Environmental Design Commons^™

Sustainable Design Education Through A Self-Directed Online System, Jeremy Faludi, Adam Menter

Dartmouth Scholarship

Sustainable design and engineering is an important topic, yet it is under-represented in educational institutions; moreover, it must be taught to practicing professionals, not just students. A free online system has been created to address both problems at once, providing educational materials for educators and also providing a self-paced program for professionals or students to earn a certificate in sustainable design. Called the Autodesk Sustainability Workshop, it is a collection of video tutorials and supporting materials (PDF reference guides, slide decks, quizzes, and other resources) that can be used either by individuals themselves or by educators (either in schools or …

Measuring The Effects Of Environmental Certification On Residential Property Values - Evidence From Green Condominiums In Portland, U.S., Xi Yang

Dissertations and Theses

Green building, as an environmentally responsible and resource-efficient product, has emerged in recent decades. Along with the growing interest in green building design and operating practices, a number of green building certification standards and rating systems have been developed by different organizations worldwide. Those rating systems allow government regulators, building professionals, and consumers to embrace green building with confidence. Many recent studies find that LEED and Energy Star certified commercial buildings gain significant rental and sales price premiums and have higher occupancy rates. However, little research has been conducted to measure the market value of certified multi-family residential buildings, for …

Thermal Envelope Substitution: Energy And Cost Implications Of Using Structural Insulated Panels In The Manufactured Housing Industry, Brendan Sean Dwyer

Master's Theses

Currently 10% of all single family homes produced in the U.S. are manufactured homes with 75% of these households making less than $50,000 in annual income (Manufactured Housing Survey). Manufactured homes typically use twice as much primary energy per square foot than site built homes yet there is no agenda within the industry or its governing bodies to address this excess energy consumption. The research presented in this thesis compares the thermal envelope performance of the typical wood stud framing used in the manufactured home industry to the thermal envelope of structural insulated panels (SIPs). This comparison examines the energy …

City Of Los Angeles Cornfield Arroyo Seco Specific Plan: Parking Management Strategies, Miriam L. Thompson

Master's Theses

This study examines the state of off-street parking in the Cornfield Arroyo Seco Specific Plan (CASP) area of the City of Los Angeles. The focus is on discovering relevant strategies to strengthen the plans ability to reduce parking supply and demand.

Research has shown a causal relationship between planning policies and the oversupply of parking. An auto-centric approach to land use and urban form creates societal problems such as traffic congestion, air pollution, inflated development costs, and hostile pedestrian landscapes. Further issues that are directly associated with parking include: poor water quality, neighborhood livability, and ambient temperature. Additionally, an overabundance …

Play In Place: The Role Of Site-Specific Playgrounds In Community Space, Allison Nkwocha

Scripps Senior Theses

Playgrounds do not have to be static sites, but safety standards should not be the only force that guides their evolution over time. Just as the ongoing transformation of any city is a product of many interwoven factors, the collection of smaller sites that delineates one city from another should reflect the same holistic influences. This is not an argument for the abandonment of the safety standards that influence playground design. Instead, it is an argument for the adoption of and stronger adherence to community standards that influence city design. This paper argues that a park area (and more generally, …

Trees Nestled Among Skyscrapers: Frederick Law Olmsted And The Creation Of Central Park, Matisse Murray

Library Research Prize Student Works

In the remarkable degree of scholarship that has been written on Frederick Law Olmsted since a resurgence of interest in his life during the early 1970s, there have been a number of varying interpretations regarding the social attitudes with which he approached his first major project, New York’s Central Park. Following a classic pendulum pattern, study has vacillated between emphasizing his democratic vision for the park to placing more of a focus upon his esteem for gentility. In the former, scholars such as biographer Laura Wood Roper described Olmsted’s idea of Central Park as a place for Americans of all …

Gardens Are A Physical Manifestation Of Culture: Postmodern Public Parks Of The Twenty-First Century Will Be Built On The Infrastructure Of The Industrial Age, Steven W. Grant

Master of Liberal Studies Theses

Gardens are not simply arranged trees, lawns, walkways, fountains and ponds. They are a physical expression of the values and beliefs of culture. Adapting industrial age infrastructure into public parks is a reflection of culture in the postmodern age as much as the cloister garden expressed theology in the middle-ages, the sensuous garden expressed the humanism of the Renaissance, the Baroque garden expressed autocratic power, the neo-classical garden expressed reason, and the picturesque garden expressed awe of nature. The postmodern postindustrial public park of today is being built on the infrastructure of the industrial age; it is an expression of …

