Out of Practice: Learning through Entrepreneurial Tools

The architecture and construction industries, which arenotoriously slow to adopt change, are having to adapt tonew climate realities very quickly. In particular, reducingthe embodied carbon associated with buildings (and notjust carbon related to operational energy) has emerged as awidespread mandate for design and building professionals.However, the ways to achieve these ends are still very muchin flux, and knowledge around architecture’s carbon economyis concentrated in a small subset of sustainable designers,builders, and industry leaders. This course, however, is not a“how-to” guide for reversing the course of climate change bydesign. What this course attempts to do is empower you withtools for locating, engaging, and learning from active sites ofknowledge production out there “in the field.” By forminga clearer picture of the complex and ever-changing web ofinformation, practices, policies, businesses, and technologiesthat constitute an expanded “field,” students in the coursewill emerge better equipped to formulate good questions,build evidence, challenge the status quo, and shape newdesign-informed practices to address the various spatial,social, and environmental needs of the coming century. Toillustrate the course pedagogy, this paper will describe onestudent project that leveraged EBE research methodologiestoward an architecture-adjacent business proposal.

Volume Editors
Massimo Santanicchia

ISBN
978-1-944214-44-9