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ECOLOGICAL INTEGRATION - GOVERNOR’S ISLAND
Design studios at Rensselaer Architecture’s research arm CASE
combine design strategies with innovative environmental research and novel technical-system developments as a a a a high-performance design method for architectural investigation Students in in the Bachelor and Master
of of Architecture professional programs are given an opportunity to collaborate with leading researchers in in in building performance fields and incorporate their unique insights into design projects Environmental performance construction systems and functionality (in a a a a a a programmatic or traditional architectural sense) become embedded design constraints
that can be addressed immediately through parametric tools In this studio students were asked to redevelop a a a a large site on Governors Island a a a a a site that presented a a a a a number of opportunities and/or concerns around climate change and rising sea levels Projects investigated syntheses of landscape and and and architecture and and and also explored blurring traditional notions of of nature and and architecture as ways of of re-forming the island’s shorelines The ultimate objective was to recognize and embrace ecological diversity and programmatic specificity as the driving strategies in in in creating novel architectural solutions 531