THEORY + PRACTICE WORKSHOP
Carrying Capacity + Proof of Concept / Applied Systems Rough-Casting
“Real security, in other words, is inseparable from issues of energy policy; education; public health; preservation of soils, forests, and waters; and broadly based, sustainable prosperity.” | David W. Orr”
“Sometimes innovation isn’t enough, the system must be totally transformed to respond to extreme disturbance. A system can become over-mature, calcified and slow to change in the face of disturbance. Resilient systems embrace disturbance, using it to ensure periodic transformation.” | The Meadowcreek Project
It is argued that the development of regenerative systems is the most promising method for ensuring a sustainable future – not merely conserving critical natural resources, but even enhancing them over time.” | John T. Lyle Center for Regenerative Studies
Workshop Activities: Reflections + Exercises
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This Weeks Workshop
Welcome to Workshop Module 4. We’ve been exploring the conceptual textures of system thinking and we’ve been doing some qualitative work with systems creating the DNA for your project. We’ve looked at the Purpose, Greater Purpose and Drivers for your project, which shape the system you about to start developing. Now we’re going to dive into measurable systems and explore the the theory of carrying capacity through individual exercise work. This will be an on-going iterative process that will continue through the end of the semester. This work is central to the practice of sustainability, as are guidelines and metrics. We’ll continue to explore the ideas and guidelines that feed + nurture sustainability.
THEORY
About 6-7 Hours Total | 2.5 Hours of Video + Reading / 4 Hours for Contemplation + Writing
Part 1: Carrying Capacity
About 1.5 Hours | 35+ Minutes of Video / About 1.5 Hour for Notes, Absorption + Contemplation
Video: 2013 TEDx Sonoma – The Story of More, Richard Heinberg | 13:50 Minutes
Richard Heinberg of the Post-Carbon Institute provides an overview of Carrying Capacity and the state of society relative to consumption.
Video: 2013 Bioneers Speech on Living Buildings and Regenerative Future, Jason McLennan | 2:00 Minutes
VIEW AND LISTEN TO THE CARRY CAPACITY STATEMENTS WHICH START AT 8:55 to about 10:08
Jason McLennan of the Living Building Challenge discusses the Bullitt Center Design and the carrying capacity approach taken around the design of the building. The Case study starts at about 5:35 and the discussion on carrying capacity starts at 8:55.
Part 2: Energy, Water and Food
About 5.5 Hours | 3 Hours of Video + Reading / 2 Hours for Notes, Absorption + Contemplation
A. ENERGY + MOBILITY
Video Excerpt: 2018 Presentation in Palo Alto, California – Our Renewable Future, Richard Heinberg | 9:40 through 44:56 | About 35 Minutes
Energy expert Richard Heinberg provides a deep exploration of energy, carbon and how we can create a vital future with renewable energy. The talk covers all sectors of the economy including buildings, materials, transportation and food.
Video excerpt starts at about 9:40
Reading Excerpt: Energy and Mobility – Selected pages from the Living Building Challenge V4.0 | About 20 Minutes
Buildings and Transportation both are significant consumers of energy. These topics are combined as an Arch 8561 systems learning approach in which students cut across scales and issues within their team and project to improve design integration.
Familiarize yourself with the following calculators and metrics to improve our productivity and uptake as we explore these tools / metrics during the in-class Practice Workshop:
Online Conversions Calculator- Energy
ENERGY
Calculator: Zero Tool Energy Calculator For Buildings
Calculator: Energy Star Target Finder
Calculator: 2030 E2 Energy Balancing Tool
Rules-of-Thumb: 2030 Palette – Building
Solar Calculators
Calculator: PV Watts
Calculator: Solar Hot Water Calculator
Guidance
2030 Challenge Energy Metrics
AIA National 2030 Commitment Energy Use Intensity (EUI) Chart for Buildings Metrics
LEED V4 Energy Optimization
Prerequisite – Minimum Energy Performance
Credit – Optimize Energy Performance
Credit – Renewable Energy
MOBILITY
LEED V4 Access to Quality Transit Metrics
LEED V4 Bicycle Facilities Metrics
LEED V4 Green Vehicles Metrics
B. WATER + IRRIGATION
Video: Solutions in a World of Peak Water Limits, Peter Gleick | 14:16 Minutes
Leading water expert Peter Gleick identifies six major factors in our global water crisis, and six solutions for those problems. Learn where your water comes from and what it’s doing in that plastic bottle straight from the man who literally wrote the book on 21st century water.
