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Vital Signs 1998 Student Case Study
Competition Buildings, Environment, & Vital Signs Buildings today not only have an impact on the indoor environment--on the lives of people who live and work in them--but also on the outdoor environment, on the very health of the planet. Architects have an opportunity to play a central role in shaping the nation’s future in energy and environmental quality by creating buildings that are energy-efficient, site- and climate-responsive, and a delight to be in. The way our buildings are constructed, operated and maintained has a profound impact on the health of the local and global environment. With slightly over four percent of the world’s population, the USA consumes approximately 24% of the world’s energy. Buildings in the USA are responsible for 38% of national energy consumption and over nine percent of world energy consumption. The link between poor design decisions and global environmental problems is a strong one, and greater energy efficiency remains the key to improvement in a number of environmental concerns. Energy use linked to buildings accounts for over 50% of the greenhouse gasses associated with global climate change, half of the nuclear waste and much of acid rain. The demand for more power, and the accompanying need for new power plants, new large scale dams, and new oil exploration and mining sites, all contribute to habitat destruction. These considerations, coupled with the fact that buildings have long life spans, indicate how important it is that energy efficiency and environmental awareness become a primary concern of architects, the professionals charged with leading the building design effort. A designer who does not comprehend the implications of her or his actions will unwittingly contribute to environmental degradation. But what is the best way to learn how to produce buildings with improved environmental performance? Vital Signs believes that many lessons - both what to do and what not to do - can be learned from existing buildings. The project encourages and promotes experiential learning. In the Vital Signs approach, buildings serve as settings where students can seek pertinent lessons on the success and failure of different design approaches through direct experience. Existing buildings hold fascinating lessons on a variety of topics from occupant well-being to the operations of technical systems. For example, are the occupants of Helmut Jahn’s extensively glazed United Airlines terminal in Chicago comfortable during a hot sunny day? Have the widely acclaimed energy-conserving features of the National Audubon Society’s Headquarters performed as intended by the designers? Are the occupants satisfied with the interior environmental qualities? The Vital Signs Case Study Competition challenges architecture students to take a detective’s eye to the built environment. Students are asked to investigate, measure, and report on the physical performance of existing buildings in terms of energy use, occupant well-being, and architectural space-making. Students are also encouraged to consider and discuss the connections between a building's performance characteristics and the architectural design decisions that influenced them. Written up as case studies these reports will be shared with other students and broader architectural community. The Vital Signs Curriculum Materials Project Over the past four years the Vital Signs Project has initiated a range of programs to support architectural educators and their students. These have included the production of curriculum materials, an ongoing equipment loan program, small grants to schools to support the student investigation of existing buildings, a prior case study competition in the fall of 1996, and the publication of student case studies on the internet. For more information on Vital Signs see the project’s internet site at http://www-archfp.ced.berkeley.edu/vitalsigns/index.html. The 1998 Vital Signs Student Case Study Competition is supported by a grant from the Educational Foundation of America. The Vital Signs Project has been made possible through ongoing assistance from The Energy Foundation and Pacific Gas & Electric (PG&E). The Vital Signs equipment loan program is supported by the National Science Foundation (NSF), individual equipment vendors, and The Energy Foundation. Vital Signs is also supported by the Nathan Cummings Foundation. The project is administered by the Center for Environmental Design Research (CEDR) at the University of California, Berkeley. Competition Objectives The purpose of the Vital Signs Case Study Competition is to encourage and reward outstanding student case studies of existing buildings at both the undergraduate and graduate levels. Undergraduate and graduate entries will be judged separately with prizes awarded in both divisions. Vital Signs believes case studies contain lessons that will enable students to better understand the environmental impact of current design and building practice. Based upon the way buildings perform when occupied, these lessons also offer students a chance to broaden and improve their design skills. Case studies should provide information about design intent, building performance, and the variety of ways occupants actually experience a building. The 1998 Case Study Competition asks students to: • demonstrate an understanding of an existing building through the development of questions and hypotheses about specific building performance topics; • investigate the connections between that building's design decisions, and its physical performance including energy use, occupant well-being, and architectural space-making; • produce exemplar case studies for distribution to the architectural community. |
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to: All contents copyright (C) 1998. Vital Signs Project. All rights reserved. Created: 10/08/97 |
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