my friend is doing PhD with a topic focusing on sustainability in urbanism and architecture. she disliked the typical architecture faculty's take on the subject and decided to join the faculty of agriculture instead. Seems to be working out so far, except they have higher academic/scientific standards than arch. school.

we are at u of tokyo so take it as you like. still, her view of the role of sustainability in arch schools seems pretty much right for north america as well. if you're into sustainability seems the best way to learn about the topic is on your own. the architecture tends to be better that way anyway.

Yale is starting an amazing duel degree in architecture and ecology combined with yale's forestry school. Email Jim Axley he is a professor at yale.

Have you thought about going to Oregon State University? A Liberal College may be your best bet, along with the fact that Oregon is extremely versed with the environmental aspects of life, maybe not in the logging of such beautiful forests, but in the preservation of them. You might be surprised...check them out!

Ooook, how 'bout Peter Bosselman, or Gail Brager at Berkeley. How do they measure up?

The University of Texas SoA has a great sustainable design program. Even has something called "the center for sustainable design" (funds a lot of research). Steven Moore, Michael Garrison are the main sustainability people here, but it is the general consensus that all architects should be learning about green systems and exploring new technologies and materials, whether or not green is their specific discipline. Also Sergio Palleroni from U of Washington has been a guest faculty lately, doing sustainable/humanitarian design/build projects.

I am not doing an emphasis in sustainable design, but I've learned a lot about it just by being here and I've even joined the Solar Decathalon team. In fact, the solar decathalon website (department of energy) would be a good resourse for finding schools with sustainable emphases, along with giving names of the faculty involved.

If you haven't looked at Texas because, well, it's Texas, its a really great school, and Austin is an oasis of liberalism in a desolate wasteland of oilmongers.

What would you all think if I bumped this here thread?

Too late, I did it.




C'mon I know some of you actually had instructors when you went to school. You're all just being coy.

I did actually have these types of instructors, but not at any of those schools....

I went to USC and found Thomas Spiegelhalter and James Steele invaluable in this area. Thomas is very good at building envelope issues, materials, all the detail/technical stuff, while Steele is really excellent at social sustainability issues like planning, resources, and vernacular solutions. So yeah, my response to your bump/question is that you may have asked such a specific question that very few people that happen to frequent this site have the answer to it.

Kim Tanzer at the University of Florida.

The UF College of Design, Construction and Planning has 5 disciplines, including the SoA and the Rinker School of Building Construction (with a recently completed LEED facility). Also, with the vast range of offerings at UF, including (in the College of Agriculture) the School of Forest Resources and Conservation AND the School of Natural Resources and the Environment, there is no limit to cross-disciplinary study.

Much of the funding for these agr/eco-programs comes from the IFAS organization.

The UF SoA is always interested in creating "custom" cross-disciplinary grad programs for motivated students...definitely worth a look.

Also, the Rinker School has various well-funded research centers which operate from it, including the Powell Center for Construction and the Environment

As someone who had an interest in sustainability while at Penn, the sustainability players on the tenured faculty are probably:

Bill Braham - a great guy & a great teacher

http://www.design.upenn.edu/new/arch/facultybio.php?fid=11
http://pobox.upenn.edu/~brahamw/

Also, Ali Malkawi - also a great guy who's at the cutting edge of environmental modeling & building simulation. Kind of a computer geek with a green thumb.

http://www.design.upenn.edu/new/arch/facultybio.php?fid=45

Not sure how much of a formal institutional commitment Penn has to this, but if you want it you can find it.

Thanks. Rationalist, I always specify to my own personal needs but thats only because i am a self-centered bastard. Honestly though, I think the discussion could be relevant to others in my situation so listing the faculty of any school would be helpful. Fordified, thanks. Does Penn have a clear focus? From what I can gather, it tries to bill itself as open to letting the student mix and match studies without offering any clear push in any one direction? Or is it heavy on planning? Or what?

guiggster, I think I'm thinking the same thing as you, but if I read correctly, you need your professional Arch degree, correct? I have my BArch so I'm actually wondering if I wouldn't be well-served by a non-arch. graduate degree. I'm almost ready to start my licensing exams but I'm really keen on the science of it all, and I'd like to teach, so I'm leaning towards going for a Masters of Environmental Science or something similar.

Perhaps we might open up the question to this: is there a university with an accredited arch. department and a strong enviromental department so that there might be some cross-disciplinary work? It seems to me that most of the architecture departments across the country are lagging in this very important coursework.

why do you guys want to find sustainability porgrams? sustainability is simply common sense from a technical, economic, eclogical, and technical points of view. why all the hand waiving? why specialize in something that should/will soon be a baseline for practice in architecture? why the green-hero stuff? sustainability should be the speciality of a few isloated individuals, but common to all practices. does anything without a green-, sustainable-, environmetal- prefix not worth studying? THE PRIMARY REASON THAT THE SO_CALLED ENVIROMENTAL MOVEMENT IN ARCHITECTURE IS A FAILED PRACTICE TO DATE IS BECAUSE IT REMAINS THE FOCUS OF PEOPLE WHO SEEK IT OUT AS AN END RAHTER THAN AS A MEANS TO AN END.

