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ENV 2003: Environmental
Design
Syllabus for Spring 2001
Overview | Goals
| Objectives | Assessment
| Text & Required Materials
Schedule with Readings | Requirements and Grading
| Criteria for Grading
Assistance with Research & Writing | Quotations
| Professor: |
David Bainbridge
Coordinator of Environmental Studies |
| Office hours: |
Tu, Th 10-12 AM or by appointment |
| Office: |
GLS 209 |
| Phone: |
(858) 635-4616 |
| Home Phone: |
given in the class, call before 9 PM |
| Email: |
bainbrid@usiu.edu |
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Course Overview
This course will change how you look at the world,
how you design and shape the spaces around you, and how you select and use
tools, furniture, and buildings. It provides a broad introduction to design,
covering how we interact with the environment around us, how to make things
fit and feel better (ergonomics), materials and methods of assembling them,
and determining the ecological costs of these decisions.
This course includes case studies, design projects
and experiments. It provides methods for determining needs, developing
research teams, and finding solutions to difficult design problems. It also
looks closely at the systems implications of design.
Although this is specifically developed as an
introductory course experienced designers and builders should find it of
interest. Most courses encourage learning what is known - this course also
encourages creativity and finding new solutions to complex problems.
Course Goals
- Demonstration of a global outlook
- Understanding of the interconnectedness and interdependence of
individuals and cultures
- Skill in critical thinking. Ability to assess the quality of
information and its importance
- Competency in interpersonal communication with oral, written,
quantitative and computer skills
- Understanding of the interdisciplinary nature of knowledge
- Development of team work skills
Course Objectives
- Integrate each student's unique experiences and background into this
class
- Understand the importance of culture on other cultures, the
environment and on historical development patterns. Relate environmental
constraints to development patterns and sustainability and design
- Develop increased respect and understanding of "others" and
especially the skill and intelligence needed for subsistence and
survival in difficult and changing environments
- Apply critical analysis skills to interpreting design challenges
- Interpret and present important information for other classmates
- Understand the inter-relatedness of all things and the importance of
systems thinking to solve complex design problems
- Learn to work well with teams and with a partner in analyzing and
presenting discussions and displays of important concepts and papers
Course Assessment
- Class understanding, essays, projects, presentation, essay questions
and short answer exam questions.
- Class participation, research papers, team project, exams.
- Communication - analysis and presentation, research and design
projects, team project.
Text & Required Materials
Victor Papanek. 1995. The Green Imperative: Natural Design for the Real
World. Thames and Hudson, NY 256 pages.
You will also need a cloth measuring tape and adjustable protractor (from
the bookstore), a small ruler (6 inches), a blank notebook for sketches (8
x11" or larger with no lines) and a pencil with eraser and felt pen
(fine tip), and a notebook to keep all class materials to turn in as
portfolio at the end of class.
Class Schedule with Readings
Week 1. Design, defining the problem, a tragic history.
Readings: Papanek Intro, Ch. 1
How things don't work, intro to materials and tools, manufacturing and
waste. Design discipline. Perfectly perverse incentives for disaster by
design. Systems failures and opportunities. The green imperative.
Stimulating your curiosity and creativity.
LIFE-CYCLE ANALYSIS AND MAPPING
Week 2. Design responsibility, opportunity, and joy.
Readings: Papanek Ch. 2, 10
Life cycle costs, biometrics, systems effects, integration and interaction.
More materials, where do they go when we're done with them. LCCA, audits and
analyses. Communicating clearly.
VISUALIZING AND SKETCHING
Week 3. Design intent, problem definition and teamwork,
ethics.
Readings: Papanek Ch. 3, 8
Durability, useful life, quality and reparability. Design for disassembly,
reuse or recycling. Green materials. Facilitating participation, working
with clients. Steps in building, finding resources in the library, the
hardware store, and other guides.
ECOTECHNICS -- EXPERIMENTATION
Week 4. Craftsmen of necessity. Learning from others.
Readings: Papanek Ch. 6, 11
The genius of the Inuit, lessons from history. Nomadic furniture and
housing. Discipline in design. Stone-leather-wood-steel-plastics-the future
is? Building bridges, egg drop.
