Watter Bottle

My water bottle is inspired by the shape of fan vaults and the handles of tea pots. Not much can be done to improve the functionality of water bottles, so I designed it to be stylish instead.

Sofa

This little boy abandoned his parents and found his own space to fall asleep on the train. He wanted to prove his independence, but only moved a few rows away. The perfect sofa is a comfortable leather sofa that looks like an adult piece, but is sized just for him.

Wayfinding Pamphlet

Each exhibit space is unique. I arranged each group so that visitors could wind their way through each space. They can see each exhibit in turn, but still have the opportunity to explore.

Building Materials

I analyzed the cost effectiveness of sustainable building materials. I found that the materials themselves don't have a huge effect on the cost. It is the consultant fees required to design and test the building that add to the price. But the additional expense pays for itself within 3 to 5 years and after 20 years a building can save $50 a square foot each year.

Rug Pattern

This rug pattern is inspired by the architecture of the eatchquake exhibit design at the Natural History Museum in London. I wanted a dynamic pattern with a sense of movement.

Identity Assignment

Water Bottle Design

Modern Design

At 9:30 this morning we had to have our three carpet patterns on the wall ready for a critique. That made for a late night for almost everyone. These are mine:



Natural History Museum



Victoria & Albert



Science Museum

We need to have them reworked and ready to present to Brinton’s carpet by Tuesday.




Graffiti on Tower Bridge

More museums were on the schedule today. A Tube ride and a walk across Tower Bridge brought us to the Design Museum. I love the concept of their collection, to celebrate great design in our lives. Chairs, books, cars, clothing, and even tv programs made up the collection. The problem is there wasn’t much of it there. This should have been a much larger museum.









The next stop was London City Hall. I love this building. It is very playful for a government building. Why can’t we do something like this to the Utah State Capital? Because in the US we are afraid to try something new and different. Maybe they are much more open here is because they’ve already done everything. There isn’t much point to building a city hall that looks like Parilament.

We then headed to the Tate Modern. This is the most incredible museum I’ve ever been it. The collection of modern art is stunning. It was Calder, after Warhol, after Rothco, all mixed up. I saw the most stunning Jasper Johns and my favorite Picasso, Weeping Woman. I had no idea it was there and when I saw it across the room I ran to it! I stood there for several minutes studying the color and brush strokes. I once painted a master copy of it and I think I got it right. Out time there was too short. I wish I could have been there all day. But we had to get back, by way of the Millenium Bridge.



We had tickets to see Mary Poppins.



I’ve never been a big fan of the movie even though I grew up with it, and I’m not big on musicals in general. But the stage production is a lot of fun. They expanded the story, making it more about the family than about Mary, which strengthened the characters. The sets and costumes were very creative and it had more of a fairy tale quality than I expected.

London and Paris: A Tale of Two Cities

Assignment 2: Royal American Design Program

In three weeks I will be in London. I'm so entrenched in my internship at the moment that its hard to imagine that it will soon end and I will fly to the other side of the world to study design in an entirely different way. In a previous life I was a history major and I have studied the histories of both London and Paris in depth. It will be impossible for me to disconnect from the knowledge I have while I am there and it will be interesting to see if this will enhance or detract from the experience. I expect this will only add, but there is something to be said for not having preconceived notions.

I've never been to Paris, but I once spent an afternoon in London. I was on a layover on my way to Athens and had enough time to ride the Tube in from Heathrow, jump on a double decker bus, and take a quick tour. Oddly, the thing I remember most were the flower boxes. It seemed they were on every building and all were in bloom. London was a beautiful city, and a fascinating contrast to Athens.

The thing I would like to do in both cities is to walk the streets and explore. I believe in spending time getting to know one place rather than running all over Europe trying to see everything just to say you were there. I also want to see contemporary architecture and design. The offices of Norman Foster and Zaha Hadid, both Pritzker Prize winners, are in London. In spite of my love of history I'm not the type who is in awe of it. You study the past in order to create the future. Having said that I've always been obsessed with cathedrals and would love to see as many as I can.

My family is English from long before there was an England. I am a descendant of Old King Cole, several lines of Scottish royalty (including Duncan, the king murdered by MacBeth), William the Conqueror, and the Plantagenets. It's not always a group to be proud of, but it makes for a colorful pedigree. The most recent of my great-great-great grandparents to come to America left England in the 1860s from Northampton. I need to pull out my genealogy before I go.

