Sustainable School Design: participation and post-occupancy evaluation...including my past work experience, skills and aspirations for research and why am suited to teach here...

School of ArchitectureIOWA State University

Andrea Wheeler BA(Hons) Dip Arch (Oxford) MPhil (Mech. Eng.) PhD (Architecture)

11 March 2013

OutlineAbout MeTeaching Research Administration and Teaching Innovation

About MeThe journey so far…

PRIZE WINNING STUDENTBA (Hons) Architecture, Second year prize for outstanding achievementNational Diploma in Art and Design. Fine Art/ Studio Practice (Distinction) Graduate Diploma in Architecture – Prizes for Graphics and Dissertation MPhil Mechanical Engineering (Timber Repair) TRADA Technology Scholarship PhD Architecture (Arts and Humanities Research Council Scholarship)

Ethics in the built environment.

Wheeler, Andrea (2008) "About being-two in an architectural perspective". In Conversations, Luce Irigaray (ed.) Continuum. pp. 53 – 72

Wheeler, Andrea (2008) "Architectural Issues in Building Community through Luce Irigaray's Perspective on being-two". In, Teaching Luce Irigaray (ed.) Continuum. pp. 61- 68

Post Doctoral Research – Success in Research Funding

1.Post doctoral UK Energy Research Council/ESRC , 3 year Interdisciplinary Early Careers Fellowship , The University of Nottingham (£220,000 over 3 years)2.Universitas 21 (consortium of international Universities) lecture series3.UK Energy Research Council “The Meeting Place” Oxford, dissemination body for the UK Energy Research Council.

How do you explore a different relation, a non-exploitative, non-appropriative relation to the world and to others? How does this translate into a design for a school – what does it look like?

Research Question

Commercial Experience Architects, Engineers, Planning Consultants and Policy

Defra (Department of Environment Food and Rural Affairs) , London (Policy)Walker Troup, ArchitectsShere Consulting Ltd., (Planning)Redmak Architects, NottinghamDerek Latham Architects, DerbyRegeneration East Midlands (Planning)March and Grochowski, Nottingham (Architects)Design Group Cambridge (Architects)Holder and Mathias Alcock, Architects, Cardiff

So, why IOWA State University?

Strong architectural designStrong student communityInterdisciplinary designHistory of community engagement

What I am bringing to IOWA School of Architecture…• Experience in teaching at Masters level.• Teaching innovation – social media• Publications• Success in research funding• Interest in interdisciplinary research• Skilled administrator/ education researcher

(technologies) at the Centre for Engineering and Design Education (research, teaching development, software development)

TEACHING

1818

St Benedicts School, London

Teaching sustainable school design : individual presentations coursework/ “live”

design project

Teaching interests

• Degree Programme– Building Science and Technology– Human Behaviour and Environmental Theory

• Master of Science (graduate level research)– Sustainable Design– Design Inquiry– Architectural and Construction History– Building Science and Construction

Robin Nicholson, Partner, Edward Cullinan Architect “Do we need visions for a low energy future?” (SLIDESHARE)

What do we need for a low carbon future?Lecture summary

• 1. Conserving energy over building conservation regulations• 2. Better knowledge of building physics amongst construction

professionals• 3. Better building skills amongst the green building sector.• 4. Controls that real people can understand.• 5. Financial incentives.• 6. People being on board.• 7. How we behave.• 8. Collective energy initiatives – community owned renewable energy.• 9. Cradle to cradle economies.• 10. Measurement and the publication of energy data.

•

Centre of Expertise on Influencing Behaviours, (Centre for Sustainable Behaviours) Defra March 2010 – August 2010

RESEARCH

SUSTAINABLE SCHOOL DESIGN: PARTICIPATION AND POST-OCCUPANCY EVALUATION

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emergent technologies

different ways of being

But which is the most

significant?

Technology will not be sufficient to transform housing to reduce its impact on the environment as it will not challenge the way in which this impact is created (Seyfang 2012, Reid and Houston 2013).

Research has demonstrated that occupants of low carbon homes have found methods to bypass low carbon solutions in order to prevent the curtailment of their activities (Gill et al. 2010)

Innovative technology is not enough: Engagement, behaviour and “rebound” effects

“Environmentalism was born from the avant-garde cultural movement in America and is now in the hands of environmental technologists. I think it’s a problem that environmentalists believe the happiness of man depends on the square metres of grass available to them, and that our habitat should be based solely around energy consumption.”

“Post environmentalism will come of age when environmentalists re-establish contact with the avant-garde, with innovation, experimentation and aesthetic concerns. Only then will it become an important historical movement”

Peruccio, Pier Paolo and Elena Formia (2013) “The designer as revolutionary” [Interview with Andrea Branzi] In Special Report: Design. The Art Newspaper Section 2 Number 243, February 2013, p. 16).

