College of Arts and Sciences
Department of Interior Architecture
102 Maud Gatewood Studio Arts Building
PO Box 26170, Greensboro, NC 27402-6170
336.334.5320 Phone 336.334.5049 Fax
25 February 2015
Dear Sir or Madam:
I write in support of the Innovation credits that UNCG is seeking in its AASHE STARS
assessment by speaking specifically to the Materials Library in our Department of Interior
Architecture (IARc). As a full-time faculty member in IARc I took on the responsibility of
organizing our new library space when we moved into a newly constructed studio arts building.
Although most interiors programs have a sample room of materials available to their students,
these rooms are often filled with cast-off or discontinued products, are considered “cut rooms”
where students can remove samples for their individual studio projects, and are notoriously
difficult to manage and organize. We took advantage of a change in our physical environment to
develop a completely different approach to material samples.
First, developing a materials “library” meant that the resources were available to students but
that they were not to be removed or mutilated for the purposes of project boards. This enabled
us to keep complete sets and examples of materials that the students could browse, study, and
touch which informed them about qualities such as texture, nap, weight, opacity, and
temperature. Second, we determined that all materials would be current because providing
students with old, discontinued products only taught them that something similar to the sample
at hand may exist somewhere in the world but no longer with that particular manufacturer or
vendor. And third, without accepting either discontinued runs from manufacturers and reps or
cast-offs from firms that were closing, we moved toward purposefully selecting and collecting
materials appropriate for our students that also represented the values of our faculty which
meant that all materials needed to be sustainable materials.
We introduced into a 2nd year materials course an assignment requiring every student to identify
and procure samples of two green materials or products that would be added to our library
collection. Students also develop for each material a protocol sheet that includes information
about the life cycle of the material [harvest of raw materials, manufacture, transportation,
installation, maintenance, end of (first) useful life] as well as material content (water-/petroleumbased, recycled or renewable content, additives, emissions), location of the manufacturing plant
and its sustainable policies and practices, 3rd party certification (Cradle to Cradle, GreenGuard,
etc.), contribution to LEED points, and a contact person at the particular company. Although
many (most) products diverge from being green at some point, the protocol sheets enable
students to consider products’ material qualities in order to make informed selections for their
particular projects.
The next challenge was cataloguing because the Library of Congress system does not include
materials such as paint chips, concrete, ceramic tile, and wood flooring. To catalogue material
samples such as these, we modified the standard classification system developed by the
Construction Specifications Institute (CSI). MasterFormat is a system used by all professionals
in the building industry to enable seamless communication and specification about a large
variety of materials. Cataloguing materials in this way enabled us to organize our library and to
run reports that revealed when a particular material or product was acquired and whether it was
still a viable product in a viable company. Now that the cataloguing and protocol sheets all are
on-line, this approach to our material samples made information about green materials available
to the general public.
Having material samples available to students in interiors programs is not unusual. However,
having only green or sustainable materials is distinctive, cataloguing a Materials Library using
the CSI MasterFormat system is rare, engaging students in procuring materials is uncommon,
and to our knowledge, the development and posting of protocol sheets for student use and that
of the general public is unique. This approach to our Materials Library has put information
regarding sustainable materials at the fingertips of anyone who has access to a computer and
the internet. Truly this is a valuable contribution to students’ education and also a valuable
service to the general public.
Thank you for the opportunity to write about our green Materials Library. I would be happy to
provide more information or answer any questions.
Sincerely,
Anna Marshall-Baker . PhD . FIDEC
Professor and Chair