A DIGITAL PEDAGOGY FOR SUSTAINABLE DESIGN: GREEN BUILDING DESIGN WITHIN A DIGITAL MODEL

Worldwide awareness of environmental concerns in the areas of global warming, carbon footprint and the exhausting of non-renewable resources is increasing exponentially. In response to these concerns this paper presents a pedagogical shift in the teaching of design: it investigates the emerging role of sustainable design in the built environment and brings current processes and priorities into a real time digital environment, combining the dynamics of a digital model with the sensitivities of environmental impact. Two key forces in the design of the built environment are merged to create a new and exciting pedagogical model.

As design focus shifts to the interaction between buildings and the natural environment more attention is directed to ecological factors and renewable sources for building materials. The use of recycled material lessens the strain on non-renewable resources and minimizes the impact on the environment. Governments reward efforts to address global warming, reduce carbon footprint and reduce arbitrary resource waste. These factors define a new design paradigm and set the stage for more globally sensitive design solutions for the built environment.

The integration of key components in the design process introduces efficiencies and an elevated level of coordination not possible in a collection of mutually exclusive agreements and operations. When the forces of design can be brought to agreement at the same place, with a common objective and complete sharing of information and challenges coordination is ongoing and design is done in a real time approach, which duplicates the priorities and precedents of the actual project delivery process. Appropriately named Integrated Project Delivery (IPD) this process is slowly gaining ground in the design professions and will ultimately become the industries’ standard.

In a new and unique classroom offering, I will be working with a group of senior architecture students to develop a design to high levels of sustainability within a digital model. Additionally, the project model will include data files containing empirical information for the materials/methods chosen and the resulting efficiencies. This paper delineates the planned approach in a format of Management By Objectives (MBO) by initially stating the desired outcomes and then going on to define the strategies needed to achieve them.

Outline:
• Background
- Global awareness of environmental factors
- Integration of external design forces in a digital model
- Combined design and empirical factors
• Pedagogy
- Objectives
- Separate forces
- Merging technologies and content
• Approach Methodologies
- Siting: analysis and mass
- Geometric considerations of solar effects
- Passive conditioning of the environment (cooling & heating)
- Energy & carbon footprint
- Material savings and efficiency
- Coordination
• Implementation
- Participants
- Systems
- Collaboration
- Final outcomes