Boo. Boo on you, switters. This is my main gripe with the current view on sustainability. It is not simply a matter of eco-friendly technology and building standards...at least not to its full potential. I honestly believe that Green architecture (if I can use that term in a very widely encompassing way) and not just sustainable design, has in it a potential to help humans regain their sense of place in the world. It's about regaining a part of ourselves that we have lost...an ethos. Read Karsten Harries "The Ethical Function of Architecture."

Now I realize that sustainability as taught in schools does not focus on the ontological importance of "Green architecture" in this sense...but to me it is all a part of the same pie. That's what I see in it. An architecture of place and an architecture of responsibility...not an architecture of solar panels. At its fullest, it is an end. [/ideological rant]


Now, what I was really looking for in this thread was names. I am not knowledgable enough to scan a faculty list and figure out who is involved with sustainable design.

you're hysterical guiggster. I haven't heard anyone say boo on you in years...good job for taking the high ground as well.

talking about the 'ontological importance of green architecture' is not high ground. its a lot of wandering displaced ground. you're all over the place. karsten harries doesn't teach architecture and we read that years ago. can't help you find the right people if your topic ranges from green architecture to sustainability to some part of ourselves you feel is lost. that covers a lot of ground. just trying to provoke, evoke some kind of response from you to see what your wandering topic really is-unless you want us to make some gross assumptions about you and what you might think this range of topics means to you and prioritize them for you. then i could tehn any name at you.

I'll admit that it is an overly wide scope of things that I had mentioned but I'm not trying to get into my thesis here. My previous comment had very little to do with my OP which I think is pretty straightforward. While i think that the most important aspects of architecture can be found outside of architecture departments, in reality I was just seeing if anyone could say something along the lines of what fordified gave me. That's all. I wasn't trying to get pretentious.

no worries, guiggster. your question was clear and doesn't require a critical analysis, nor does it sound like you need anything "prioritized for you."

as for penn, yeah i'd say it doesn't have a clear focus. which, frankly i didn't mind & i liked the diversity of the faculty. but definitely not very institutionally committed to any formalized curriculum in sustainable design as some of the other programs listed above, which i was disappointed in.

all the schools you name are strong - if directed toward the right faculty and committed to your interests, i'm sure youll be able to find what you're looking for academically at any of them.

ya guiggster, your request has no fault from where I stand. I gotta say it again though: Kim Tanzer, UF SoA. She's right up your alley, judging by what you said above in response to switters...

Wonder K, specifically for your comment, check out the above links to the various Schools and departments at UF. If cross-disciplinary work interests you, there is ample opportunity.

As for teaching, the UF SoA recently instituted an MArch2 in Design Education, typically a third year added on to the 2 year MArch1. Considering your professional degree, it would likely be different...not sure they have encountered a BArch-er yet that was interested...

anyway,

I've seen it posted here before by others, but the UF SoA is one of design educations best kept secrets.

switters, I agree with a lot of what you say regarding how sustainability should be the baseline in architecture. The point is, it's not. And it's going to take a lot of us being very repetitive and nagging and having this discussion over and over and over again to get the point across to the rest of the profession.

Now, that's the easy part. Architects share a lot of the same values. Not that difficult of a conversation. Move on to the developers, the politicians, the oil magnates, and the general public, most of whom are not going to take the time to understand this like we do. That's why we're here, and that's why we're trying to educate ourselves.

So, as guiggster would say, back to the point. Where do we find this Holy Grail, this sustainable education that remains so elusive?

the U of Minnesota, Twin Cities actually offers an M.S. in Sustainable Design. I"m pretty sure the program is new, but you can take it along with the MArch.

Green architecture...and not just sustainable design, has in it a potential to help humans regain their sense of place in the world.

Can I make your question a bit more tricky?

If this is your understanding of 'sustainability,' (and I must say that I agree that a 'sustainable' society will never be realized without [re]developing our sense of place), then I suggest that you give some thought to landscape architecture and/or the relationship between the two faculties at a school. With all due respect to the architectural profession, no one can compete with a knowledgable and experienced landscape architect in rooting design in place. Unfortunately, I can't really give you any specifics. I'm positive though, that there are some architecture schools and individuals out there that understand this idea all too well.

If I may lament a bit, I think the 'sustainability' you've mentioned is obtainable if there was more...respect?...given towards landscape architects and the profession and their skills utilized sooner in design processes. I want to be a designer, not a shrubber!!

word.

I know Gail Brager and Chris Benton teaches an underg course in sustainable architecture during the Spring. Benton also teaches a grad course in daylight model analysis, which pertains to sustainable design. These profs could probably be resourcefull and good mentors. But I agree with switters that it's "common sense," and you can probably teach yourself about sustainable architecture.