Regional Planning Initiative For The Province Of Puerto Plata In The Dominican Republic: A Tourism Planning Framework For The Towns Of San Felipe De Puerto Plata And Sosua, Ana A. Baez Sarita

All Graduate Plan B and other Reports, Spring 1920 to Spring 2023

The Dominican Republic has locations rich in cultural, historical, and ecological assets. One of these places is the province of Puerto Plata. Located in the northern region of the country, Puerto Plata was one of the first territories of America in which Christopher Columbus arrived in 1492. Built in the year of 1494 because of the second Spanish expedition arrival, La Isabela, the first new world’s Spanish village represents one of the many vital historical components of the province of Puerto Plata. The country has an economy largely based in the service sector. According to the U.S. Department of State, …

The Impact Of Green Design On The Emotional Health Of Patients In Children's Healthcare Facilities, Kimberly M. Riege

Interior Design Program: Student Creative Activity

With a significant amount of research focusing on the design of healthcare facilities, this thesis examined the relationship between specific aspects of green design and their effect on the emotional health and wellbeing of patients in children's healthcare facilities. Case studies of two children's clinics in Omaha, Nebraska were conducted to study the effects a connection to the natural world and the acoustic environment had on patients' emotional state. One case study site was a newly built children's clinic that incorporated a connection to nature with a focus on the acoustic environment while the other was an adaptive reuse building …

Development And Validation Of Heat Transfer Model To Predict Indoor Air Temperatures In Roofpond Buildings, Afzal Hossain

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Roofponds mimic the ways in which nature tempers and controls the global climate; they utilize higher heat capacity of water to passively control the temperature of the interior space. From a thermal standpoint, roofponds are strong performers, providing high solar savings fractions, interior temperature stability, enhanced thermal comfort and very low operational power requirements. Moreover, due to convective heat transfer within the water bags, heat gains or losses are quickly distributed throughout the roofpond to create a very homogeneous distribution of heat throughout the floor area covered by the system.

Research by Harold Hay and John Yellott (Hay & Yellott, …

Sustainable Urban Rail Trails: Designing The Cross Kirkland Corridor, Mia Cooledge

Scripps Senior Theses

This thesis is a guide to building a sustainable rail-trail, wherein I focus on invasive species removal, green pavement, and creating an inviting space with the inclusion of integrated art. When the City of Kirkland, WA purchased the 5.75 mile long section of railroad going through the city, I approached city manager Kurt Triplett to ask about his plans for the corridor. He liked the idea of aiming for a sustainable trail, so I wrote a guide to building an environmentally friendly trail based on a number of prominent readings on sustainable design.

Financing Public Solar Projects: California Public Jurisdictions' Experiences In Acquiring And Financing Solar Photovoltaic Installations, Dana M.C. Hoffman

Master's Theses

More efficient technologies, state laws as well as environmental, social, and political pressures have all contributed to placing solar acquisition on the agenda for California’s public entities over the last half decade. But a key question for these frequently cash-strapped jurisdictions is how to utilize public dollars and lands, and how to leverage incentives to obtain solar PVs. As an alternative to outright purchase, a promising financing option made available to jurisdictions in recent years is ownership by a third party, usually the solar company, including various forms of Power Purchase Agreements (PPA’s) and leasing. Due in part to state …

Desertsol: Construction Kickoff And Ribbon Cutting, University Of Nevada, Las Vegas. Solar Decathlon Team.

DesertSol: Planning and Design

This is a promotional flyer for the DesertSol project house Construction Kickoff and Ribbon Cutting event. The event was hosted by University of Nevada, Las Vegas President Smatresk and Team Las Vegas.

