<p> Two key architectural concepts that must be taken into account in every design are sustainability and flexibility. These two ideas are inherently tied to one another. Sustainability refers to ideas and processes that provide solutions meant to better our built environment by using renewable resources, and reducing the amount of energy used in order to ensure our planets well-being for future generations. Flexibility refers to the capability of adaptation in order to accommodate different situations and circumstances. Users will always change through time, while a structure remains the same. The goal of flexibility is to allow a building to evolve as its users do in both long and short term. Rooms can be added or removed, exterior connections can change, and uses of rooms can change through out the day as spaces are used differently. Flexibility will extend a building's entire life cycle and reducing the need for expensive renovations by making every space multi-use. Each building's entire life cycle should be taken into account during the design phase, and no building should serve as a single use, this idea will also make them more sustainable. These two concepts will also have very important social and economical implications for the users.</p>

<p> Designers and builders focused on green innovations often struggle to know well the costs and benefits of their proposed projects. As such, some are reluctant to innovate beyond the well known, as even modest projects are costly in nearly all respects. This project is designed to provide data to promote actionable recommendations and strategic decision criteria for commercializing a model for exterior wall assemblies constructed with straw bales and earthen plasters. The wall assemblies are specific for houses built in hot arid climates using vernacular architecture and site-available earthen soils that take into account resiliency, environmental and social accountability, and affordability. These data derive from secondary research, four case studies, and two experimental build projects. A Full Costs Accounting (FCA) framework and Benefit Costs Analysis (BCA) assess costs, impacts, and benefits for the two experimental build projects that used the same amount of building material as measured in cubic feet (&plusmn; 3%) but were constructed from different materials and design strategies for exterior wall assemblies. Results from the builds&rsquo; FCA indicate that imported materials needed for a conventional wood framed wall assembly used 204% more fuels in the production process (cradle-to-factory gate) and 733% more diesel fuels in the transportation process (factory gate-to-retail store) than a vernacular build&rsquo;s wall assembly. Upfront labor costs were increased by 287% when using site-available soils for earthen plasters instead of imported lumber for a conventional wall assembly. Benefits (BCA) for the straw bale and earthen plaster construction include reduced impacts upon the extraction site, increased resiliency and social cohesion, and limited requirements for capital investments. This research contributes to the assessment tools available for stakeholders to make more informed decisions when investing in multi-faceted affordable housing projects in hot arid regions throughout the world.</p>

<p> A rating system known as Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design for Neighborhood Development, LEED-ND, was developed in 2007 to assess sustainability at the neighborhood scale. Although at this time LEED for buildings is a well-known and well-established program in the United States, LEED for Neighborhood Development is less widely recognized since it was developed in 2007 as compared to LEED for buildings. LEED-ND requires that certified developments meet credit areas in three main categories: a) smart location and linkage (SLL), b) neighborhood pattern and design (NPD), and c) green infrastructure and buildings (GIB). LEED-ND goes above and beyond singularly requiring sustainable mobility, traditional neighborhood design, or green building; rather, it incorporates the above three categories into a single rating system. To date, prior LEED rating systems (New Construction and Existing Buildings) have focused on the building scale, as have most critiques of such metrics. Few authors have ventured to analyze the neighborhood rating system with the exception of Garde (2009) and Ewing et al. (2013) and Sharifi and Murayama (2013), who have only used only secondary scorecard data and other aggregated data to assess the success or predict outcomes of LEED-ND neighborhoods. No post-occupancy studies have been conducted to date that take into consideration the resident&rsquo;s perception and stated preferences. Additionally, no studies have examined in detail the provision of affordable housing within LEED-ND developments. </p><p> LEED-ND has been rapidly adopted as the de-facto green neighborhood standard and is now used to measure the sustainability of neighborhood design around the world. Like the previous LEED green building rating systems, LEED-ND is heavily reliant on physical &amp; environmental design criteria (measures such as compact urban form and transit accessibility), and is based on an expert-generated point system. LEED-ND thus excels in measuring &lsquo;environmental sustainability&rsquo; through its stringent environmental performance criteria. However, it fails to critically address important livability factors&mdash;namely social and economic factors&mdash;and there has not been a critical examination of how to properly weigh the various factors in response to user preferences. Scholars have emphasized that the major weakness of sustainable development agendas, emphasizing that although assessment of <i>environmental</i> sustainability is quite thorough, often sustainable development projects fail to adequately address or operationalize social and economic sustainability. Ultimately, creating metrics for <i>social</i> and <i>economic </i> sustainability is more complicated than developing metrics for environmental sustainability, which can be reduced to direct built environment performance measures. At the neighborhood scale, socio-cultural and socio-economic concerns&mdash;such as affordable housing&mdash;become magnified for residents. Accordingly, this dissertation argues that socio-cultural and socio-economic factors and user preferences require a more significant foothold in neighborhood scale rating systems, if such systems purport to fully support all three tiers of sustainability: social, economic and environmental (Wheeler 2004). Specifically, this study examines affordable housing as a proxy for social equity and social sustainability in LEED-ND neighborhoods, and determines the extent to which principles of social sustainability are being upheld. </p><p> This dissertation advances the emerging field of sustainable neighborhood rating systems, by illustrating and evaluating a significant gap in current sustainable neighborhood evaluation systems. Cutting across planning, landscape architecture, architecture, psychology and sociology in both Canada and the US, the study critically questions the LEED-ND rating system as the epitome of sustainable development. This dissertation illustrates that in order to be truly sustainable, developments must consider social-cultural and socio-economic livability factors alongside environmental factors, including post-occupancy evaluation. This dissertation also asks the question if social equity and affordability issues can be singularly addressed by a voluntary, market-based rating system, or if a broader range of strategies is needed to ensure the provision of affordable housing in new sustainable developments. Ultimately, this study provides recommendations to improve the rating system, with a specific focus on affordable housing.</p>

