GREEN BUILDING

Green Buildings all'UBC di Vancouver

A maturing and strengthening of society’s concern for environmental degradation and resource depletion will translate into an increasing scrutiny of the building industry for its environmental practices. An important requirement is for architects to have the commitment, knowledge and skills to design buildings with high environmental performance and, in particular, to be able to integrate green performance requirements and technologies into every project.

This course is concerned with offering strategic advice on best current practice for achieving enhanced building environmental performance. The primary objectives are to provide a framework for better understanding the environmental consequences of buildings, what constitutes best current practice in green building design, and an understanding of green strategies and technologies and their creative and elegant integration into architectural design.

These will be pursued through a series of presentations and discussions on mitigation and adaptation strategies (net-zero energy, carbon neutrality and adaptation to climate change) and current building environmental assessment methods; site visits to local green projects; investigations and presentations on the characteristics and integration of green technologies (onsite waste treatment systems, onsite renewable energy technologies, rainwater harvesting, etc). Student presentations of the course assignment will form an important part of this exploration.

REGENERATIVE DESIGN

Regenerative Design all'UBC di Vancouver

Green strategies, performance goals and associated assessment methods currently emphasize the ways and extent that buildings should mitigate global and local resource depletion and environmental degradation. By contrast, the emerging notion of “regenerative” design emphasizes a co-evolutionary, partnered relationship between humans and nature rather than a managerial one. It is the first approach to bridge the physical and functional, emotional and spiritual attributes of nature. Moreover, while green building design remains largely a set of fragmented technological strategies, regenerative design is a whole, living systems approach that emphasises the interconnected web of performance issues.

This course will examine the emerging theory and practice of regenerative design. It will provide an understanding of how it differs from green design and how it they can offer new insights and directions for architectural design so that constructed projects can increase, rather than diminish, social and natural capital. The course will be project-based and will use a “live project” of Perkins + Will Canada in Vancouver’s Downtown East Side as a vehicle for exploring the process of regenerative design. The intent is to use the site context as a means of gaining an understanding of key aspects of regenerative design (e.g., relevant “patterns” and the “story of place”) as the basis for rethinking program and design. The course will include a series of presentations by several invited leading proponents of regenerative design who will discuss their own approaches and offer strategic direction for the project.