Hello, I am very interested in going to a Grad school that has a great sustainability program. Currently I am a junior at Lawrence Technological University. LTU's graduate program appears to be in the middle of a change, and I'm not sure if I want to stay here. I kind of wanted to go to a bigger school. The University Of Michigan has a pretty good urban program, but I'm not too sure on their environmental program. If anyone could help me get some information on other schools with good sustainablitiy programs, I would much appreciate it.
UF has introduced some more classes on sustainable architecture - they award 'certificates'. Its new, and it's evolving, and the classes that fall under this are really great. As far as a progam, nope. Just thought I'd throw that out there.
a good list of schools would be those competeing in the solar decathlon. They all have to have the faculty in sustainability to get selected and design it properly. It probably means the student bodies are looking at it as an issue too.
I'm currently involved in Solar Decathalon, and am pretty pumped about it. Thanks for the info on the different schools. What do you guys think about getting my bachelors and masters from the same College? I've heard both good and bad things about it.
Just be careful of the schools that mainly see sustainability as a trend they had to meet by adding a couple classes, "greening" their architecture building, and maybe hiring a new professor or two. It really has to be an overall philosophy and something that most of the faculty is committed to.
That being said, I think requiring specific sustainability strategies is something a good studio professor would avoid. It's one of those constraints like budget, codes, duct sizing, etc. that just get in the way of good design education.
I also wouldn't worry too much about focusing my education on sustainability. By the time the current generation of architecture students reaches their professional prime a lot of design strategies now considered sustainable will just be standard practice, and perhaps even be required by code. You may gain a slight edge by going to a sustainable school today, but in the end I think your peers will be forced to catch up anyway.
CMU has a strong research-oriented sustainable grad program. Excellent faculty and lots of room for creative thought. They also look at sustainability within the broader context of building technology and information systems which I find especially conducive to the realities of the future. Check out their Intelligent Workplace
Studying sustainability is certainly NOT a design constraint, Bryan4Arch. And it is not a constraint to get in the way of good design, either. Check out some buildings by Norman Foster, Richard Rogers, and Cook+Fox and tell me that design has suffered.
Of course today's "sustainable" practices will be commonplace in 10 years, but the line will not be drawn where we stand today. Technology and progress will constantly push forward and while others in the design fields are "forced to catch up," the people who learn about green architecture now will be the ones teaching it, and will always be several steps ahead of those who did not learn it.
I do agree that you must choose a school that is committed to sustainability, rather than offering a few classes, but definitely choose a good program and go for it.
why are you going into architecture if you're concerned about sustainability? In addition to sustainability being simply boring, its not architecture.
Why you shouldn't go into architecture ala eisenman
Now any of you that came into architecture to save society, you’re in the wrong discipline. Any of you who came into architecture to make money and have a suburban life with the tree cars and two dogs and a wife and 100 kids? Wrong. Be disabused of those notions. Architecture is a downwardly mobile profession. Compare the salaries of people who get out the Yale School of Architecture with the people that get out of The Yale law school, the Yale medical school, the Harvard Business School, whatever. They are probably a third to a quarter of what your colleagues will make, and always will be.
So if you’re here for humanitarian or environmental reasons, that you want to save Biafra or the plant, you ‘ain’t gonna learn that here. The best place to go is to Africa. If you’re an aid worker, not here. We are learning about architecture as a necessary cultural artifice. It always has been and it always will be. It helps and saves nobody. Our cities are as bad today as they were 100 years ago, and people have been teaching people how to do city plans forever, and that doesn’t correct anything, because architecture is not a corrective. Now, I am absolutely convinced, as great music is necessary, and great literature, great art, great poetry, so is great architecture. I am assuming that you all aspire to that greatness.
This class is about preparing you for the possibility of greatness. I can’t teach you how to be great, but the one thing I will tell you is I do not believe it takes any talent at all. It takes desire, and in fact, to overcome talent. If you have talent, you will fall back on it, and you will be doing things that please your own narcissistic impulses rather than thinking about how architecture can change, be questioned, open up.
For me, to be an architect does require a certain amount of narcissism and I have a great deal of it. Architecture requires a great amount of egotism, and I have a good deal of that. My wife can’t figure out how after going into competition after competition, and losing, how one can continue to do that sort of thing. One has to be prepared to lose a lot in architecture, as one has to be prepared to lose a lot in life. But in any case, that’s for another day. Any questions about what I’ve just said? There must be a hundred of them, but anything that is not clear thus far . . . Silence. You all heard me I hope. The words . . .you understood . . .even though you may be befuddled by some of them, they made some sort of sense to you I hope. Ok, that’s what I would call the prologoma.
kai- carefull not to drink to much of pete's koolaid. the boringness of sustainability is completely subjective, and if you believe architecture doesn't have the ability to affect people, than the profession is better off without you. there have been many studies on how environments affect people.
I am hoping that Kai's diatribe was some sort of fictional monologue by a misinformed movie character or something.......are you really losing that many competitions, Kai? Hmmmm. Wonder why.
Apr 4, 06 4:27 pm ·
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Sustainable Grad Schools
Hello, I am very interested in going to a Grad school that has a great sustainability program. Currently I am a junior at Lawrence Technological University. LTU's graduate program appears to be in the middle of a change, and I'm not sure if I want to stay here. I kind of wanted to go to a bigger school. The University Of Michigan has a pretty good urban program, but I'm not too sure on their environmental program. If anyone could help me get some information on other schools with good sustainablitiy programs, I would much appreciate it.
ARe you looking specificaly for American universities? ...
