Abstract
This paper outlines the innovations necessary to effectively teach sustainable design. Current design methodologies are effective at helping students achieve aesthetically and formalistically successful design projects, but they are not well adapted to deal with emerging knowledge areas necessary to fight climate change. For example, students require a new set of mental maps that can tap into their ability to think empathically into the future; Think across vast scales to consider the global impacts of their design solutions; and the ability to think across differences in race, class and gender. Furthermore, the design processes themselves are poorly ordered, meaning that sustainability considerations are added at the end of the process leading to superficial if not disingenuous final solutions. Lastly, standard design processes are not geared to achieve critical sustainability metrics such as carbon neutrality, net-zero energy use, water savings, and supply chain impacts. This paper shares the results of a multi-year effort to completely reinvent the design studio to better meet metrics, better meet a higher bar for empathetic thinking, and to better order design steps so that sustainability is integrated into the student’s thinking continuously through the design process. The paper will include examples of students work, sample templates used to organize thinking, and a set of diagrams that are used s roadmaps for students to find their way towards life-enhancing, sustainable, and in the end design solutions that may, in fact, actually help our society fight climate change.
Presenters
Robert FlemingProfessor and Director, MS in Sustainable Design Program, Thomas Jefferson University, Thomas Jeffeson University , Pennsylvania, United States
