Grantee Research Project Results
Final Report: Architecture as Pedagogy: Interdisciplinary Design and Creation of a Carbon Neutral Idaho Environmental Learning Center at the University of Idaho McCall Field Campus
EPA Grant Number: SU833561Title: Architecture as Pedagogy: Interdisciplinary Design and Creation of a Carbon Neutral Idaho Environmental Learning Center at the University of Idaho McCall Field Campus
Investigators: Haglund, Bruce T. , Horn, Crystal Van , Jacobus, Frank , Personns, Hanna , Dolence, Jacob , Kullgren, Jenn , Arwyn, Lauriel , Awwad-Rafferty, Rula , Drown, Stephen , Hollenhorst, Steven
Institution: University of Idaho
EPA Project Officer: Page, Angela
Phase: I
Project Period: August 31, 2007 through August 30, 2008
Project Amount: $10,000
RFA: P3 Awards: A National Student Design Competition for Sustainability Focusing on People, Prosperity and the Planet (2007) RFA Text | Recipients Lists
Research Category: Pollution Prevention/Sustainable Development , P3 Challenge Area - Sustainable and Healthy Communities , P3 Awards , Sustainable and Healthy Communities
Objective:
This project seeks to capitalize on the plethora of recent advances in green technology in order to pioneer a built environment that seamlessly weaves together green concepts in energy efficiency, building and finish materials, space planning and use, water treatment, and site construction with an emphasis on using the built environment as a model and teaching tool for applied sustainability. The ultimate goal is design and construction of a carbon neutral environmental learning center at the University of Idaho McCall Field Campus. University of Idaho graduate and undergraduate students specializing in architecture, landscape architecture, engineering, and interior design will work in interdisciplinary teams with McCall Outdoor Science School staff, industry partners and local stakeholders to plan and design and build a carbon-nuetral campus. As Idaho’s only environmental learning center, the resulting facilities will be uniquely poised to showcase sustainability in a state that is expected to experience a 50% rise in population in the next three decades but which lacks the necessary models for sustainable growth to facilitate such an increase without compromising environmental quality. Thousands of visitors each year will participate in programs that use the field campus architecture as pedagogy.
Phase I Objectives
- Plan and design a carbon neutral field campus with attention to the following design components: structural systems, building envelope, environmental systems, site construction, building materials, information technology, spatial systems and integration of systems.
- Increase UI undergraduate and graduate student knowledge and experience with planning and designing a carbon neutral learning center, interdisciplinary collaboration and industry best-practices.
Summary/Accomplishments (Outputs/Outcomes):
Output 1. (short-term) Design a carbon neutral field campus with the following design components: structural systems, building envelope, environmental systems, site construction, building materials, information technology, spatial systems and integration of systems.
Seven student teams produced 7 carbon-neutral master plans. Student test-of-concept designs showed that the intentions of the project are feasible and a very small carbon footprint is possible. The central design team then synthesized a final master plan with the following plan highlights:
- Guest cabins are arranged in ‘pods’ built with different building materials to illustrate alternative building materials: rammed earth, straw bale and cordwood will be showcased.
- Payette Lake is the central place element. A line of site is established through the center of the campus. The classroom and dining lodge, as the central activity areas, are located on the lake with easy access.
- Old growth Ponderosa Pine trees were marked, retained and incorporated into naturalist educational node. The viewshed from the lake itself is also protected by a ‘green belt.’
- A living machine/greenhouse is featured at the center of campus highlighting education opportunities and increasing efficiency of wastewater treatment. Food systems education is facilitated by greenhouse and composting systems.
- A Biomass powerplant is located close to Ponderosa State Park for easy offloading of fuel.
- Recycled, salvaged or engineered yet low VOC composite construction and furnishing materials used in every building.
- Passive solar gain, natural lighting and natural ventilation design increases energy efficiency and connection to natural systems.
- Photovoltaic roof panels are on appropriate (less shady) buildings. Wind power is featured by the dock. Though active solar and wind energy will play a tangential role in energy production due to predominant shade and inconsistent wind speeds, they are important educational additions. Educational energy center monitors output from all energy sources.
- Roof rainwater collection used for fire response, landscape irrigation and living machine.
Output 2. (short-term) Synthesize final facilities plan under the guidance of industry professionals during Industry Collaboration-Design Work Sessions.
During spring 2008, a master plan was synthesized under the guidance of industry professionals and the central design team. Involvement of professional was important in establishing infrastructure needs, water targets, building phases, viability of renewable energy possibilities and the overall site plan. This spring synthesis, including 2 charrettes and additional industry and stakeholder involvement, was an additional portion of the project that emerged as necessary after completion of the fall semester and 7 initial master plan drafts. Addition of the spring synthesis pushed the building phase of the project back to summer 2009.
Output 3. (short-term) Conduct Summer Design-Build Workshops where UI students work with industry professionals to learn hands-on carbon neutral building techniques.
Summer Design-Build Workshops will be conducted in summer 2009. As noted above, the additional plan synthesis and stakeholder involvement phase in spring 2008 made this delay necessary.
Conclusions:
The developed master plan has tremendous potential benefit for quality of life in Idaho. The location itself, inside Ponderosa State Park on the longest uninterrupted shoreline of Payette Lake, is a unique educational setting. Such a valuable piece of property, while it may have large potential benefit to local communities and Idaho, has a tenuous existence due to threat of sale and development until just such a substantial educational facility is built and put into full use.
