Design Process | Design
Concepts | Design
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Design Concepts
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 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 a 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 Meaures
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.
Experiencial 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.