ARC 560R/696
Advanced Design: Climate

Instructor: Michael Garrison
Time: MWF 1:00 pm - 6:00 pm
Office Phone: 471-0185, fax 471-0716
Email: mgarrison@mail.utexas.edu

Objective

The objective of this studio is to introduce you to a different way of thinking about architecture that takes our role as stewards of the planet Earth to heart. We will investigate the dynamic interaction of buildings with their natural setting and ambient forces. It is these interactions on which the design process focuses as much as on the resultant form of the building. This way of working draws on and parallels the most up to date insights in green building technology. The studio is intended to essentially focus on building Design With Climate in an urban context and provides a multidisciplinary, focused course of research and study on the salient issues related to the confluence between the built and natural environments.

A hypothetical project has been purposely chosen as a small commercial facility for a small, highly restricted urban site in order to allow investigation of detailed components and technologies which will enhance the project and hopefully result in a very sophisticated design. Design With Climate studies will be encouraged to test ideas of natural and smart building machines as human engagements with nature and program in which technological development and aesthetic expression is inevitable.

Ecological sound practice is more than a matter of energy awareness. It's a design concept that addresses the whole environmental picture, from site strategies, to resource-conserving materials and healthy interior environments. Technology should not be regarded in isolation within the process of design and must not be isolated from numerous aesthetic and sociological design responses. The health of any architectural paradigm may be gauged by the degree of tolerance for opposing points of view that collect around it. Green architecture, as evidenced by the varied work of many of the designers most dedicated to this way of practice does not move in lockstep. Development implies connections, technical as well as human, and must include; historic, social, cultural, and political issues. Each of these important qualities should be integrated into a parti in order to achieve a sophisticated design project.