Sustainable Design for Uncertain Futures

This course explores various types and scales of change; compares the ways that architects, engineers, contractors, and facility managers deal with change; and analyzes the effectiveness of various precedents. Each week, we review various concepts, such as mass customization, computationally responsive environments and facades, open building, adaptive reuse, metabolism, persistence, preservation, circular economy, design for disassembly & adaptability (DfD&A), repair, design for inclusion, resilience, bio design and smart materials. Students engage with the content through written reading responses, group discussions and precedent studies, and apply these strategies to a project of their own choosing.