I had the pleasure this January to contribute to the IDIBC Island Chapter Newsletter. I decided to highlight an assignment which entailed taking shipping containers and creating, in my case, a shelter. Both the assignment and the newsletter were great experiences for me and I learned so much from them.
Newsletter Article:
VIU – Student News
-
Christina Bustard
This
fall my fellow third year students and I were given the task of taking two
high-cube shipping containers and choosing a shelter, a wilderness retreat, a
site office or a 10,000 Villages seasonal site as our project. Working in teams, the parameters were to
create a sustainable facility that was ‘off the grid’ as much as possible using
things like compostable toilets and cisterns for water collection. Designing in a sustainable way is
exciting. New products and ways to save
energy are constantly arriving in the market place and as student designers we
have a responsibility to be engaged in this important aspect of design.
Three-dimensional
models were built to give visual impact to the designs that were created. The presentations included sites using geothermal
technology, a wind turbine generator, and solar panels to make them
self-sustainable. No VOC paints,
eco-friendly carpet and drywall were all used to create successful designs that
were not wasteful, did not use toxic elements or exploited resources.
The
best lesson that came from this project was that we learned so much from each
other’s research and it is exciting to realize how influential a design
community is to ensuring innovative ways to solve design problems while
thinking of the impacts of the products used to create beautiful and functional
spaces.
 |
| Lisa (right) and I presenting our shelter model to the class |
No comments:
Post a Comment