DESIGN CONCEPTS
NOT JUST ANY BUILDING
A building is an idea incarnate. It expresses its designers’ values,
reflecting what they believe about their relationships to each other,
to the environment and even to God. An academic building also embodies
assumptions about what is worth learning and how it is to be learned.
It is, in a sense, a tenured “professor” in the program.
Below are some of the ideas that are shaping the design of Merry Lea’s
collegiate facility.
HOPE
We are committed to this project because we have hope for the future.
Despite the depressing statistics on environmental issues that flood
the news daily, we believe that human beings can learn to live in harmony
with the natural world without destroying it.
Our hope is rooted in our Christian faith. We believe in a God who created
the natural world and cares passionately for it. We see the wisdom and
resilience that has been built into each ecosystem and believe the earth
has much to teach us.
Furthermore, Christian theology offers us a treasure trove of resources
to draw upon as we struggle to take care of an increasingly fragile
planet. Among these are the conviction that the earth belongs to God,
the calling to self-examination and repentance, a concern for the marginalized,
and the experience of living in community. Without Christian underpinnings,
Merry Lea and its future collegiate facility would be a very different
place.
SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT
The World Commission on Environment and Development defines sustainable
development as “development that meets the needs of the present
without compromising the ability of the future to meet its own needs.”
In a sustainable system, materials and energy move in a cycle rather
than in a one-way flow from source to consumption to toxic waste product.
A sustainable building has the following characteristics:
It uses a minimum amount of fossil fuels and manufactured chemicals
It mimics natural processes
It uses renewable resources
It reuses or recycles nonrenewable resources
It produces only as much waste as the environment can assimilate without
damage.
Advocates of sustainable building are not opposed to all development.
They recognize that change in the landscape for human purposes is inevitable.
The question is what kind of development? Is it based primarily on short
sighted economic considerations or does it recognize the power we have
to destroy our own life support system and our children’s future?
Sustainable development attempts to integrate the latest findings in
the field of environmental science into building and development practices
and to maintain an open mind as knowledge of the natural world expands.
NATURE AS MENTOR
In 1971, ecologist H.T. Odum published a landmark work, Environment,
Power and Society. In this book, Odum suggests that human designers
must take their cues from nature if they want to create a sustainable
future. A second book, Design with Nature, by Ian McHarg, appeared at
about the same time. Both authors argued that prairies, forests, rivers
and other ecosystems that have endured for eons are our models of resource
efficiency and long-term survival. The practice of basing human design
on ecology is gaining followers and is now called industrial ecology
or ecological engineering. Bio-mimicry is another word frequently used
to describe this borrowing from natural processes.
The designers of Merry Lea’s future facility have taken numerous
lessons from nature. One example is the ecological engine they have
designed to cleanse wastewater. From wetland plants, we are learning
how to filter and purify water without harsh chemicals.
INTERDISCIPLINARY EFFORTS
In the traditional building design process, team members often work
in isolation and consultants may get involved only after critical decisions
have been made. One unique characteristic of many sustainable buildings
is that the process that created them was a collaborative one.
Sustainable projects typically employ an architectural strategy known
as a building design charrette. This is an intensive workshop in which
people from all stages of the design and building process of a future
project meet to set goals and guidelines. Merry Lea held two design
charrettes in order to plan for the collegiate facility; one in August
2001 and a second smaller one in April 2002.
The kind of interdisciplinary ping-pong that takes place during a charrette
produces informed and creative solutions to problems. For example, during
Merry Lea’s first charrette, participants wrestled with the size
and number of windows in the collegiate facility. An architect proposed
large windows to put building occupants in touch with the outdoor setting;
a mechanical engineer challenged the idea by pointing out how this would
increase the building’s air conditioning load. Meanwhile, the
lighting specialist asked, “Are you sure the sunlight coming in
those windows at that angle is conducive to the activities you will
perform in that room?” Ultimately, this kind of dialog results
in more efficient buildings.
EXPERIENTIAL LEARNING
In the past two decades, educators in a variety of disciplines have
revised their pedagogy. They are moving away from a dependence on textbooks
and classrooms and toward a more hands-on approach to learning. The
science community is no exception. Researchers with Project Kaleidoscope,
the National Science Foundation, and the National Research Council have
all come to the same conclusion: the lecture/lab format traditionally
used in science classes tends to produce passive learners with limited
problem-solving skills. This is not the kind of science training necessary
for facing and solving the challenges of the future.
Merry Lea is a setting that lends itself to hands-on learning. Here,
the outdoors is the primary classroom and Merry Lea’s extensive
and accessible natural resources are the teachers. Students band birds,
help with controlled burns, and wade into wetlands with dip nets. The
future collegiate facility will expand these lessons in applied ecology
and make them available to a greater number of people. Students will
live and study in structures that model environmental sensitivity. The
facility’s wastewater treatment plant and energy systems will
all be visible and will invite or require interaction from residents.
These day-to-day encounters with sustainable living are designed not
only to educate but also to inspire students to adopt earth-friendly
lifestyles in the future.
LEARNING COMMUNITIES
The learning community concept is a centerpiece of the collegiate facility
and its programs. A learning community integrates three components:
academic subject matter, social interactions and the physical space
necessary for an intellectually stimulating environment to emerge. Shared
learning activities develop a sense of community among the participants
as well as professional, ethical and civic responsibility. Students
will explore Merry Lea’s ecosystems together, practice sustainable
life-styles together and learn the value of being part of a community.
Living and learning space will be integrated.
Facility planners chose to house students on site in cottages in order
to help learning communities flourish. Living in groups of eight rather
than in a single dormitory with long halls encourages a sense of belonging.
The cottages will have a feeling of warmth and comfort and will be sited
to give residents the sense that they are living in a village.
