It may not be easy building green but thanks to a new publication by a University architecture professor, it may be getting easier.
“The Green Studio Handbook: Environmental Studies for Schematic Design,” written by University of Oregon professor Alison Kwok and Florida A&M University professor Walter Grondzik, gives readers 40 different strategies for designing “green buildings” that conserve energy, water and material resources.
“We wanted to have a way to begin the design for a building with green strategies, because if green design isn’t incorporated into the schematic stages of the design – the beginning of the idea for a building – it’s very hard to add it later on,” said Kwok.
The book is intended to be user-friendly and covers all the bases for initial design development. The 40 strategies it offers are organized into six categories: envelope (the outside of the building), lighting, heating, cooling, energy production, and water and waste. Each section is no longer than 10 pages and includes a step-by-step design procedure, which helps simplify the process of implementation.
The book also contains more than 400 sketches, illustrations and diagrams because, as Kwok said, “Architects are very visual people.”
At the end of the book are nine in-depth case studies of buildings in places as far away as China, as remote as Africa, and as close to home as the Lillis Business Complex.
“These studies are examples of how all these strategies can really come together,” Kwok said.
The handbook was inspired by a design studio Kwok taught last spring, in which the students were charged with designing a new building for a local manufacturer.
“They wanted to do it green and were needing quick resources and how-tos for various design strategies,” Kwok said. “We thought then, why don’t we put together something graphic with lots of ideas and include design procedures for incorporating strategies into schematic design.”
Second year architecture student Peter Henne has used the handbook and attests to its usefulness.
“It condenses key points into something that’s easy to use and helps with the initial design development before (the process) gets more technical,” Henne said.
While architecture students, faculty and professionals are the intended audience for this book, Kwok says it could also be employed by home owners and people who want to build their own houses.
“I believe that home owners would be able to read parts of this book and then be able to discuss it with their contractors. They would know what questions to ask and would have a better dialogue with their builder,” Kwok said.
The green handbook was received well by the American Institute of Architects, who called it “the ideal companion to the green studio,” and is also on the “long list” for the Royal Institute of British Architects International Awards .
Kwok began her teaching career in Hawaii, where she taught chemistry, biology and marine science, but it was her interest in art that made her consider a career change.
“I thought, architecture is such a wonderful synthesis of science, technology, design and art, and it’s for people; it connects with people because buildings are for people,” Kwok said. After taking a sabbatical, she went to the University of California at Berkeley, became licensed and got her Ph.D. in architecture.
In 1998, after her first architecture teaching job at Cornell University, she came to the University of Oregon because of its good reputation for green architecture.
“I think we can move forward much more quickly with green design with the concentrated community we have here. We’re very good at sharing information at Oregon,” she said, also adding that, “The ideas flow outward from Oregon.”
For Kwok, sustainability is a value system.
“What do we value? Do we value the conservation of our resources or being able to drive our SUVs?” she said.
It is also imperative.
“If we can’t design buildings to not use fossil fuels in the next 10 years, scientists say we will not be able to reverse the trend of climate change,” Kwok said.
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