Managing Moisture - The Key To Healthy Internal Wall Insulation Retrofits Of Solid Walls, Joseph Little, Benat Arregi

Conference papers

This study investigates the appropriateness of internally insulating solid walls to the Passivhaus standard. A number of variables are assessed using numerical hygrothermal simulation (under EN 15026) to check (1) associated risk of mould growth on original substrate and (2) if they result in a greater likelihood of timber decay at built-in joist ends. While air and vapour control layers (AVCLs) perform well regarding mould risk in low absorption walls, the results question their appropriateness where joist ends are built-in: when AVCLs are used, moisture levels at joist ends can potentially rise above critical thresholds, even in low absorption walls. …

Exploring The Nature Of Space For Human Behavior In Ordinary Structured Environments, Molly Boeka Cannon

Department of Geography: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

What is the nature of the built environment? Built environments are the settings within which people carry out activities and emerge from the specific combining of spatial conditions with specific social content for the setting. The social content and the spatial conditions form a core-defining relationship that serves to distinguish one structured setting from another. A core-defining relationship such as this refers to the essence of the built environment. What are the implications for human behavior that emerge from conceptualizing built environments in this manner? I argue that space, through its essential relationship with the contexts of daily living (i.e. …

Pre- And Post-Interrvention Perceptions Of Illness, Health, And The Home Environment Among Nevada Healthy Homes Participants, Michelle Ching, Shawn Gerstenberger

Interdisciplinary Research Scholarship Day

The Nevada Healthy Homes Partnership (NVHHP) is a collaborative program between the University of Nevada, Las Vegas (UNLV), Southern Nevada Health District (SNHD), Rebuilding Together (RBT), HELP of Southern Nevada, and other public/private housing authorities and health agencies in Southern Nevada.

Multi-Objective Time-Cost Optimization Using Cobb-Douglas Production Function And Hybrid Genetic Algorithm, Zhigang Shen, Ashkan Hassani, Qian Shi

Durham School of Architectural Engineering and Construction: Faculty Publications

Existing research on construction time-cost tradeoff issues rarely explore the origin of the crashing cost. Crashing cost function was either assumed without much justification, or came from historical data of some real projects. As a result the conclusions of the papers can hardly be used to guide allocations of labor and equipment resources respectively. The authors believe Cobb-Douglas function provides a much-needed piece to modeling the cost functions in the construction time-cost tradeoff problem during the crashing process. We believe this new perspective fills a gap of existing time-cost tradeoff research by considering project duration, labor and equipment cost as …

The Economic Impact Of Commensal Rodents On Small Businesses In Manhattan’S Chinatown: Trends And Possible Causes, Anthony Almeida, Robert Corrigan, Ronald Sarno

Suburban Sustainability

Given the history of well-documented rodent infestations in New York City we were interested in assessing the economic impact of rats and mice on small businesses in The Lower East Side of Manhattan. Via mailed surveys and on-site interviews , we quantified damage to structures, loss of saleable goods and merchandise, the cost of pest-control professionals, and/or self-applied poison/traps. Overall, 16% of business (n = 76) responded to our queries. To those businesses reporting some level of rodent damage, average losses included $513 in merchandise, $726 in pest-control fees, $371 in repair costs to structure, and $125 in do-it-yourself deployment …

Wasteland To Wonderland:Sustainable Brownfield Redevelopment Projects In Low-Income Areas Of Los Angeles, Rachel L. Warburton

Pitzer Senior Theses

The conversion of industrial waste sites, also known as brownfields, into sustainable green space can impact the surrounding community in a number of ways. This thesis is a compilation of three case studies in low-income areas of Los Angeles which have all experienced a brownfield to green space conversion. All three projects are dictated by various stakeholders and are located at the intersection of economic and environmental issues. I examine how the stakeholders of these projects affect the process and design and in turn how the process and design affects the community surrounding the site. Additionally this thesis sheds light …

Designing Affordable Housing For Adaptability: Principles, Practices, & Application, Micaela R. Danko

Pitzer Senior Theses

While environmental and economic sustainability have been driving factors in the movement towards a more resilient built environment, social sustainability is a factor that has received significantly less attention over the years. Federal support for low-income housing has fallen drastically, and the deficit of available, adequate, affordable homes continues to grow. In this thesis, I explore one way that architects can design affordable housing that is intrinsically sustainable. In the past, subsidized low-income housing has been built as if to provide a short-term solution—as if poverty and lack of affordable housing is a short-term problem. However, I argue that adaptable …

Planting The Right Tree In The Right Place, John D. Stout, Henry Wienholts

Purdue Road School

Coordination of plantings and utilities is a critical issue. Public outreach is important for utilities in this coordination process. With a good campaign, utility companies can make sure the “right tree is planted in the right place.” This sessions discusses the success story of the TREE LINE USA effort in northern Indiana.

