Beyond Sustainability: Architectural Education in an Ever-Changing Climate
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Date
2019
Authors
Raab, Peter S.
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
University of Oregon
Abstract
Within a rapidly changing climate, never have humans seen such rampant degradation of their
environment. From water shortages and over-population to massive flooding and storms, we are
beginning to test strategies of resilience at the urban and architectural scale. With the scientific evidence
of our warming climate system being unequivocal, design professionals must be cognizant of the impact of
these changes on theory, pedagogy, and practice. An integrated and resilient approach to ecological design
of buildings, landscapes and communities within this changing climate is imperative. Too often we teach
students to look solely at technological means as the solution to our ailing building design, however it is
important to understand precise constraints of climate to produce rigorous design solutions. This starts
with a knowledge of larger environmental systems.
This paper will outline a three-pronged approach recently employed to ensure undergraduate design
students grasp larger frameworks impacting the future of architectural practice within the Anthropocene.
Using varied modes of interrogation, students are required to delve more deeply into a series of analytical
exercises developed collaboratively to elicit thoughtful, appropriate and responsible massing, orientation
and material strategies throughout the sequence. By designing an extensive framework beyond the
simplistic, superficial separatism of modernism, the designer is enabled to understand architecture as in
an open-exchange with the larger bioclimatic, social and ecological worlds.
Description
13 pages