects. In Barcelona’s recent history, post Franco, the city has established numerous urban design efforts to generate city identity and acknowledgement. Beginning with the Olympic games in 1992, Barcelona was able to establish itself at the global scale and the 2004 Forum of Cultures enhanced that recognition. Today, Barcelona continues to look towards the future to create dynamic urban centres, such as the 22@ BCN district and the Diagonal Mar development. Throughout this paper, I will discuss Barcelona’s urban transformations in the past forty years and how they positively and negatively altered the city’s urban dynamic.
Open Access
Urban Growth in Copenhagen: Addressing Challenges Through Regional Urban Design
(University of Oregon, 2013) Maternoski, John M.; Gast, Gerald
Copenhagen, Denmark’s capital city of 500,000 enjoys a rich history of great success for its architecture, design, and urban planning. The city’s “five finger plan,” developed in 1947 by Steen Eiler Rasmussen is one of the most widely-recognized urban plans in the world. Addressing a set of 10 challenges facing Copenhagen in the mid-1940s, the plan allowed for controlled suburban growth of the city, while ensuring space was left open for recreational and agricultural activities. 60+ years later, the plan has lost its merits as a feasible urban plan. Growth and suburban sprawl have pushed the length of the fingers well beyond their limits as reasonable growth guidelines, and the city is facing an entirely new set of challenges led by the rise of technology and the advent of global climate change. In 2010, Copenhagen’s own innovative architecture and urban design firm BIG presented a sweeping plan to not only create guidelines for Copenhagen’s future development, but used the plan to address a set of 10 entirely new challenges. The plan presents interesting, unique, and sustainable ideas for addressing the needs of and connecting not only the city of Copenhagen, but the entire region surrounding the Øresund Strait, including Denmark and Sweden. These strategies offer a glimpse into ground-breaking urban design in the 21st century.
Open Access
Do we rebuild or use anew? A discussion and comparison of adaptive-reuse vs. new construction through case-studies
(University of Oregon, Dept. of Architecture, Portland Program, 2011) Steen, Emily; Suzanne Zuniga
The urban adaptive reuse project I’ll be examining is the Jean Vollum Natural Capital Center. The building was originally constructed in 1895 by J. McCraken Company as a warehouse and transfer station. In 1998, Ecotrust (a local rain forest conservation group) purchased the building and started renovations. The project was completed in 2001 and awarded the first LEED gold historic building in the nation. The building takes up an entire city block in the heart of Portland’s emerging River District. The second project I’ll be looking at is the Omega Center for Sustainable Living. Contrasting to the urban adaptive reuse, this project was a new construction in rural Rhinebeck, NY. The Omega Institute is the nation’s largest holistic learning center. In 2006, they set out to develop a highly sustainable waste-water filtration facility for their 195-acre campus. The building is not only awarded LEED platinum, but it was also the first building in the U.S. to meet the requirements of the Living Building Challenge. I’ve used the seven performance areas of the Living Building Challenge (Site, Water, Energy, Health, Materials, Equity (Economics) and Beauty) as a starting point to analyze the impacts of each building. I’ve also added an Education/Social piece to my analysis.
Open Access
Design Activism: The Intersection of Design, Technology and Social Change in Zero Energy Communities
(University of Oregon, Dept. of Architecture, Portland Program, 2011) Potter, Julian; Suzanne Zuniga
Open Access
Sustainable Infi ll Projects- Presidio, San Francisco and Battery Park, NYC
(University of Oregon, Dept. of Architecture, Portland Program, 2011) Ruzomberka, Sara; Suzanne Zuniga
The Presidio National Park in San Francisco and Battery Park in New York City are both sustainable infill projects that have been developed in recent years, each with successes and failures. These projects attempt to create communities within a city and work with the different ecotones; habitat, community, and tourism to create precedent communities that can translate into future development. The goal for each of these projects is the same, and both in line with that of the Ahwahnee Principles and other sustainable infill ideas, but the outcomes are strikingly different.

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