Smart and Sustainable Campus Conference
April 16, 2012 8:40am
UMUC Inn and Conference Center
University of Maryland, College Park, Maryland
The path to sustainability IS a journey. As we try to take the biggest strides on our journey, we need to keep looking for the largest levers; the most effective ways to influence the thought patterns of the world at large. A sustainable future lies in finding the correct relationship with each other and the Earth. This has important and often overlooked qualitative aspects.
This seminar uses the subject of construction materials as an example of this attitude. We are used to talking about embodied energy, about renewability, about LCA; very quantitative things. But when the conversation turns qualitative, we still fall back to our old modernist and industrial aesthetic value sets. Portions of these may be eternal, but many parts need to be revolutionized to meet the holistic redefinition of our world that sustainability is prompting. As an example, we use wood because it is quantitatively sustainable, but we still use it qualitatively as we would any manufactured material: pieces all cut the same size and free of defects. Creating a new relationship to the Earth means valuing the inherent qualities of its materials; this signifies a different aesthetic value set.
Presently, few know how to hold this conversation; there are few common touch-points. But we must develop them. This session with revolve around the development of these tools; a qualitative system for creating a sustainable future to complement the many quantitative tools we possess. We will do this via showing our journey toward this realization and by using case studies of campus projects centered on a material ethic, and then engaging the audience in the development of other foundations for a qualitative design value set.
This subject is best as an 80 minute presentation, using the first 40 minutes to present material, and the last 40 minutes for group work and discussion. It is intended for the “Life Cycle of the Built Environment” track. Although it is grounded in design and architecture, this session is intended to allow broader audiences to make the connection between the quantitative and qualitative aspects of sustainability. In fact, this session is enriched by diverse input from those of different backgrounds.
Three Learning Outcomes:
- Understand material lifecycle from both a qualitative and quantitative perspective
- Become more fluent in speaking about the qualitative aspects of sustainable materials
- Understand how to place current efforts within sustainability’s holistic journey