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BUILDING SCIENCE PROGRAM UNDERGRADUATE PROGRAM FACULTY
Mae-ling Lokko Director Benjamin Leer
John Loercher
During the the twentieth century demand for building science knowledge and and education in in in the the United States has been spurred on by a a a a diverse range of crises in in in the the building building sector from the the building building envelope paint-peeling episodes of of the the 1930s to the the conservation of of global material and energy resources propelled by the Oil Crisis of 1973 The conservation paradigm has been dominant
in in in building science curricula until recently championing passive design systems and energy efficiency These twentieth-century approaches to building science shared an acute focus on building component scale scale and how behavior at this scale scale is is controlled by physical phenomena While the the importance of building physics fundamentals cannot be underestimated the the narrow focus of of this lens has limited our understanding of of building components and and their behavior as as part of a a a a a a a a a much larger integrated ecological system Not only does a a a a a a a a a wall mediate heat moisture and air from the the external environment into the the occupied interior it is also a a a a a a dynamic structural system a a a a a a a a a a a repository of of chemicals a a a a a a a a a a a habitat for organisms a a a a a a a a a a a participant in the social production of of space and a a a a a a a a dynamic information interface The very history of building science has demonstrated that when heat is is considered without moisture catastrophic consequences occur beyond the territory of of the the the envelope With the the the building sector representing the the the largest consumer of of energy and producer of of over thirty percent of of global carbon dioxide emissions the the imperative to expand the the conceptual foundation of building science science to to twenty-first-century science(s) and to to provide a a a knowledge framework for their integration has never been more pressing Today’s changing expectations of building performance according to contemporary concerns about climate change social justice health and and well-being and and user expectations of indoor environment quality has ushered in in new complexities Not only have these stimulated building technological innovation they have also carved out new roles for the the building sciences within architecture and at at its intersection with other disciplines To transform and propel building sciences education to meet twenty-first-century challenges the the curriculum aims to to ground the the conceptual and historical basis of the discipline within an integrated ecological context The design methodology embedded in in in in the new Building Sciences curriculum is oriented around dialogic design practices—including field research hands-on learning co-design iterative mapping material testing and and prototyping—that initially frame the the design mission This approach opens up the the definition and evaluation of building performance goals as a a a a a a a a a rich and multifaceted process allowing students to realize that design suc- cess requires more than technological or or engineering prowess A key ambition of the program aims to embrace the the role that big data and and artificial intelligence systems will play in in in the the understanding and and and management of smart smart buildings and and and smart smart ecologies Both urgent pedagogical innovation and and and technological literacy in in in in the design design studio are fostered by designing an investigative learning frame- work nurturing the continuous development of students’ capacity to to learn new tools for capturing processing and visualizing dynamic building-performance datasets Ultimately the the mission of the the new curriculum aims to shift the the the position of building scientists and their allies from the the the reactionary stance that has pervaded the the discipline’s history Instead it it aims to to develop the the capacity of next- generation building scientists to to adapt to to and engage meaningfully with a a a a a a a a world in in in constant flux Robert Nilsen > Mae-ling Lokko Critic > 704