Survey Of Suitable Plants For Cal Poly's Green Wall, Katrina Burritt

Horticulture and Crop Science

Green wall technology is a growing industry in the United States and has been very successful for a several years throughout Europe. The objective of this survey was to study the success of several different species of plants on a vertical wall facing south at Cal Poly’s Horticultural Department Unit. At first the focus was aimed at using California native species, because it was thought that natives would be better acclimated to the exposure in this specific location. It became apparent that plants should not be selected for the wall based just on the fact that they are California natives. …

Monkstown Enerphit And Passive House Extension, Joseph Little

Articles

Unlike new buildings which can be sequenced to maximise thermal continuity, airtightness and speed; the very existence of sub-optimal orientation and constructon methods, old rising walls, intermediate floors, decorative features of a bygone era etc., all complicate the works and impinge upon the performance possible in deep energy-efficient retrofits [1]. It is clear that the more that is stripped away of the old fabric, the more ‘sins of the past’ can become evident and the more control is gained (which ensures the standard is met); yet the building becomes less and less an old building and, if the issue isn’t …

Neutra's Pedagogic Designs, Sarah Sheridan

Conference papers

Richard J. Neutra’s seminal model schools are generally disregarded in critical literature, yet the underlying preoccupations were significant. Based on exploration of contemporary themes in medicine, education and architecture, one favoured preoccupation of Neutra’s is nature. He concludes that its potency is manifold, suggesting that exposing children to nature in an experiential way could contribute to their health, well-being and education. His model school design became the idea manifest, placing particular responsibilities on the form to achieve these ideals. However interrogation of Neutra’s forms in context reveals a lingering sense that the ideals are not always achieved. Neutra suggests particular …

Additecture, Architecture Department, Jonathan Knowles, Sina Almassi, Alexa K. Asakiewicz, Jason W. Askew, Caterina Belardetti, Guoyuan Chen, Kim E. Dupont-Madinier, Sara B. Fetterolf, Zachary P. Futterer, Atara H. Kelman, John A. Mars, Kevin T. Mcnulty, Saja Tourbah, Annabelle T. Tran, Cong-Xin G. Wong

Preliminary Design Work

Preliminary design work for the Solar Decathlon 2014 entry Techstyle Haus completed in a wintersession 2013 RISD design studio in Erfurt, Germany taught by Jonathan Knowles. The Solar Decathlon competition challenges twenty collegiate teams to design and build sustainable homes that are powered exclusively by solar energy and incorporate sustainable architecture and design. Techstyle Haus is an international Brown University, RISD and University of Applied Sciences Erfurt,Germany collaboration designing a solar passivehaus out of high performance textiles.

Ua12/13 2013 Sustainability Report [Western Kentucky University], Wku Office Of Sustainability, Christian Ryan-Downing

Sustainability Publications and Resources

No abstract provided.

Insites, 2013, Utah State University

inSites

Magazine of the Department of Landscape Architecture and Environmental Planning

Edra 44: Bibliography Of Books On Display, Kathleen Demsky

Bibliographies

edra 44 | HEALTHY + HEALING PLACES | Providence, RI

Integrating Conservation With Development Through Contextual Heritage Management - A Case For Mahasthan, Mohammad Sazzad Hossain

NAKHARA (Journal of Environmental Design and Planning)

Mahasthan has been identifi ed as ancient Pundranagar of the 3rd century BCE and represents the important provincial capital in Bengal. The site is already tentatively listed by the Department ofArchaeology for nomination as world heritage site. The remaining houses date from the 4th century BCE to the 18th century. The heritage site is facing rapid transformation due to the lack of proper conservation and management. The objective of this paper is to show how the use of conservation and management can be vehicles for sustainable development of the heritage site. The paper will explore underlying issues to bridge the …

Modifi Cation: Homes-Tay Approach For Urban Conservation Of Historical Building In Thailand, Naphasinee Suebsuk, Osamu Nakagawa

NAKHARA (Journal of Environmental Design and Planning)

The conservation and restoration campaign along the Amphawa Canal started in 2001. Many development projects launched by public and private sectors bring in a large number of tourists; on the other hand, the development negatively impacts many traditional sites. One approach of the campaign is to revive traditional water-based tourism by stimulating the use of traditional buildings along the canal and modifying them to be used for commercial and tourist accommodation. purposes. This paper addresses the problems of conservation in the face of tourism. It mainly focuses on how private individuals modify historical structures and the users' points of view …