Resilient Experiments in Rural Housing: Architectural Experiments in Planned Housing

Single family houses contribute substantially to climate change in the US and other parts of the world. In the US specifically, most housing has been designed by builders and developers. The motivation has not been sustainability and a knowledge of how to design net zero energy and net zero water dwelling is not commonly understood. This paper seeks to use a historical model as viewed through the lens of the Living Building Challenge to demonstrate how an architect designed historic example might provide a way of implementing a cutting-edge approach to sustainable housing today. Arthurdale was an early 20th century housing experiment that was conceptualized to provide for sustainable living in rural Appalachia. This paper presents the history of the region, an overview of the houses and the Living Building Challenge and then analyses how this historic prototype might model a sustainable housing development today using the Living Building Challenge system.

Implementing Regenerative Design Principles: A Refurbishment Case Study of the First Regenerative Building in Spain

The conventional building design and construction have detrimental impact onto the environment. With the current pace of development of the contemporary society, these issues cannot be fully addressed with the concept of sustainable design and construction, which is based on causing less harm to the environment. Thus, the regenerative concept is gaining relevance, as it is changing the construction paradigm toward the delivery of a human-centric environment, which, when coupled with the circular economy, aims to enable the natural environment to evolve. In order to have a more frequent delivery of regenerative buildings, it is necessary to broaden the knowledge on regenerative design, which is the objective of this paper. The aim is to investigate the design process, strategies, and technologies that are applied during the design and construction of a refurbished residential building, which is intended to be the first regenerative building in Spain, and is currently in the process of certification as per the Living Building Challenge (LBC) standard. Therefore, a literature review was performed, followed by a site visit of the case-study building. The research is organized according to the seven categories (petals) of the Living Building Challenge standard, and all 20 imperatives of the LBC are discussed. Additionally, the aspects of costs and project management are investigated. The findings point out the main design features and challenges toward the realization of regenerative refurbishment, in order to fully adhere to the demands of the LBC, and discusses their potential for a broader application in rural as well as urban settings. The analysis of the case-study design and construction can serve as a valuable insight to deliver future regenerative buildings and accelerate their implementation in the construction industry. This article is based upon the work of COST Action RESTORE CA16114, supported by COST (European Cooperation in Science and Technology).

Implementing Regenerative Standards in Politically Green Nordic Social Welfare States: Can Sweden Adopt the Living Building Challenge?

This paper focuses on understanding the place for regenerative building standards within the context of politically green Nordic social welfare states. To this end, it examines the particular case of adopting the Living Building Challenge (LBC), an iconic example of regenerative design standard, in Sweden. An extensive document analysis comparing the Swedish building and planning regulations as well as the Miljöbyggnad national certification system with the LBC, shows overlaps and barriers the standard can face when adopted in the country. Barriers are validated and further discussed in interviews with one of the few architects trying to achieve a certified LBC building in Sweden and Swedish public authorities from the Boverket (Swedish National Board of Housing, Building and Planning). Results from the document analysis and interviews show barriers to implement the LBC in Sweden are a product of a conscious political and ideological decision from the welfare state which considers infrastructure, and all its potential sustainable versions, a public good to be provided to all and funded by all. This premise contrasts with the self-sufficient approach promoted by the LBC, which in this particular aspect, can be interpreted as a threat to the welfare state.

How Rating Systems Support Regenerative Change in the Built Environment

Urban development principles have evolved from sustainability, where the focus was on limiting the negative impact of urban environment, to restorative and regenerative sustainability, where positive impact is needed on global social and ecological systems. This recent paradigm shift requires the development of new tools for practitioners, like design methodologies, new technologies, and assessment methods.To measure the impact of sustainability on the built environment, several building-scale assessment tools exist. The question is how these widespread rating systems support restorative change in the built environment.The main question of the research is answered in three methodological steps. First, the goals of restorative sustainability are summarized from the available extensive literature, including the topics of Place, Energy, Water, Well-being, Carbon, Resources, Equity, Education, and Economics. Then different rating tools (Living Building Challenge, WELL, LEED, BREEAM, DGNB) are analysed how the considered issues and indicators in these rating tools are connected to restorative goals. Then these indicators are assessed how they serve that goal.The result of this study shows the main strengths and gaps in current wide-spread international rating tools regarding their support of restorative sustainability.