Of the 11 LEED certified buildings in Idaho, the UI environmental learning center will be the only public space, and the only one that takes measures to serve low-income families. This is exactly the sort of project that is capable of turning the tide of public and industry opinion about the economic feasibility of sustainable building practices.
Direct benefits to the environment are as follows:
- Carbon reduction equivalent to 164,607 lbs (Energy Information Administration, 2008).
- Water reduction target of 50% will save 298,000 gallons of water annually.
- A construction waste reduction target of 75%, will result in approximately 96,525 pounds of saved construction waste.
- Reduced toxicity from use of low and no VOC materials will result in a reduction of approximately 350,000 grams Volatile Organic Compounds (VOCs).
The project was successful in developing the following components with attention to the central design challenges: structural systems, the building envelope, environmental systems, interior spatial systems, site construction, building materials, and information technology. Qualitatively speaking, students loved working on this project. The ultimate success of Phase I will be revealed in how well it has set Phase II up for success in construction.
Project Period for Phase II: 8/08 – 8/09
Proposed Phase II Objectives and Strategies:
Overview
Phase I of this project created a master plan and established working team of partners responsible for guiding the project, including non-profit organizations, community stakeholders and industry professionals. Phase II of this project will put the master plan into action, building one building that will showcase architecture as pedagogy at the University of Idaho’s McCall Environmental Learning Center. This building, complete with energy monitoring from materials to maintenance, educational interfaces and learning nodes, will be used in University of Idaho education and outreach programs beginning on Fall 2009.
Design/Build studio will focus on construction of 30-person guest housing pod of approximately 1,200-1,500 square feet with attention to the 6 central design challenges and appropriate building systems. The Phase I master plan suggests that this pod will consist of 3 units showcasing straw bale as a sustainable design technique. Phase one made available several feasible and buildable possibilities for the following design components: structural systems, building envelope, environmental systems, site construction, building materials, information technology, spatial systems and integration of systems.
The project focuses on weaving together existing green technologies in planning, design and construction of an environmental learning center with following central design challenges:
- Carbon neutrality.
- Seamless integration of systems in relation to each other and the McCall site. This includes site specific requirements such as: a) firewise construction to fit the regions fire dependent ecosystem, and b) efficiency in snow shedding, removal and storage.
- Use of underutilized local materials.
- Educational interfaces for all sustainable design elements.
- Cost-effectiveness in relation to industry standards.
- Create a comfortable, aesthetically pleasing and livable building that will appeal to the Idaho lifestyle.
The short term cost goal for project construction is $100 a square foot, which places this project in the company of Boise’s LEED Platinum Banner Bank Building, constructed at a very competitive $128 per square foot. Although other green (and conventional) buildings have been built at a much higher cost per square foot, one of this project’s key goals is to establish the viability of resource-efficient and simultaneously cost-effective buildings. Student participation allows the deduction of labor costs from the cost per square foot, making this a realistic project goal. Local construction cost estimates were obtained and labor costs subtracted as appropriate.
Strategies:
The fall design studio will be dedicated to schematic design. The central working team of students, faculty, community stakeholders and industry partners will guide this process, which will include precedent research, a design charrette, focused review and refinement. The exact size, construction type, look, placement on site, of the building will be determined.
The spring design/build workshop will be dedicated to design development, construction document and construction timeline production. During this time students, guided by the central design team, will finalize exactly how the building will be built in terms of detailing materials, number of people, available tools, technologies, and line-item cost determinations.
The summer build workshop will spend a full 10 weeks constructing the guest housing pod at the UI McCall field campus. In order to speed this process, the foundation will be laid by professionals prior to the workshop. Professionals will be brought in for electricity and plumbing as needed.
Objectives
- (short-term) Increase knowledge, experience and skills with interdisciplinary and sustainable design and building, industry best-practices and stakeholder involvement for 27-30 architecture students.
- (short-term) Create necessary resolved schematic designs, construction documents, construction timeline and design developments complete with full cost and carbon notation.
- (short-term) Build the University of Idaho McCall Field Campus’s first carbon-neutral building that fulfills the central 6 design challenges.
- (short-term) Reduce carbon emissions by 27,435 lbs carbon, water use by 99,300 gallons, construction waste by 16,087 lbs, and toxic offgasing by 58,333 grams VOC annually by replacing 3 energy-inefficient bunkhouses with carbon neutral buildings.
- (medium-term) Increase knowledge, experience and skills with delivery of sustainability curriculum (architecture as pedagogy) for 15 field instructors and graduate students in residency at the UI McCall field campus during training (Aug 2009) and program delivery (2009-2010).
- (medium-term) Increase experience and knowledge with sustainable practices and lifestyle choices for 900 Idaho young learners, parents, teachers and community members over the course of the 2009-2010 school year.
- (long-term) Significantly reduce regional carbon emissions, water used, waste produced and pollution by toxic substances.
Journal Articles:
No journal articles submitted with this report: View all 3 publications for this projectSupplemental Keywords:
sustainable development, carbon, global warming, renewable, engineering, architecture, design, sustainable industry/business, technology for sustainable environment, building materials, wastewater treatment, energy efficiency, monitoring,, RFA, Air, climate change, Air Pollution Effects, AtmosphereRelevant Websites:
http://www.caa.uidaho.edu/McCallDesignBuild Exit
The perspectives, information and conclusions conveyed in research project abstracts, progress reports, final reports, journal abstracts and journal publications convey the viewpoints of the principal investigator and may not represent the views and policies of ORD and EPA. Conclusions drawn by the principal investigators have not been reviewed by the Agency.