I'm looking forward to this opportunity to learn and experience something new, and I hope it makes me a better designer.

Sustainability: Building Materials

Assignment 1: Royal American Design Program

"Like any good design, good sustainable design demands informed, caring, diligent, and creative work."

- John Morris Dixon, FAIA
May 2006

"What if we could do anything? What if the questions surrounding design turned out to be the big questions? What if life itself became a design project? What if - as Arnold Toynbee once suggested - we were committed to an audacious, altruistic global project that imagined "the welfare of the entire human race as a practical objective"? What if design turned out to be that project? What if we succeeded?"

-Bruce Mau

What is sustainability and how does it relate to your field and interests?

The internationally accepted definition of sustainability was established by the UN's World Commission on Environment and Development in 1987. It is, "development which meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs". 1 It's a nice, concise definition, but it's too vague to really mean much.

The 2006 AIA convention held last week discussed adopting the following definition for sustainability:

The linked domains of sustainability are environmental (natural patterns and flows), economic (financial patterns and equity), and social (human, cultural, and spiritual). Sustainable design is a collaborative process that involves thinking ecologically—studying systems, relationships, and interactions—in order to design in ways that remove rather than contribute stress from systems. The sustainable design process holistically and creatively connects land use and design at the regional level and addresses community design and mobility; site ecology and water use; place-based energy generation, performance, and security; materials and construction; light and air; bioclimatic design; and issues of long life and loose fit. True sustainable designs are beautiful, humane, socially appropriate, and restorative of natural systems. 2

I love this definition. It is everything I want design to be. I chose my internship at GSBS because their focus is on sustainable architecture. I'm in an office full of LEED APs, and it is my goal to be LEED accredited by the time I graduate next spring.

The most intriguing aspect of sustainability for me is the balance between the environment, the economy, and social issues. That is where traditional environmental movements have failed and where sustainable development has a chance at succeeding. None of this is possible without the economic benefits of business and the greatest strides have come from companies who embrace sustainability as part of their corporate social responsibility.

What are the problems that need to be solved with my team topic and sustainability?

Building materials make up the largest amount of material used in a project. They have the biggest impact on the cost and take the largest toll on the environment. The biggest contribution to LEED certification is also found in building materials. This is the worst problem we face:


Buildings need to be designed and built so that they will either last for 100s of years (as in Europe), or be dismantled and upcycled at the end of their lifecycle. All of this ended up at the landfill and it was an incredible waste of materials. The old Merrill Library should have been designed to have a much longer lifespan. It only took 40 odd years to become dangerous and obsolete.

The reality of suburban America is disposable architecture. WalMart and the rest don't care what happens to their buildings when they close a store. If a big box becomes rundown a company will tear it down and rebuild before it will consider a permanent presence in a community it may not survive in. Look at Brigham City. WalMart will build a new monster store before it will convert the empty Fred Meyer, Kmart and ShopKo buildings. What happens if WalMart needs to close? Brigham will be left with another dead store and sprawl that is threatening the downtown district. Logan isn't in much better shape. What will happen if the new WalMart on the south end of town closes? What happens to the Macey's building when they build their new location? What if ShopKo or Kmart close? The companies cut their losses and leave while the community is left with the reprecussions of bad planning and bad building.

As many of us heard at NeoCon West, Karim Rashid spoke of the virtue of disposable architecture. He believes a building should be meant to last a set period of time, maybe 10 or 20 years, and then torn down to be replaced with something better. The average lifespan of a casino in Las Vegas is 30 years. If this is the future then sustainability is more vital than ever. William McDonough's Cradle to Cradle philosophy must be embraced if we are going to tear down and rebuild. A maximum amount of building materials must be designed to be upcycled and waste really must equal food. If not we will eat ourselves alive. What will Cache Valley look like in 100 years?

What solutions are currently out there?

The May 2006 issue of W Magazine has an article about architect David Hertz. He is a hot property among LA celebrities for his innovative approach to green design. Hertz began his career as Frank Gehry's intern and works closely with Paul Hawken, author of The Ecology of Commerce. His current project is a home constructed from the shell of an old 747. He is the inventor of Syndecrete, "an innovative pre-cast lightweight concrete architectural surfacing material which incorporates recycled aggregates extracted from society’s waste stream." 3 Everything from glass to crushed vinyl records can be mixed in Syndecrete, which is liscenced through Interface. 4 Solutions come from innovative people like Hertz who see a problem and find a solution.