<p> This thesis explores Wilber's Integral Theory and DeKay's adaptation of the theory to sustainable design to discover a design process with the potential to advance the design professions toward a more holistic, restorative approach to sustainable design. The contribution and influence of architects, interior designers, and engineers on the personal and social welfare goes beyond aesthetics, visual interest, or function. The environments being designed today shape how people will live and function in the future. Integral Sustainable Design is concerned with holistically addressing the quality, equity, beauty and efficiency of the built environment. It argues that if sustainable design is to be a transformational force touching personal experience, cultural perspective, energy efficiency, and the ecosystem, it will need to become restorative. </p><p> This thesis provides an overview of the validity, feasibility and methodology of applying Integral Theory to Sustainable Design, to create a theoretical, ideological basis informing the sustainable design process. This thesis will increase awareness of integral theory by summarizing its principles and demonstrating the applicability to sustainable design and the validity to the profession as a whole. A design exercise will illustrate the difference between having a single, inherently biased view verses a comprehensive, holistic view of sustainable design. Four individual houses will be designed, each exploring one quadrant of DeKay's Integral Sustainable grid exclusively. A fifth house will synthesize all of the integral design principles. A comparison is then made to discern any difference in outcomes. All designs are based on the same client design directives, and use the same site. The comparative analysis seems to show that the integral approach can lead to an enhanced experience of nature, history, beauty with efficiency that exceeds Net Zero consumption </p>

<p> Sustainability educators could benefit from better understanding how the built environment, natural environment, and curricular activities can interface to encourage connections between people and place. My research explores the relationship between these dimensions at the Michael Ritchie Big Barn Center for Environmental Health and Education at the Center for Discovery--an innovative project in place-based education and design for individuals with Autism Spectrum Disorders and other disabilities. Specifically, my research addressed the following question: For the occupants of the Big Barn, what is the relative and synergistic importance of (a) the built environment, (b) the natural environment, and (c) the curricular activities and experiences, as they encourage connections between people and place? My research was supported by a range of literature related to place-based education and design, as well as research related to universal design and phenomenological ecology. This literature review shaped my decision to use various research methods, including photo elicitation, surveys, interviews, observations, and document analysis. Using qualitative and quantitative techniques, I identified several important themes, including the relationship between photo content and meaning; the importance of curricular activities and the pedagogical value of the farm; the synergistic relationship between the environment and the activities; the relationship to the broader community; and the potential for staff training. These themes provide insight into the lived experiences of the Big Barn staff and highlight lessons that could potentially inform place-based education more broadly.</p>

Thesis (M. Arch.)--Montana State University--Bozeman, 2007. / Typescript. Chairperson, Graduate Committee: Thomas R. Wood. Includes bibliographical references (leaf 64).

No description available.