Autodesk Sustainable Design Curriculum
Lesson Two: Modeling the Sustainable Building Site
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The Regional Context for Sustainability and Sustainable Design
Modeling the Ecoregion / Bioregion
Modeling the Socio-Political Region
Modeling Regional Demographic Information
Modeling The Economic Region
Modeling the Regional Built Environment and Critical Infrastructure
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The Regional Context for Sustainability and Sustainable Design
In 1939, the architect Frank Lloyd Wright proposed his philosophy of “Organic
Architecture,” which he advocated that architects could utilize to create buildings that
would appear to “grow out of the site.”
Cucumber Falls, Ohiopyle State Park,
Fayette County, PA
Photo by Jim Shaulis, Pennsylvania Geological Survey,
Department of Conservation and Natural Resources, The
Commonwealth of Pennsylvania,
(http://www.dcnr.state.pa.us/topogeo/photogallery/images/cucum
ber.jpg)
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Frank Lloyd Wright’s “Kaufmann House”,
a.k.a. Falling Water,
Bear Run, Fayette County, PA, 1936
photo by Figuura Naudotojas, Wikimedia Commons, GNU Free
Documentation License , Creative Commons Attribution
ShareAlike 3.0 License.
The Regional Context for Sustainability and Sustainable Design
Seventy years later, Jason F. McLennan, the author of the “Living Building Challenge”
expressed a similar idea:
“Imagine a building designed and constructed to function as elegantly and efficiently as a
flower. “
“Imagine a building informed by its ecoregion’s characteristics, and that:
• generates all of its own energy with renewable resources,
• captures and treats all of its water, and
• operates efficiently and for maximum beauty.”
(Living Building Challenge http://www.ilbi.org)
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Image: A brilliant orange gerbera daisy, by Wikimedia
Commons user Kwj2772, 2008 licensed under the
Creative Commons Attribution ShareAlike 2.0 License
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0/
The Regional Context for Sustainability and Sustainable Design
What would a designer need to need to know so that a whole urban area and the buildings
and other structures within it could literally be made to “grow out of the site”, in the way that
a crystal, a flower or a tree grows?
What would a designer need to know so that this town or city, and all its buildings could be:
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constructed,
illuminated,
heated,
cooled,
ventilated,
powered and
plumbed
for human use and habitation, using only the energy and water that was available on the
site?
How could the “ecoregion’s characteristics” inform the design process of such a place?
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The Regional Context for Sustainability and Sustainable Design
Information Modeling tools and methodologies encourage designers to answer Sustainable
Design questions such as
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What are the ecological, sociopolitical, and economic forces currently at work in this
place?
What is the ecological, socio-political, and economic history of this place?
What will these forces and these histories require, permit, and help us to do as
designers of sustainable places?
The concept of “the region” is useful to a designer because it helps to contrast a specific
smaller site from a surrounding larger-scale area of interest and influence.
Successful sustainable design hinges upon an understanding of the importance of a
meaningful regional context, within which environmental, social and economic criteria are
integrated and can be modeled.
The modeling of a region can use narrative, quantitative and graphical methods to depict the
sustainable flow of energy, matter, and information over time.
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The Regional Context for Sustainability and Sustainable Design
Regional Climate, Local Climates, Microclimates, and Weather Models
Climate is the predominant organizing first principal for modeling an ecoregion.
The Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF) model is the latest numerical program model
adopted by the National Weather Service as well as by the U.S. military and many private
meteorological services.
Although the most talked-about climate models of recent years have been those that relate
rising average global temperatures to worldwide emissions of carbon dioxide, regional and
local climate models have a greater impact on effective sustainable design.
Architects and building engineers are increasingly paying closer attention to the need to
design for changing climatic conditions at the regional scale.
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The Regional Context for Sustainability and Sustainable Design
Understanding the Building Site in the Context of Ecosystem Structure, and
Function and Restoration
What is ecosystem restoration, and why is it a worthwhile goal of sustainable design?
Once restored, ecosystems can once again provide valuable services that contribute to
human well-being.
These services can be subdivided into four main categories:
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provisioning such as the production of food, fresh water, wood, fiber and fuel;
regulating, such as the control of climate, floods, diseases and water purification;
cultural, such as aesthetic, spiritual, educational and recreational benefits; and
supporting, such as nutrient cycling, soil formation and crop pollination;
(Millennium Ecosystem Assessment (MEA). 2005. Ecosystems and Human Well-Being: Synthesis. Island Press, Washington.)
