Scenes from Project Ghana. 2016 Photo Credit: Cornell University Sustainable Design
cusd design guidebook
Spring 2016
Independent Study
Faculty Advisor: David Schneider
Cornell University | College of Engineering
Triggered by the prolific onset of social, environmental and economical changes, the built environment is currently being reconceptualized to tailor to the demands of today and tomorrow’s generations. The designs of such convoluted environments affect many different facets of life, which due to their inherent ability to tangle and interweave with each other, inevitably ascertain complex problems that oblige moral and ethical principles to then help guide designers in finding resilient solutions. However, the modern dilemma exists that not every designer uses these moral and ethical obligations in their strategies. There are social, economical and environmental responsibilities a designer must consider in their building designs that directly impact the built environment, but also the veiled recipients of all consequential effects. This requires designers to operate beyond their general disciplines and hold themselves accountable to moral and ethical obligations that will positively influence development and the deontological nature of inter-human and environmental relationships.
The push for sustainable building practices can be attributed to the effort to protect global citizens from the severe effects of climate change. Build more sustainable, and there will be less consequences. Yet, even the best sustainable building derived from the most responsible social, economical, and environmental sources can still pose a threat to the security of human and environmental health. This phenomenon can be attributed to the ignorance that design is a holistic process and requires a system of ethical consideration that not every designer practices. Such a system observes how the built environment mediates moral obligations and ethical principles between people-to-people relationships, people-to-built environment relationships and environmental impacts.
Cornell University Sustainable Design (CUSD) is a unique project team that effectively applies these design moral obligations and ethical principles. As a student run, interdisciplinary project team with a bias towards impact, CUSD brings students from all across Cornell University’s campus to work alongside faculty and professionals in our mission to create a network of proactively resilient communities. Their mission is to empower students to make an impact now, provide engaged learning opportunities for proactive research and innovative design and achieve a symbiosis between ecological, social and economic sustainably.
Over the last several years, CUSD’s influence has grown exponentially. Their projects have not only reached local communities, but also communities beyond borders in South Africa, Nicaragua, Haiti and currently Ghana. However, the combination of such expansive influences, continuous collections of new projects and the nature of rapid student turnovers can create gaps within CUSD’s potential of effectiveness.
In the most recent example of Inclusive School Haiti, failure of management and communication with stakeholders, lack of transparency and motivations, too ambitious of goals and lack of reflective analysis corroborated an unfortunate trend that impeded upon CUSD’s mission of making an impact, and ultimately removing opportunity for all CUSD participants to learn what went wrong, where it went wrong and how to improve such that it does not happen again.
It is our mission to study CUSD current and past projects and combine them with a deep knowledge of resilient design practices and principles to create a guidebook for the future CUSDer. This guidebook will establish a baseline of sustainable design without hindering project creativity or specificity. Rather it will assist students and project team leaders in deciphering the complexities of resilient design projects, and hopefully limit opportunities of situations similar to Inclusive School Haiti.
Proposed Project on Bebe Lake, Ithaca, NY. 2012 Photo Credit: Cornell University Sustainable Design
Proposed Project for Sustainable Research Facility, Ithaca, NY. 2011. Photo Credit: Cornell University Sustainable Design
STEPS to a successful cusd project
1. SCREENING
a. Find Project
b. Organize all Persons of Interests, Organize Contact Info for:
i. Potential Funders
ii. Stakeholders
iii. Owner
iv. Users
c. Address and Agree upon:
i. Project Definition
ii. Project Significance
iii. Project Value
iv. Project Feasibility
d. Determine Feasibility and Warranty, Edit Project if necessary
e. E-Board Approval
2. LEADERSHIP
a. Assign Project Team Lead(s)
b. Assemble Interdisciplinary Team according to Project Demand
c. Coordinate CUSD classes and credits for Project Demand
d. Establish secure site for documentation and communication
e. Set regular meeting times
CUSD Schoolhouse South Africa. 2010 Photo Credit: Cornell University Sustainable Design
CUSD Student's come together to learn about each other's projects. 2016 Photo Credit: Cornell Sustainable Design Team
Students in Ghana. 2016. Photo Credit: Cornell University Sustainable Design Team
What Will be Your Impact? 2017. Photo Credit: Cornell University Sustainable Design
Students constructing a model home. 2012. Photo Credit: Cornell University Sustainable Design
3. PROJECT APPRAISAL
a. Preliminary Site Visit
i. Meet Local Stakeholders
ii. Engage Community interest, involvement and participation
iii. Record general community and site information
b. Conduct Deeper Site Investigation, researching into:
i. Accessibility
1. Equal Access
2. Usage Flexibility
3. Potential conflicts within Sustainability, Preservation, Safety
and/or Aesthetics
4. Equal Access over Building’s Life Cycle
ii. Aesthetics
1. Understanding Local Language and Elements of Design
2. Cultural and Historic Preservation
3. Working with costs, safety, sustainability, accessibly and function
iii. Cost-Effectiveness
1. Utilize Cost and Value Engineering throughout the planning & design process
2. Create Design Alternatives
3. Consideration of Non-Monetary Benefits
