Rationale.
Sustainability and “Going Green” have received an exponential amount of attention this past year. This project is a re- sponse to the attention that sustainable living has received. I believe the concern of our environment is crucial and is our responsibility as designers to express the importance of conservation. As designers I also feel we should not contrive this issue with complexity. Limiting the waste of energy can be simple. I will attempt to return to the grassroots of design where the comfort of living was based directly on nature, not technology.
This response is also a reverberation to the popularity of environmentalism. Everywhere you look, marketing has adapted to this concept... it sells. Almost every product available for daily living has a sustainable alternative and most people are eager to try it. Society is quick to learn how they can “live green” when it can be purchased in a convenient, hand held, 100% recycled container. It is our duty to anchor this movement as a concrete standard of design before it fades as a perishable trend.
Sustainability should mean something far different to an Architect than it does to a product designer. Where most issues are limited to the environment, we should be equally concerned with issues of community, culture and place. I feel that these issues are most important. I believe that sustainability on a higher level starts with a firm foundation within its site. I intend to explore relationships to the area that will induce a feeling of belonging for the population of the community.
In the design realm, I believe sustainability constitutes additional levels of thought and planning that are not always avail- able to the Architect. In 5th year we are given the opportunity to act as both designer and developer when we choose our program. The intention of this project is to institute a facility that will fulfill the needs and desires of the community by adhering to an existing local tradition. If successful, the project should preserve a local identity and allow the participating community to feel a connection to place while simultaneously providing food for destitute urban populations.
Rural North Carolina is an area I personally feel connected to, due to my family and my experiences in life. Sam Mockbee will often refer to his southern identity with a sense of pride paralleled by a shameful and contradictory history. This is a sentiment that I believe most of us raised in the South understand. For me it derived more as a generational phenom- enon, as I am sure my grandparents were not aware, nor concerned with the immoral significance of being white and raised in the South. This will not be a driving factor during the evolution of the project, however I expect my connection to the site will influence the design.
Hunting is an existing age-old tradition across rural areas of the country. It is an elaborate endeavor that will often follow an almost ritualistic process from start to finish. There is a misconception that its only purpose is to shoot and kill an animal. There is much more to the sport that exemplifies an intense connection to your friends and family, and especially the land you hunt on.The program I have chosen to adhere to had originally derived from my own vindication to prove that sustainable living is currently only a fad. I believe that most of society is practicing energy-efficient living because their neighbor is doing it, not because they legitimately understand the true benefits of living sustainably. Therefore, in response to that, I wanted to create an example that would effectively be a sustainable concept but may not be culturally accepted by most of my colleagues.
The aim of the project is to employ the existing activity of hunting in the community as a function to a facility that will benefit the economically destitute population of the surrounding towns.
Abstract.
Cultural Sustainability
The goal is to produce a design that is sustainable by creating an intimate relationship with its surrounding natural and social environments. The architecture and program will have an attachment to locale by fulfilling needs and desires of the community. The design will utilize regional materials and convey vernacular based on the surrounding textile facto- ries, mill homes and the Roanoke River.
Economic Sustainability
To reflect the local area and economic environment, the budget will be limited. There will be a focus on the methodol- ogy of construction to reduce cost. There is an interest to simplify the building process in order to employ the local population. There will be an effort to take advantage of local timber. The valuable commodity of available materials will help reduce unnecessary cost.
Environmental Sustainability
Finally, there will be an effort to exemplify sustainability as a teaching tool. Design will reduce negative impacts to the site by incorporating natural lighting, ventilation and water systems. These systems will be displayed for local schools and the community to witness. For example there will be an attempt to control water management and nourish a wet- land ecosystem/retention pond on site. The intention is that the facility will be used for sustainable education as well.