© 2009Autodesk
The Regional Context for Sustainability and Sustainable Design
Modeling the Ecoregion / Bioregion
Diagram of flow of energy in a south Florida regional ecosystem, using H. T. Odum’s system of generic ecosystem modeling symbols from "The
Environment of South Florida, A Summary Report, by B. F. McPherson, et. al. 1976, Geological Survey Professional Paper 1011 , U.S. Geological Survey,
Miami, Florida
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The Regional Context for Sustainability and Sustainable Design
Modeling the Ecoregion / Bioregion:
British Columbia, Canada
from “Vancouver rocks”, Geological Survey of Canada, courtesy of Natural Resources Canada
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The Regional Context for Sustainability and Sustainable Design
Modeling the Ecoregion / Bioregion:
Georgia Depression Ecoprovince, British Columbia, Canada
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From Water Stewardship: Ground Water Resources of British Columbia, Chapter 9 — Ground
Water Resources of the Basins, Lowlands and Plains, 9.1.2 Nanaimo and Georgia Lowlands by
K. Ronneseth, W. Hodge, and A. P. Kohut. Ministry of the Environment, British Columbia,
Canada.
The Regional Context for Sustainability and Sustainable Design
Modeling the
Ecoregion / Bioregion:
Coast Forest Region and
Forest Districts British
Columbia, Canada
Coast Forest Region and Forest Districts, by Ministry of Forests and Range, British Columbia, Canada
Copyright © Province of British Columbia. All rights reserved. Reprint with permission of the province of
British Columbia www.ipp.gov.bc.ca
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The Regional Context for Sustainability and Sustainable Design
Modeling the Ecoregion / Bioregion:
The Chilliwack Forest District, British Columbia, Canada
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The Chilliwack Forest District, image by Ministry of Forests and Range, British Columbia, Canada
Copyright © Province of British Columbia. All rights reserved. Reprint with permission of
the province of British Columbia www.ipp.gov.bc.ca
The Regional Context for Sustainability and Sustainable Design
© 2009Autodesk
The Chilliwack Forest District, wall map, image by Ministry of Forests and Range, British
Columbia, Canada Copyright © Province of British Columbia. All rights reserved. Reprint with
permission of the province of British Columbia www.ipp.gov.bc.ca
The Regional Context for Sustainability and Sustainable Design
Modeling the Ecoregion / Bioregion:
Coastal Douglas-fir Zone (CDFmm), Chilliwack Forest District, British Columbia, CA
image by Ministry of Forests and Range, British Columbia, Canada, Copyright © Province of
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British Columbia. All rights reserved. Reprint with permission of the province of British Columbia
www.ipp.gov.bc.ca
The Regional Context for Sustainability and Sustainable Design
Modeling the Ecoregion / Bioregion:
Coastal Douglas-fir Zone (CDFmm), Chilliwack Forest District, British Columbia, CA
Coast Douglas-fir Vancouver, BC, 1887, William McFarlane Notman,
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The Regional Context for Sustainability and Sustainable Design
Modeling the Ecoregion / Bioregion: The Regional Watershed
Fraser River Watershed British Columbia, Canada
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The Regional Context for Sustainability and Sustainable Design
Modeling the Ecoregion / Bioregion: The Regional Watershed
Little Campbell River watershed S. Surrey. BC Canada, Lower Mainland (Region 2): Focus Watersheds, Greater Georgia
Basin Steelhead Recovery Plan, BC Conservation Foundation, 2009
The Little Campbell River watershed does not flow into the Fraser River. It is a highly
productive stream in terms of producing biomass, but its potential for supporting wild fish
populations, such as the slowly recovering Steelhead Salmon, is limited by the size of
watershed and a lack of large woody debris and boulders needed for habitat.
This is a highly urbanized (rural development) system, on the list of sensitive streams.
Intensive agricultural activities have led to reported fish kills and low dissolved oxygen
levels. There has been significant habitat disruption of the riparian zone
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The Regional Context for Sustainability and Sustainable Design
Modeling the Ecoregion / Bioregion: Biogeochemical Cycling
“Simplified Representation of the Global Carbon Cycle”, adapted from “Carbon Sequestration Research and
Development”, 1999 Genomics:GTL Program, Office of Biological and Environmental Research, U.S. Department of
Energy Office of Science
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The Regional Context for Sustainability and Sustainable Design
Modeling the Ecoregion / Bioregion:
Regional Stormwater Management Models
Screen shot of the EPA Storm Water Management Model (SWMM)
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The Regional Context for Sustainability and Sustainable Design
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Regional Soil-Water Chemistry Models
Enable researchers to examine the reactions and characteristics that influence soil
chemical reactivity
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Regional Erosion Control Models
Help researchers to understand how to prevent water pollution and soil loss.