Other solutions (and their own problems):

Dimensional lumber is the wood used to construct most homes. Wood is renewable, but the amount we use is straining our resources and affecting our water, soil and air quality. Forestry Stewardship Council (FSC) certified wood is grown in managed forests that meet strong ecologically based standards. The problem is that there are few managed forests and not many bodies who certify them. It is also difficult to identify old growth wood once it has been harvested. The best solution comes from using regionally grown wood where the supply and demand could be easily monitored, and the local economy could recieve the greatest benefit. 5

Forest Stewardship Council
Forest Stewardship Council International
Sustainable Lumber Production
Illegal Logging
Profile Lumber
AltruWood
Full Cycle WoodWorks

Engineered wood is made from laminating wood chips together and uses recycled and reconstituted wood material. It is stronger and strighter than lumber, and easier to work with when spanning longer distances. These products, like plywood, dramatically reduce waste. 6 The problem with engineered wood is that the resin used to bind the wood fiber together is made from formaldehyde and other toxic chemicals that will offgass into the air for decades. Formaldehyde is a probable know carcinogen, as are xylene and toulene, other chemicals commonly used in the manufacturing process. For engineered wood to be considered sustainable it must use formaldehyde-free and non-toxic binders. There are some products that can minimize this problem by sealing the wood. The health effects caused by these chemicals are significant and contribute to poor indoor air quality and sick building syndrome. Other sheet materials can be made from recycled newsprint, agicultural byproducts (wheatboard), and recycled gypsum, but the same caution must be taken to make sure they don't use toxic binders.

APA The Engineered Wood Association
Engineered Structural Products
Wheatboard
Strawboard
Woodstalk

Concrete is usually made from manufacturing byproducts and is considered sustainable. Once cured it is stable and doesn't offgass. Flyash is the waste residue caused by burning coal in electrical plants. Thirteen million tons of flyash is produced each year in Texas alone. When flyash is recyled by mixing it into concrete it imporves its workability and increases strength. It also reduces the corrosion caused be reinforcing steel. Flyash concrete is identical in cost to standard concrete. 7

Development of Green Cement
Sustainable Concrete
Sustainable Concrete Structures
Concrete International

Glass is a low emissions material that can contribute to sustainability in several areas. It can be easily recycled and made into many interior finishes. It is available with coatings that deflect sunlight, reducing heating and the cost of air conditioning. 8 Skylights let in natural light and reduce the amount of artificial light needed. Notice the use of natural light vs florescent lighting in the new Merrill-Cazier Library. This picture was taken in the basement.


Advanced Glass Group
Daylighting Collaborative
Daylighting
Daylighting in Schools Improves Student Performance
Recycled Glass Products

Steel provides a flexible building system that is easily modifiable for future use. This extends the building's lifecycle as future tenants can adapt the space for their own needs. Steel can be easily dismantled and reused or recycled without degrading its quality. Steel is manufacured off site by skilled laborers who are paid well and enjoy higher workplace safety than other industries. The steel industry, especially in Europe, has identified several areas that can contribute to sustainability. These topics include: environmental reporting, training responsible contractors, and developing new products that meet the needs of sustainable goals. 9

ISSI World Steel Industry
Sustainable Steel Construction
Sustainable Steel Roofing
Canadian Steel Buildings Case Studies

What areas need more exploration around your team topic?

We need new alternatives to conventioan building materials that are practical and cost effective. There must be more people like David Hertz who are coming up with solutions that haven't hit the mainstream. Research needs to be done to find alternative materials, to identify areas that need further development, and to find creative uses for existing materials.

What conclusions have you found, specifically that you would like to take on personally?

I'm interested in cost analysis. The perception is that sustainable design is much more expensive. What exactly does it cost compared to conventional building, and at what point will it pay for itself? Cost is the biggest concern to the client.

Sources:
1. http://www.gdrc.org/sustdev/definitions.html
2. "Draft Definition of Sustainable Design", May 24, 2006 http://architectureofsustainability.blogspot.com/
3. http://www.volume5.com/html/david_hertz_architect.html
4. http://www.ema-online.org/greenlight_2003_spring_green_remodeling.htm
5. http://www.greenbuilder.com/sourcebook/DimensionalLumber.html
6. http://www.greenbuilder.com/sourcebook/EngStruct.html
7. http://www.greenbuilder.com/sourcebook/Flyash.html
8. http://www.designcommunity.com/discussion/23872.html
9. http://scinews.steel-sci.org/articles/pdf/SSC.pdf