AA has a good one.. very hands on program ..
http://www.aaschool.ac.uk/graduate/ee.shtm
http://www.aaschool.ac.uk/ee/
i have a friend who's doing this course right now ... he seems to be very happy with it.
Thank you very much. I am fairly certain that I want to remain in the The United States, but AA looks like a really cool place to go.
University of California Berkeley as far as I know has one of the stongest sustainable design programs in the US.
www.ced.berkeley.edu
UF has introduced some more classes on sustainable architecture - they award 'certificates'. Its new, and it's evolving, and the classes that fall under this are really great. As far as a progam, nope. Just thought I'd throw that out there.
a good list of schools would be those competeing in the solar decathlon. They all have to have the faculty in sustainability to get selected and design it properly. It probably means the student bodies are looking at it as an issue too.
solar decathlon
I'm currently involved in Solar Decathalon, and am pretty pumped about it. Thanks for the info on the different schools. What do you guys think about getting my bachelors and masters from the same College? I've heard both good and bad things about it.
check out udmercy - they've got a new program
http://www.udmercy.edu/alumni/newsletters/fall05/nautilus/mcd.php
Here's an old thread about it:
http://www.archinect.com/forum/threads.php?id=21292_0_42_0_C
And here's a link you might find helpful:
http://sustain-design.com/universities.htm
Just be careful of the schools that mainly see sustainability as a trend they had to meet by adding a couple classes, "greening" their architecture building, and maybe hiring a new professor or two. It really has to be an overall philosophy and something that most of the faculty is committed to.
That being said, I think requiring specific sustainability strategies is something a good studio professor would avoid. It's one of those constraints like budget, codes, duct sizing, etc. that just get in the way of good design education.
I also wouldn't worry too much about focusing my education on sustainability. By the time the current generation of architecture students reaches their professional prime a lot of design strategies now considered sustainable will just be standard practice, and perhaps even be required by code. You may gain a slight edge by going to a sustainable school today, but in the end I think your peers will be forced to catch up anyway.
CMU has a strong research-oriented sustainable grad program. Excellent faculty and lots of room for creative thought. They also look at sustainability within the broader context of building technology and information systems which I find especially conducive to the realities of the future. Check out their Intelligent Workplace
cmu doesn't have an m arch I program... only 5-year b arch and m arch II.
whoops, sorry, don't know all the designations yet
Studying sustainability is certainly NOT a design constraint, Bryan4Arch. And it is not a constraint to get in the way of good design, either. Check out some buildings by Norman Foster, Richard Rogers, and Cook+Fox and tell me that design has suffered.
Of course today's "sustainable" practices will be commonplace in 10 years, but the line will not be drawn where we stand today. Technology and progress will constantly push forward and while others in the design fields are "forced to catch up," the people who learn about green architecture now will be the ones teaching it, and will always be several steps ahead of those who did not learn it.
I do agree that you must choose a school that is committed to sustainability, rather than offering a few classes, but definitely choose a good program and go for it.
why are you going into architecture if you're concerned about sustainability? In addition to sustainability being simply boring, its not architecture.
Why you shouldn't go into architecture ala eisenman
Now any of you that came into architecture to save society, you’re in the wrong discipline. Any of you who came into architecture to make money and have a suburban life with the tree cars and two dogs and a wife and 100 kids? Wrong. Be disabused of those notions. Architecture is a downwardly mobile profession. Compare the salaries of people who get out the Yale School of Architecture with the people that get out of The Yale law school, the Yale medical school, the Harvard Business School, whatever. They are probably a third to a quarter of what your colleagues will make, and always will be.
So if you’re here for humanitarian or environmental reasons, that you want to save Biafra or the plant, you ‘ain’t gonna learn that here. The best place to go is to Africa. If you’re an aid worker, not here. We are learning about architecture as a necessary cultural artifice. It always has been and it always will be. It helps and saves nobody. Our cities are as bad today as they were 100 years ago, and people have been teaching people how to do city plans forever, and that doesn’t correct anything, because architecture is not a corrective. Now, I am absolutely convinced, as great music is necessary, and great literature, great art, great poetry, so is great architecture. I am assuming that you all aspire to that greatness.
This class is about preparing you for the possibility of greatness. I can’t teach you how to be great, but the one thing I will tell you is I do not believe it takes any talent at all. It takes desire, and in fact, to overcome talent. If you have talent, you will fall back on it, and you will be doing things that please your own narcissistic impulses rather than thinking about how architecture can change, be questioned, open up.
For me, to be an architect does require a certain amount of narcissism and I have a great deal of it. Architecture requires a great amount of egotism, and I have a good deal of that. My wife can’t figure out how after going into competition after competition, and losing, how one can continue to do that sort of thing. One has to be prepared to lose a lot in architecture, as one has to be prepared to lose a lot in life. But in any case, that’s for another day. Any questions about what I’ve just said? There must be a hundred of them, but anything that is not clear thus far . . . Silence. You all heard me I hope. The words . . .you understood . . .even though you may be befuddled by some of them, they made some sort of sense to you I hope. Ok, that’s what I would call the prologoma.
hahaha....sustainability is boring and is not architecture. Wow, I never laughed so hard while working in the office. Thats a funny joke.
kai- carefull not to drink to much of pete's koolaid. the boringness of sustainability is completely subjective, and if you believe architecture doesn't have the ability to affect people, than the profession is better off without you. there have been many studies on how environments affect people.
I am hoping that Kai's diatribe was some sort of fictional monologue by a misinformed movie character or something.......are you really losing that many competitions, Kai? Hmmmm. Wonder why.
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