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Total Regional Ecosystem Biomass Models
Biomass is the mass of organically bound carbon (C). Total ecosystem biomass is
measured at the regional scale to better understand how to mitigate atmospheric
carbon emissions and to measure the health of the ecosystem.
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Regional Biodiversity Models
Biodiversity is often used as a measure of the health of biological systems, and is
measured in terms of Species Richness , the Species Index , and the Shannon Index.
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Total Regional Ecosystem Health Metrics
Six major concepts are most often used to describe ecosystem health (Costanza
1992):
• homeostasis
• the absence of disease,
• diversity or complexity,
• stability or resilience,
• vigor or scope for growth, and
• balance between system components.
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The Regional Context for Sustainability and Sustainable Design
Modeling the Cultural and Socio-Political Region
First Nations totem pole & longhouse
at the Museum of Anthropology at the University of British
Columbia. University Endowment Lands, BC, Canada
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The Regional Context for Sustainability and Sustainable Design
Modeling Regional Demographic Information
"Census Bureau Legal and Statistical Geographic Entities"
U.S. Census Bureau, Geography Division, 2009,
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Voting District Map, South Surrey-White RockCloverdale (British Columbia), source,
Elections Canada
The Regional Context for Sustainability and Sustainable Design
Modeling The Economic Region
Connecticut Economic Model (REMI) Connecticut Economic Model (REMI), (Connecticut Department of Economic
and Community Development (DECD), "The Economic and Fiscal Impacts of Connecticut’s Film Tax Credit", 2008)
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The Regional Context for Sustainability and Sustainable Design
Economic Measures of Sustainability
Advocates of Sustainable Design assert that it has measurable economic
benefits, including:
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Reducing construction costs through more efficient processes and reduced
waste of construction materials.
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Cutting operating costs by using less energy and water.
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Creating, expanding, and shaping markets for green products and
services.
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Generating higher commercial tenant ROI by increasing worker
productivity and reducing worker absenteeism.
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Providing higher market resale values.
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The Regional Context for Sustainability and Sustainable Design
Social Measures of Sustainability
Advocates of Sustainable Design assert that this approach to creating the
built environment has measurable social benefits.
These include:
• Enhancing occupant comfort and health by improving indoor air quality,
thermal comfort, and daylight levels.
• Improving overall quality of life by providing healthier and more pleasing
places to live and work.
• Explicitly addressing issues of environmental justice and social equity.
• Minimizing strain on local and regional infrastructure.
• Heightening aesthetic qualities.
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The Regional Context for Sustainability and Sustainable Design
Modeling the Regional Built Environment and Critical
Infrastructure
The day-to-day reality of a region that exhibits sustainability across all three dimensions - ecological,
social-political and economic- is one where people have access to a reliable infrastructure that will
support them in meeting their basic needs and pursuing their desires.
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electricity generation, transmission and distribution;
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natural gas production, transport and distribution;
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oil and oil products production, transport and distribution;
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telecommunication;
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water supply (drinking water, waste water/sewage, stemming of surface water (e.g. dikes and sluices));
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agriculture, food production and distribution;
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heating (e.g. passive solar, natural gas, fuel oil, district heating, coal, fuel wood);
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public health (air quality, noise abatement, solid waste management, regional/municipal recycling,
sanitation, hospitals, ambulances);
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transportation systems (fuel supply, railway network, airports, harbors, roads, bridges and other inland
shipping routes);
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financial services (banking, clearing);
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security services (police, fire safety, military).
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The Regional Context for Sustainability and Sustainable Design
Summary
Modeling a sustainable building site is an exercise in establishing the most
meaningful ecological, social and economic regional context.
Ecologists seeking to classify large regions have discovered that climate, geology
and biological communities interact via ecosystem processes to form ecoregions
where energy and matter are cycled very efficiently and very productively.
This has inspired designers, engineers and builders to create a built environment
that can harmonize and perhaps even mimic these processes.
Introducing the social and economic aspects regional context introduces a
significant degree of complexity, but powerful information modeling tools and
methodologies exist to support this goal.
© 2009Autodesk
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