The role of aesthetics in building sustainability assessment

This theoretical study examines the role of aesthetics in the assessment frameworks of sustainable architecture. The article is organized into two main sections: a general literature review and the results. The results section encompasses an analysis of the place of aesthetic quality in the understanding of sustainable architecture, and an overview and discussion of the general sustainable building assessment frameworks and the main sustainable buildings certification systems (LEED, BREEAM, WELL, Living Building Challenge), identifying the existing and potential place of cultural sustainability and aesthetics in them. Finally, four architectural theories holding the potential for balancing human and environmental criteria in the assessment of sustainable architecture are presented. These theories are: sustainability aesthetics, genius loci, biophilia, and a regenerative approach. The conclusion was made that these approaches hold the potential for the breakthrough of aesthetic quality and uniqueness of sustainable architecture.

The Living Community Challenge for Environmental and Urban Sustainability

The Living Community Challenge (LCC) is a green certification program that, unlike most certification programs, is geared toward whole neighborhoods as opposed to singular buildings. Unfortunately, no existing communities have achieved Living Community Challenge certification. Still, there are many neighborhoods utilizing the ideals – known as petals – of the LCC in attempts to become more sustainable. The Living Building Challenge (LBC), the parent certification for the LCC, has seen more success than the LCC and will provide further research on the implications of its criterion. This paper will look at the hypothetical variables of the LCC, the communities trying to achieve these variables, and how elements of it could be used in relation to impoverished communities. Through case studies on groups and individuals attempting LCC and LBC certification, specifically Bend, Oregon and the BLOCK Project, the potential of the research becomes evident. This paper seeks to demonstrate how the LCC could be applied specifically in low-income areas in Gainesville, FL without achieving all the requirements of each petal.

The added value of regenerative architecture and contemporary aesthetic philosophy

Regenerative architecture seeks to impact positively on the environment. It aims to produce buildings that reduce the degenerative consequences of human activity and add positively to the environment. To add value, in dimensions such as beauty, included in the design approaches of regenerative architecture, and in, for example, the Living Building Challenge, where the biophilic and biomimetic are raised as aspirations, however, poses some fundamental questions for the ways of thinking that underlie regenerative architecture and the discipline of architecture. Design tools suggest that the "greater than character" can be determined, measured even, in all categories, but aspirations also call for radical changes to the way we see and understand human lives. Understandings of aesthetics and the primacy of a sensory connection with the environment are little acknowledged questions within the philosophy of regenerative design outside the suggestion of biophilia. In this paper, I examine the foundations of environmental aesthetics: stories, myths, dreams and the importance of the creative imagination in understanding and reevaluating the way we see and understand human lives and our relationship to our built and natural environments.

THE R.W. KERN CENTER AS A LIVING LABORATORY: CONNECTING CAMPUS SUSTAINABILITY GOALS WITH THE EDUCATIONAL MISSION AT HAMPSHIRE COLLEGE, AMHERST, MA

1. INTRODUCTION The R. W. Kern Center In 2016 the R.W. Kern Center became Hampshire College's first new building in 40 years (Figure 1). Located at the heart of the Hampshire College campus, the R.W. Kern Center is a multi-purpose facility intended to embody a high threshold of forward- thinking sustainable design: generating its own energy; capturing and treating its own water; and processing and recycling its waste. Its design also embodies a broader definition of “green” building, prioritizing non-toxic materials, local and ethical products, and principals of biophilia and natural beauty. The new building, which includes classrooms, offices, and a community café and gallery, serves as a primary entry point to the campus and was designed to engage prospective students as well as provide community space. In the spring of 2018, the Kern Center became the 17th building to be certified and meet the Living Building Challenge (LBC) (International Living Future Institute, 2018a) after a year of post-occupancy performance verification. At 17,000 square feet, it is the largest Living Building on a higher education campus and considering the relatively small size of the college (~1300 students) it showcases Hampshire College's substantial commitment to sustainable design and development. The Living Building Challenge A program of the International Living Future Institute, the Living Building Challenge is a building certification system and sustainable design framework for creating built environments that have a positive impact on people and the environment (International Living Future Institute, 2018a). The Challenge is organized into seven performance areas covering different aspects of holistic sustainable design: place, water, energy, health + happiness, materials, equity, and beauty. In order to achieve “Living” status, projects must fulfill all imperatives in each of these categories. Hampshire College Hampshire College is an innovative private college in Amherst, Massachusetts. The academic program is highly dynamic and interdisciplinary, emphasizing an inquiry-based and learner-centered liberal arts education. Students are empowered to think, discover, advocate, and build essential skills through an individualized divisional system utilizing portfolios, narrative evaluations, and self-reflection. The College's motto, Non Satis Scire (To Know is Not Enough), is a call to action for students, as well as the institution. It is not enough for colleges and universities to merely educate students on issues of sustainability or environmental and social justice; Hampshire College has the added responsibility of applying this knowledge in all of its operations. The R.W. Kern Center embodies the commitment to environmental sustainability at Hampshire and is a powerful example of the dynamic role sustainable design can play in educating the next generation of sustainability leaders.