Architecture and the Avant-Guard

How to develop schools that are ‘sustainable’ through the relationship of the building design and the behaviour of the children (Blair, A, 2004). (Context at that time)

Critical position on the role of children’s participation in the design of schools was proposed as key element of the Building Schools for the Future programme.

Participation in School Design: Building Schools for the Future programme 2005 - 2010

Wheeler, Andrea (2010) “An interview with Harry Shier: Contrasting children’s participation in the UK Building Schools for the Future programme with the Nicaraguan context” International Journal of Children’s Rights Vol. 18/3, 457-474 (translated into Spanish for Nicaraguan readers available at: http://www.harryshier.110mb.com/docs/Wheeler_Entrevista_a_Harry_Shier.pdf ).

Publication

Workshops with Children

•Children and young people have to have the right within our existing educational systems to be able to encounter all the complexities this involves.

•Sustainability requires a critical engagement with questions of living and being.•Who is this historical human being characterised by his/her exploitation of the natural environment? How do we understand his or her rights?

•sustainable lifestyle relates directly to the traditions of philosophical and political discourse and this cannot be absent from teaching in schools in the context of sustainable development.

Conclusions

There is a mismatch between predicted and actual energy use in building. How do we understand this? School buildings were our case studies.

THE OTHER SIDE OF THE DESIGN PROCESS - POST OCCUPANCY Research question 2010 - 2011

Users of the building have an impact on energy demand and performance data.School “culture” influences energy behaviours.Post-occupancy evaluation is an educational opportunity and provides a platform to motivate change.

The problem of method and of evaluation – questions about post-occupancy (theories we wanted to test)

Open discussionWalk-throughs with videoQuizzesDrawings Big group design maps and conversation

Adapted a method: Including children in post-occupancy requires appropriate methods

“We like to sit under the stairs where there is carpet and a radiator, but we’re not allowed. We just like to sit there because it is inside. We just like having a quieter area you can sit and just be with your friends [...] They should have little benches [outside] people can sit on and a shelter in the winter. I know it is cold but I do like to go outside to get some fresh air. And also the lads when they play football would have somewhere for their bags” (Year 10 pupil).

There’s a lot of difficulties working with them [the construction company] ...If there is a problem with the school, it’s the schools fault. [...] If there’s a problem they will blame the school... it ends up just being a frustration. [...] And then obviously on the purchasing side, whenever anything needs to be changed, if we need a new gat e or pathway, whatever it is, we have to go through them and the costs are so significantly high” (Building Manager)

“On our first day they sat us down and told us what we couldn’t do in the school – from the start it made us feel it wasn’t ours .

School culture and user behaviours

“I think we should stop lighting the school in the day as the sun lights it up a lot and we’re wasting electricity” (Final ‘design’ session, Year 8 pupil).

“Are the lights movement sensitive? I don’t think in the corridors they are. They could be movement sensitive, but even just a switch”

Sometimes they [the classrooms] are really warm and the windows don’t open. None of the windows open. Only the lower ones. In the summer it’s really hot” (Year 7 pupil.) Researcher 1: “Are there things you think the architect could have done better?” “Just the windows.”

Children and Energy

“But you can’t open them and you get too hot... But then you have air conditioning. But you only have it in ICT but when you do it’s nice and cool and then it gets too cold [different voice]. In normal classrooms you have this thing that brings air in form outside, but if it’s hot outside it’s just bringing in hot air.”

“I don't even think we are trying. It feels like they don't even think they care. But they are always banging on about it. They are always telling us to save energy but why not them”.

1.Contradictions between what adults say and what they tell children to do. A mismatch between designers intention and teachers ability to manage the behaviours of pupils – (many examples – dining biggest issue)2.Poorly functioning building features (windows, heating and ventilation systems, circulation, dining spaces) and either over provision or under provision of space and facilities, together with teachers prohibiting use of facilities (toilets locked, .3.Lack of ownership of PFI buildings4.Lack of understanding of the ‘sustainable’ design features of the new school building – solar heating panels5.Convoluted facilities management procedures where prohibitions did nothing towards children establishing their own “authentic” relationship to the environment and a deep or lasting critical perspective on the problems of sustainable development.

RESULTS

MOTIVATING CHANGE

The School plans to enter into discussion with the local authority to gain responsibility for paying their own bills and putting measures in place to save 20%.

Schools setting up children “Eco-groups”.

ADMINISTRATION AND TEACHING DEVELOPMENT

And what else do I bring?

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School Design Futures Conference

UKERC funded “The Meeting Place” University of Oxford, St Hugh’s College

MEGS-KT: Teaching development and Business and Community Engagement (towards low carbon economies):

MEGS-KT: How to develop a relevant, up-to-date desirable platform for “CFD” opportunities, opening up University resources and allowing SMEs in the renewable energy sector to share their knowledge.