MENTAL MAPS
Week 5. Ergonomics and comfort. Making things fit.
Readings: Grandjean., Kira.
Measuring people at work, rest and play. Assessing designs and helping
people improve their fit to their environments. Shoes, chairs, benches,
airplanes and other instruments of torture. Statistical means and outliers.
Why design failures lead to mistakes and accidents.
ERGONOMICS
Week 6. Disabilities and disadvantaged.
Readings: ADA, supplemented readings
The senses. Physical, visual, aural, and other limitations. How we hurt
ourselves at home. Making products explain themselves. Helping making life
less dangerous and more pleasant. DISABLED FOR A DAY
Week 7. A livable future.
Readings: Papanek Ch. 9, 12
Sharing v/s buying, ecological living, sustainability and economics. The
psychology of consumption, wanting and needing. Status and excess. Why
subsidies are killing us. Industrial ecology and global change.
COMPLEXITY AND UNCERTAINTY
Week 8. Housing.
Readings: DB-Village Homes, Papanek Ch. 4
Making more with less. Why buildings standup -- and fall down. Water, energy
and resource conservation in housing. The health benefits of good design.
Climatically adapted, green buildings. Homeowners manuals. Green hotels.
SHELTER FOR ALL
Week 9. Subdivisions and communities.
Readings: Papanek Ch. 5
The self-reliant, sustainable community. Lessons from the past, Village
Homes, Soldiers Grove, and other successes. Ecocity projects and Curitiba,
Brazil. Bicycles, light rail, jitneys and buses. Earthquake responsive
design.
A LANDSCAPE FOR HUMANS
Week 10. Wrap-up - completion of Habitat House projects,
sharing solutions and challenges.
FINAL June 14, 8:00 AM
Course Requirements and Grading
|
Grade |
Due Date |
1. Two short papers
a) a lifecycle cost outline for a product
b) a green design business opportunity
|
10%
10% |
April 12
May 22 |
2. Two design outlines or projects
a) egg drop protection with natural
materials
b) a popsickle stick and paper bridge - weight
tested in
class
|
5%
5% |
April 17
April 24 |
3. One product analysis for a commonly used item, how
well
does it work, how does it work for the
handicapped, what
are the environmental costs or questions.
i.e. park bench,
hairdryer, phone, VCR, etc.
|
10% |
May 8 |
4. One computer station evaluation - your own or a
campus
office
|
10% |
May 15 |
5. Team project (Habitat for Humanity House)
|
10% |
May 29 |
| 6. Two quizzes (take home) |
10% |
April 26, May 17
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7. Notebook/ Journal
|
10% |
June 7 |
8. Final exam
|
10% |
June 14 |
| 9. Class participation |
10% |
all quarter
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IF YOU HAVE QUESTIONS ABOUT ASSIGNMENTS OR EXPECTATIONS, PLEASE E-MAIL
bainbrid@usiu.edu, CALL 635-4616, OR VISIT MY
OFFICE.
For information and assistance with research and writing, see: http://faculty.usiu.edu/bainbridge/resources.htm
Also see http://www.ecocomposite.com
Criteria for Grading
(I allow papers and projects to be corrected and resubmitted, but quizzes
and tests cannot be redone)
| 1) Creativity/innovation |
20 |
| 2) Analysis/understanding |
20 |
| 3) Structure and order, focus |
20 |
| 4) Clarity |
20 |
| 5) Sketches and illustrations |
5 |
| 6) Style - is it engaging, attractive, enjoyable |
10 |
| 7) Quality of research/ citations/ references |
5 |
| |
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| Deductions |
|
| Spelling errors |
-5 points for each word |
| No page numbers |
-10 |
| Illegible |
-10 |
Quotations
The challenge is to do more with less, to waste
nothing,
make everything recyclable or reusable.
To design products and systems that are friendly,
easy to understand, flexible, and healthy
and pose no risk to users.
It may save your health or protect a loved one.
It may help save the world.
It is one thing to invent, and another to make the
invention work.
Mark Brunel, English engineer and inventor
Is not invention the poetry of science?
All great discoveries carry with them the indelible mark
of poetic thought. It is necessary to be a poet to create.
E. M. Bataille, French inventor and steam engine pioneer
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