Abstract
Global warming, shortage of fossil fuel and rising energy prices are endangering humanity. The built environment is responsible for a large part of the energy use and waste production. Traditional building design approaches essentially lead to redesign and optimization, whereas to meet the unique challenges for sustainability in the present day built environment, we need to go further and generate new concepts and knowledge that represent the necessary conditions to arrive at new sustainable design solutions. This research set out to develop a method to create a more integral process that would create the opportunity to introduce a greater variety and amount of design knowledge from the outset of the conceptual design phase. The approach was tested by using series of workshops in which more than 100 experienced professionals participated. The Integral Design method [ID-method] developed here, given the right cultural environment, may in time lead to the generation of new building concepts that will allow us the opportunity to move beyond redesign and optimization. The necessity of concept creation is shown by C-K theory that defines design as the interplay between two interdependent spaces, knowledge space K and concept space C, which allows us to conceive of the possibility to transform the building design team’s knowledge into new concepts.
Keywords
Integral Design, Morphological Overview, C-K Theory, Workshops
Citation
Zeiler, W., Savanovi´c, P., and Harkness, D. (2010) Integral Design Method in the Context of Conceptual Sustainable Building Design, in Durling, D., Bousbaci, R., Chen, L, Gauthier, P., Poldma, T., Roworth-Stokes, S. and Stolterman, E (eds.), Design and Complexity - DRS International Conference 2010, 7-9 July, Montreal, Canada. https://dl.designresearchsociety.org/drs-conference-papers/drs2010/researchpapers/140
Integral Design Method in the Context of Conceptual Sustainable Building Design
Global warming, shortage of fossil fuel and rising energy prices are endangering humanity. The built environment is responsible for a large part of the energy use and waste production. Traditional building design approaches essentially lead to redesign and optimization, whereas to meet the unique challenges for sustainability in the present day built environment, we need to go further and generate new concepts and knowledge that represent the necessary conditions to arrive at new sustainable design solutions. This research set out to develop a method to create a more integral process that would create the opportunity to introduce a greater variety and amount of design knowledge from the outset of the conceptual design phase. The approach was tested by using series of workshops in which more than 100 experienced professionals participated. The Integral Design method [ID-method] developed here, given the right cultural environment, may in time lead to the generation of new building concepts that will allow us the opportunity to move beyond redesign and optimization. The necessity of concept creation is shown by C-K theory that defines design as the interplay between two interdependent spaces, knowledge space K and concept space C, which allows us to conceive of the possibility to transform the building design team’s knowledge into new concepts.