SOLUTIONS II: PLANNING & DESIGN

1. EVSS 680: Case Studies of Env Issues CofC Fall 2010 SOLUTIONS II: PLANNING & DESIGN

2. Agenda • McDonough & Braungart, Cradle to Cradle • Lecture/Discussion: Introduction and pp. 3-91 • Videos • Thesis Exercise

3. “Our lives succeed or fail gradually, then suddenly, one conversation at a time. While no single conversation is guaranteed to change the trajectory of a career, a business, a marriage, a life [a planet], any single conversation can. The conversation is the relationship. You got here – wherever here is – one conversation at a time. ” Susan Scott, author “Fierce Conversations”

4. C2C Problem - Solution • Problem: Our current ways of making things are bad. • Why: Because they deplete resources, jeopardize our health, exploit people in developing countries, and generate massive amounts of waste. • Solution: Eliminate waste , hazardous chemicals and dangerous processes in everything we make and do. • How?: Re-design all products so that biological nutrients are returned to the soil and technical nutrients are returned to the “technical cycle”.. • Result: Perpetually sustainable

5. Introduction • Uses a familiar story about a family enjoying an evening at home reading a book, using a computer, playing with toys to set the stage and grab your attention. • Turns the tables and describes the dangers built into everyday life: the computer, the carpet and fabrics, the shoes, • Notion of “downcycling” being current practice – not recycling.

6. Introduction • Introduces new vocabulary into the discussion: Technical nutrients are those parts of the things we make that cannot be returned to the soil. • Good design is suited to its locale, context driven, using local materials and resources.

7. Ch 1: A Question of Design “The waste, pollution, crude products, and other negative effects that we have described are not the result of corporations doing something morally wrong. They are the consequences of outdated and unintelligent design.” p. 43

8. Ch 2: Less Bad is No Good • “If you want to go to Mexico and are driving toward Canada, if you drive slower you eventually still end up in Canada.”

9. Ch 3: Eco-Effectiveness • Introduces the concept of effectiveness over efficiency. In other words abandon the “old model of produce and waste” and “embrace the challenge of being not efficient but effective with respect to a rich mix of considerations and desires.” p. 72

10. Video • William McDonough introduces C2C Part 1

11. Video • William McDonough introduces C2C Part 2

12. Video • William McDonough introduces C2C Part 3

13. Video • William McDonough introduces C2C Part 4

14. PS Ch 6 Problem - Solution • Problem: “Can improvements in engineered technologies protect the environment, and preserve natural resources, even as populations grow and societies demand more materials and energy?” • Why: Because we face enormous challenges in meeting our future needs in these areas. • Solution: Change our design processes to consider whole systems. • How?: that take advantage of both durability and rapid evolution. • Result: Will create more sustainable industrial processes.

15. PS Ch 9 Problem - Solution • Problem: Idealistic views of both historical and futuristic concepts of architectural design will not provide sustainable solutions. • Why: Because neither practices of the past or improvements in technology alone are sustainable. • Solution: Provide designs based on the sustainable developments recommended by Bruntland (1987) with a high reliance on a long tradition of regionalism. • How?: By using place itself as the source of all ideas and architecture as the interpreter. • Result: Will create places of ecological and economical integrity, community, justice, and beauty.

16. PS Ch 10 Problem - Solution • Problem: “How can we act in away [concerning existing buildings] that will allow us to grow and to thrive, in our existing communities, reducing needless waste and expensing new construction while celebrating and nourishing our culture, our identity, our sense of place.” • Why: Because “the reuse of EB’s and urban infrastructure provides modem society one of its single greatest sources of energy and resource savings. • Solution: Use lessons learned through preservation, environmentalism and regionalism to develop more sustainable practices in the built environment. • How?: By using the positive, realistic ( not idealistic) qualities of these ideas as central aspects of sustainability. • Result: Will create a “sustainable culture, in which the values and meanings (and dollars) invested by a community in its tangible and intangible resources and identity are also passed along to future generations, enhanced and revitalized.

17. PS Ch 11 Problem - Solution • Problem: How can we create comprehensive land use practices that recognize the importance of ecology in the planning process and resolves the “conflicts among often competing social, economic and environmental interests?” • Why: Because ecology is the “study of reciprocal relationships of all organisms to each other” and that “humans are organisms and thus engaged in ecological relationships.” • Solution: Use “biophysical and sociocultural information to suggest opportunities and constraints for decision making about the use of the landscape.” • How?: By following a 12 step ecological planning model suggested by Steiner in his book “The Living Landscape.” • Result: Will result in a “landscape ecological – specifically human ecological – “ solution that will be “helpful in balancing equity, economic and environmental concerns.”

18. Thesis Exercise • Gather in groups of three • Determine thesis as a group • Determine arguments or supporting mini thesis as a group • Present groups ideas to the class and discuss.