iv. Functionality and Operationally
1. Identify Functional and Psychological needs
2. Ensure appropriate product and systems integrated
3. Meeting Performance objectives
v. Historical Preservation
1. Preservation, rehabilitation, restoration, reconstruction
2. Updating building systems appropriately
3. .Integration of preservation and safety/accessibility
vi. Productivity and Health
1. Promote health and well-being
2. Provide comfortable environments
3. Design for changing workplace
4. Integrate technological tools if applicable
5. Assure reliable systems and spaces
vii. Security and Safety
1. Design for disasters
2. Occupant safety and health
3. Building security and assets
viii. Sustainability and the Environment
1. First building passive, then mechanically
2. Optimizing site potential
3. Optimizing energy use
4. Protect and conserve water
5. Optimize building space and material use
6. Enhance indoor environmental quality
7. Optimize operational and maintenance practices
8. Discuss building resiliency versus adaptability
9. Discuss life cycle analysis
ix. Maintenance requirements
c. Determine Finances
i. Preliminary Estimations
ii. Sourcing finances
d. Securing Site
i. Potential Legal Documentation
e. Set Timeline
f. Project Risk Management
i. Minimize, Monitor, and control the probability of unfortunate events
ii. Maximize the realization of opportunities
iii. Create a risk management brief
g. Preliminary Project Presentation
4. PROJECT BRIEF
a. Submittal of Project Brief
b. E-Board Approval
5. DESIGN
a. Comprehensive Site Visit(s)
i. Mobilize community and stakeholders
1. Conduct surveys/questionnaires
2. Conduct activities/outreach opportunities
3. Validate research information
4. Other means of community mobilization deemed appropriate
ii. Conduct Site Analysis
1. Create Base Maps
2. Record Land Measurements
3. Record Site observations:
a. Site location details - road names, address, landmarks
b. Current context – existing buildings, car parking, roads
c. Access to the site - car parking, bus routes, train stations, cycle routes, pedestrian walkways
d. Accessibility
e. Circulation – how do visitors/pedestrians/traffic to or near the site flow around or within it
f. Vegetation – types, landscaping, greenery, shrubs and trees, open spaces.
g. Wild Life- Species, need for protection
h. Lighting – Direction, Intensity, Shading, Views – where are the best views to and from the site.
i. Building context – what style, period, state of repair are the surrounding buildings? It is a
historical/heritage/conservation area? Will your design need to reflect the existing style? Is
the site close to listed buildings?
j. Surfaces and materials around the site.
k. Site levels - How will this affect your design process? How does the site drainage work,
would there be any potential problems with drainage?
l. Weather – how does the weather affect the site? Is it well shaded, exposed?
m. Noise, odor and pollution – is the site in a particularly noisy area? Or near industrial
buildings that produce levels of pollution. Is it near a facility that creates smoke?
n. Connections to city electricity, water, drainage, etc.
4. Collect Samples if possible
5. Contact/Meet with potential candidates for contractors, material, and equipment providers local
to project area
b. Fundraising Strategies
i. On Campus Events
ii. Merchandise sales
iii. Grant applications
iv. Engage project community
v. Online fundraising
vi. Other means of donations
c. Marketing Strategies
i. Logos
ii. Website
iii. Advertising & Outreach
iv. Templates
v. Client& e-Board Approval
d. Design
i. Establish necessary sub-teams
ii. Design according to preliminary research & Brief
1. IF the project is conducted within a design studio course, establish consistent critiques of studio’s
work by project team members. Once final design is chosen from the studio course, merge final
work and project team work and designed systems together for final design.
iii. Design details for each sub-team:
1. Materials
2. Standards
3. Furniture
4. Equipment
5. Finishes
6. Workmanship
iv. Ensure proper Building Controls systems:
1. Structure
2. Fire
3. Falling
4. Fuel
5. Moisture
6. Toxic
7. Sound
8. Ventilation
9. Sanitation
10. Drainage
11. Combustion
e. Re-evaluate Finance Estimation
f. Re-evaluate Timeline
g. Final Project Presentation
h. Final Project Document
Project Preliminary Ideas. 2016 Photo Credit: Cornell University Sustainable Design
Holistic Sustainability. 2015 Photo Credit: Cornell University Sustainable Design
Model of Proposed Bebe Lake Project. 2012 Photo Credit: Cornell University Sustainable Design
Scenes from Proposed Project Haiti. 2014 Photo Credit: Cornell University Sustainable Design
6. MOBILIZATION + CONSTRUCTION
a. Site Visit
b. Prepare Contractor/Equipment/Material documentation as regulated and required by project location
c. Final Value Engineering
d. Involve Community in Construction Works and Maintenance Procedures
e. Mobilization
i. Program of Works
ii. Negotiations
iii. Approval by Client
iv. CDM Coordinator
f. Construction
i. Contractor takes possession of site
ii. Contract works proceed
1. Site Progress meetings
2. Design team meetings
3. Site inspections
4. Valuations
5. Test/commission services
6. Client approval of project variations
iii. Practical completion
iv. Handover to client
Helper moves dirt bricks to build model home in Nicaragua. 2013 Photo Credit: Cornell University Sustainable Design
7. POST OCCUPANCY
a. Comprehensive Inspection
b. Final Furnishings
c. Establish Person of Contact to continue Communications
d. Post-Occupancy Brief:
i. Plan for Proper Building and Program Maintenance
ii. CUSD Project Evaluations
8. PROJECT EVALUATIONS
a. Conduct Project Evaluation, answering general questions thru different means of outreach:
i. Does the project represent its functions as intended to?
ii. Is the Project of Good Design?
iii. Does the Project Do Good?
iv. Was the project ultimately feasible and warranted?
v. Was the Project organized?
vi. Did the team work together effectively and efficiently?
vii. Were the stakeholders satisfied?
b. Author Project Chapter for CUSD Case Study Book