ENGS-44 “Sustainable Design”
Spring 2013
Term project
Context
& Scope
Much has been accomplished in the last decade toward
designing environmentally conscious buildings.
However, most of the effort has centered on generic commercial buildings
for the service sector (ex. office building) or residential buildings (private
homes and apartment buildings).
Relatively little attention has been paid to buildings with specific
needs such as restaurants, hotels, hospitals, shopping malls, or mixed-used
buildings (ex. street-level
retail stores with apartments upstairs).
Projects this year will be devoted to the design of buildings
with a specific function or a mixed-use building with particular combination of
uses.
Since this is an engineering course, the design ought to
include a piece of technology, with or without an economic incentive.
The term project has two objectives, (1) that students gain
practice with the sustainable design process, (2) that they experience
first-hand the complexities associated with design under multiple constraints,
and (3) that they gain experience with the presentation and defense of their
ideas in front of others.
Teams
& Project Selection
The class will be divided in teams
of 4 or 5 students, and each team will work on a separate project for the
duration of the term. Several ideas are
listed below, but students may pursue alternative ideas, as long as they fall
under the preceding scope.
Each project must be approved by the instructor before
moving forward.
Project
Ideas
The following ideas are proposed to the
students.
1.
Design a restaurant that promotes local foods, energy efficiency, and water
conservation.
2.
Design a green hotel in a remote eco-touristic tropical area by the sea, which
promotes employment of local people.
3.
Design a small medical clinic for an underserved population leveraging local
manpower.
4.
Design a grade school in a sunny but humid tropical area.
5.
Design a “green” shopping mall, with “green” to be defined first.
6.
Design a document printing business in
7.
Design an environmentally conscious ski lodge that integrates snow making, ski
lift, hotel rooms, restaurants, ski shop, and indoor entertainment.
8.
Design a mixed-use building combining small manufacture (ex. craft jewelry) and
a bank on street level, residential apartments upstairs, and farming on the
roof.
In each case, a location must be defined, goals enunciated, and
attention must be paid to
- energy (consumption and
renewability),
- materials (origin, embedded
energy, toxicity, and recycling),
- water (provenance, consumption and treatment),
- health and comfort of users,
- respect for place and integration
into immediate surroundings,
- aesthetic appeal.
Stages
of Project Development
1. Team formation and choice of topic
2. Fine tuning with instructor and instructor’s approval
3. Characterization of location
4. Enunciation of objectives
5. Enunciation of specifications and constraints
6. Design in broad lines – Key numbers
7. Refined design based on engineering analysis (dimensions,
etc.)
8. Construction of small-scale model
9. Projected environmental savings and benefits
10. Estimate of building cost and return on the investment.
Timeline (see accompanying schedule on website)
Week 1 Students are forming
teams.
Thursday
4 April Student teams are now formed,
project topics are broadly defined,
and a TA is assigned to each team.
Weeks 2 – 3 Students elaborate their project
scopes
by working on items 2, 3 & 4 listed above.
Thursday 11 April Team project is defined, and instructor
has approved.
Weeks 4
– 5 Students work on tasks
4, 5 & 6 listed above.
Week
6. Teams
report on their project in class.
Report addresses
items 1-6 above
and formulates questions for the next steps.
No written
report required at this stage,
only slide presentation (and props if any)
Weeks 7 – 10 Students complete their projects.
A small-scale
model is constructed.
31 May – 4 June Teams report on their project in
class.
Slide set
due on day of oral presentation.
Wednesday 4 June Written report due,
in duplicate:
1 hardcopy, 2nd copy in pdf
Grading Criteria
|
|
1st report |
2nd report |
|
Definition of building type & uses |
10% |
|
|
Characterization of location |
15% |
|
|
Enunciation of objectives |
10% |
|
|
Specifications & Constraints |
10% |
5% |
|
Design in broad lines (overall shape, energy, etc.) |
20% |
|
|
Key numbers (basic dimensions, energy values, etc.) |
20% |
|
|
Refined design |
|
25% |
|
Correctness of the engineering analysis |
|
20% |
|
Estimation of environmental impacts & benefits |
|
10% |
|
Symbiosis with surroundings |
5% |
10% |
|
Aesthetics |
|
5% |
|
Small-scale model |
|
5% |
|
Economic analysis |
|
5% |
|
Quality of oral presentation |
10% |
5% |
|
Quality of written report |
|
10% |
|
TOTAL: |
100% |
100% |