Reading Excerpt: Water + Irrigation – Selected pages from the Living Building Challenge V4.0 | About 20 Minutes
Water is essential to all life on Earth – flora and fauna. These topics are combined as an Arch 8561 systems learning approach in which students cut across scales and issues within their team and project to improve design integration.
Familiarize yourself with the following calculators and metrics to improve our productivity and uptake as we explore these tools / metrics during the in-class Practice Workshop:
Online Conversions Calculator- Volume
WATER
Calculator: Building Water Use: LEED V2.2 Credit We3
Calculator (Multi-Variable) Building Water Use: LEED V4.0
Rules of Thumb: 2030 Palette Constructed Wetland
LEED V4 Indoor Water Use Guidance & Metrics
Prerequisite – Base Water Use Reduction Metrics
Credit – Increased Water Use Reductions Metrics
IRRIGATION
Calculator: Rainwater Harvesting
LEED V4 Outdoor Water Use Guidance & Metrics:
Prerequisite – Base Water Use Reduction Metrics
Credit – Increased Water Use Reductions Metrics
C. STORMWATER + LAND
Video: Why Sustainable Farming Matters, Dean Carlson | 16:02 Minutes
This video ends with farming, but begins with a much bigger lesson about resources: the impacts of exponential growth and the concept of endless economic growth put forward by modern economics.
Dean is a 1994 graduate of the University of Chicago with an AB in Economics. After being a floor-based derivatives market maker for a few years, he moved to Philadelphia and then Dublin to trade convertible bond securities. Always bothered by the assumption of infinite growth in the field of economics, Dean became interested in how this assumption affects agriculture. After discovering the concept of sustainable agriculture, Dean changed careers and became a full time farmer. He purchased the 350+ acre Wyebrook Farm in Northern Chester County and set out to farm it sustainably. He raises 100% grass fed beef, heritage breed pigs in the woods and poultry out on pasture.
Reading Excerpt: Stormwater + Land – Selected pages from the Living Building Challenge V4.0 | About 20 Minutes
Water is essential to all life on Earth – flora and fauna. These topics are combined as an Arch 8561 systems learning approach in which students cut across scales and issues within their team and project to improve design integration.
Familiarize yourself with the following calculators and metrics to improve our productivity and uptake as we explore these tools / metrics during the in-class Practice Workshop:
Online Conversions Calculator- Volume
STORMWATER
Basic Stormwater
Calculator: NOAA Atlas 14 Precipitation Amounts | Past Weather – NOAA (US)
Calculator: Multi-Strategy Calculator Green Values Stormwater | Calculator How-To-Video See 13:28
Component Sizing
Calculator: Stormwater chamber Sizing (NDS)
Calculator: Stormwater Tank Sizing
Calculator: Rain Garden Sizing
Calculator: Pervious Pavement
Stormwater Guidance
LEED V4 Rainwater Management
RELi HA C2.1 Adaptive Design for Extreme Rain Events
FOOD + HABITAT / LAND
Calculator: Vegetable Calculator (currently being updated)
Calculator: Vegetable Calculator (Excel)
Rules-of-Thumb: Garden + Landscaping Forum – Multiple Estimates
Rule-of-Thumb: Bio-Iintensive Agriculture – Wikipedia
LEED V4 Reduced Parking Metrics
LEED V4 Site Development – Habitat: Protect and Restore Metrics
LIVING DESIGN PRACTICE TEMPLATES
Templates are distillation of information that present their information as a clear, actionable and bounded definition, structure or pattern for use in design, solutioning and problem solving.
Template: Roughcasting | Forecasting
Roughcasting is a numerical or measurable “Napkin Sketch.” The results are “rough”, they are understood to NOT be precise. They crude estimates, but they area substantively more accurate than having no measurements or no estimates of any kind. Most importantly, they can point to limits or opportunities. Roughcasting can allow a team to determine very early in the design process if an idea is remotely possible, or not. This can be very powerful information at the early stages of project conceptualization. Our current culture frequently demands precision any time numbers are used, making Roughcasting a tool who’s limitations and potentials must be communicated carefully to any design team or client. Due to this, Roughcasting is sometimes used quietly and behind the scenes to develop confidence in an idea or concept without exposing the numerical outcomes to a broader audience.