SASIE, Micro-Business, Nottingham, UK

Building a Community of Practice, “catalytic Individuals” and the small business

community.

17/10/2012 Robin Nicholson, Edward Cullinan Architects24/10/2012 Russell Smith, Parity Projects14/11/2012 Terry McGivern, The Institute for Sustainability and the Flash Programme05/12/2012 John Davis, Domestic Green Deal Assessor16/01/2012 Carl Benfield, Prescient Power30/01/2012 Keyur Vadodaria, Researcher, CALEBRE project20/02/2012 Rich Cartwright, RDC Energy , Jonathan Gilbert, The Rapid technology Transfer Group, and Tracy Thomas

We built a an online communityCommunity (50 participants over 7 workshops (9 speakers))

Catalytic Individuals /Fellows: Robin Nicholson (Award Winning Architect, ex- Vice President RIBA), Parity Projects (Award Winning SME), Institute for Sustainability (Training Centre), John Davis (Green Deal Assessor), Saucy Horse (Social Networking Business Champion). Carl Benfield (Prescient Energy [Solar and Wind]), Keyur Vadodaria (Researcher/ Architect), Richard Cartright (Engineer, RDC Energy Ltd, [Heat Pumps]) Jonathan Gilbert (Rapid Technology Transfer Group [Innovative Technologies]) Tracy Thomas (Saucy Horse, Social Media Marketing)

PhD students/Researchers (Loughborough University, Nottingham University) Enrique Centelles, Kate Simpson, Sergey Fomin, Paula Cosar, Becky Gough, Philip Leicester, Sven Hallin

Academics: Professor Jacqui Glass, Dr Paul Rowley, Dr Steven Firth, Zulfikar Adamu

Catalytic Individuals and Our Social Media Fellow Tracy Thomas

LinkedIn Community (50+ additional members in the East

Midlands)

Twitter Group 920 Followers

Small businesses represent a supply chain that will allow us to design and build low cost low energy and sustainable buildings.

Why is this important as a BCE project for the University?

The Community Views

• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xx602KnOiFM (3 mins)

“Correspondents” and the purpose of evaluation

• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=35IDWaB_X98 (1 min)

What emerges as a result of participation?

A community trying to work together?

The E-MENTORING Pilot : “Improving Student Employability Through E-Mentoring”. (February 2012 – June 2012)

• Awarded HEA Departmental Grant• Recruited mentors and mentees. Mentors

were young, 2- 7 years post qualification. Mentees from the School of Civil and Building Engineering (without placement experience).

• Invited to a launch meeting to meet mentors/mentees and have some training (all online).

• Left to get on with it. Some emails. Some invitations to feedback via online questionnaires.

• June – August interviews.• September, review of programme and

revision ahead of pilot 2.

Anticipating a changing working world and how

technology is reshaping work, education and society

Extreme longevityGlobally connected media and communication toolsRoboticsGreater computational powerThe role of social media to create new forms of production

Example experience of e-mentoring

• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=McS_C_ausPY (3 min)

The benefits of e-mentoring and the benefits of virtual mentoring/

collaboration in the studio?

• Unique relationship (from our project)• Benefits beyond simply employability (from our project)• Expanding horizons and work practices (from our project)

Virtual mentoring with practitioners (architects) or International academics using Skype, Google meeting.

Virtual Mentoring/ Collaboration (design studio courses): with other schools of architecture (in term projects) with other disciplines (interdisciplinary studio) Peers (international) twitter

New ICT Enhanced Approaches to Teaching and Learning

CONCLUSION

So why am I here? What am I about? And why might you want me to teach here?

RESEARCH AND TEACHING DEVELOPMENT INTERESTS

• Sustainable design, participation and post-occupancy as a learning opportunity for better design and as a means of motivating behavioural change amongst users

• Interdisciplinary research between fine art and architecture/ participation

• Pedagogic research and social enhanced teaching methods

RESEARCH AND PUBLICATION PLANS

Publication/ book on sustainable schools and participation addressing fine art theory. “Space to ponder”

Grant funding for design for behaviour change/ motivating sustainable lifestyles - how innovative technologies and controls can support behavioural change.

Grant funding for pedagogic research into social media and ICT enhance mentoring in the studio.

HOW DO WE KNOW THE FUTURE? HOW CAN WE DESIGN FOR THE NEEDS OF FUTURE OTHERS?

If the world is going to be different in 50 years, how can we decide what is meant by sustainable design? Sustainable design comments on the now. For architects it is a question of ethics, we can act in good faith.

Is this sustainable design?

THANK YOU…ANY QUESTIONS?

a.s.wheeler@lboro.ac.uk