Sustainable Design

Through the Master of Architecture program, we offer a concentration in Sustainable Design incorporating knowledge from a wide range of disciplines from technical to philosophical.

This concentration explores the interrelation between decisions made when designing the built environment and their short-term and long-term impacts on the ecological environment. Students are asked to take responsibility for the role architecture plays in the consumption of natural resources, underscoring the need for interdisciplinary dialogue and leadership at building, site, city and regional scales.

The Sustainable Design concentration offers opportunities for topical study such as

• Building Design
• Building Technology
• Materials and Methods of Design Implementation
• Urban Design
• Landscape Architecture Design
• Land Use Planning and Policy
• Ecology
• Economics
• Environmental Sciences
• Environmental and Civil Engineering
• Forestry and Natural Resources
• Plant Sciences
• Agriculture

Potential resources:

• Design | Build | Evaluate Initiative
• Institute for Smart Structures (ISS)
• Institute for Secure and Sustainable Environments (ISSE)
• UPSIDE: Urban Program in Sustainable Design Education (UPSIDE)
  Nashville Civic Design Center (NCDC)
• Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL)

Course Requirements

 

Six hours from one of the following:

ARCH 500    Thesis – with approval of Chair of Graduate Architecture Program (6)

ARCH 586    Advanced Architectural Design: Sustainable Architecture (6)

ARCH 587    Advanced Architectural Design: Development & Design (6) – with approval of Chair of Graduate Architecture Program

ARCH 588    Advanced Architectural Design: Structural Innovations (6) – with approval of Chair of Graduate Architecture Program

ARCH 590    Advanced Architectural Design: Special Topics (6) – with approval of Chair of Graduate Architecture Program

ARCH 599    Design VII: Diploma Thematic Studio (6) – with approval of Chair of Graduate Architecture Program

 

Plus six elective hours meeting the following criteria.

Any number of elective hours may be from the following list of courses in approved sustainable design topics:

ARCH 525    Special Topics in Architecture (1-3) – with approval of Chair of Graduate Architecture Program

ARCH 556    Design Implementation: Construction Methods II (3) – with approval of Chair of Graduate Architecture Program

ARCH 589    Urban Site Planning Workshop (4) – with approval of Chair of Graduate Architecture Program

 

LAR 501        Introduction to Sustainable Design (3)

LAR 513        Strategies and Case Studies in Landscape Stewardship and Restoration Ecology (3)

LAR 541        Landscape/Site Design I (3)

LAR 544        Landscape Architecture Design II (6) [pre-req: LAR 541]

 

Of the six elective hours, up to 3 hours may be from:

ARCH 526    Directed Readings in Architecture (3)

ARCH 591    Foreign Study (1-9)

ARCH 593    Independent Study (1-9)

LAR 515        Directed Readings in Landscape Architecture (3)

 

Of the six elective hours, up to 3 hours may be from approved courses in other departments, such as:

AGRICULTURAL AND RESOURCE ECONOMICS

AREC 472     Natural Resource Economics (3)

AREC 570     Advanced Natural Resource Economics (3)

 

BIOSYSTEMS ENGINEERING

BSE 562        Selected Topics in Natural Resource Engineering (3)

 

CHEMICAL AND BIOMOLECULAR ENGINEERING

CBE 571        STAIRMaster I: Fundamentals of Sustainable Technology (3) [req. consent of instructor; M.Arch enrollment to be confirmed]

CBE 673        STAIRWISE: STAIR Weekly Integrative Strategic Exercises (2) [req. consent of instructor; M.Arch enrollment to be confirmed]

 

ECOLOGY

EEB 413        Art and Organism (3) [intermittently offered]

EEB 503        Ecology and Evolutionary Biology Seminar (1)

EEB 509        Core: Ecology (4)

 

ECONOMICS

ECON 463    Environmental Economics (3) [Prerequisite(s): 311]

ECON 677    Environmental and Natural Resource Economics (3)

ECON 678    Economics of Environmental Policy (3)

 

ENVIRONMENTAL & CIVIL ENGINEERING

ENVE 521     Climate Impacts on Water Resources (3) [Recc. Mathematics 241]

 

FORESTRY

FORS 423     Wildland Recreation Planning and Management (3)

FORS 515     Forest Conservation Workshop (1-3)

 

FORESTRY, WILDLIFE AND FISHERIES

FWF 520       Natural Resource Issues at International Level (3)

FWF 540       Seminar on Integrated Resources Management in Biosphere Reserves (2)

FWF 570       Natural Resource Sustainability: Social, Political and Institutional Dimensions

GEOGRAPHY

GEOG 434    Climatology (3) [Prerequisite: 131-132 or 334 or consent of instructor]

GEOG 436    Water Resources (3) [Prerequisite: 131-132 or consent of instructor]

GEOG 449   Geography of Transportation (3)

GEOG 536    Topics in Watershed Dynamics (3)

GEOG 541    Topics in Urban/Economic Geography (3) [Prerequisite: 441.Recommended Background: 340]

GEOG 545    Topics in Population Geography (3)

 

GEOLOGY

GEOL 555 – Environmental Geology (3) [Recommended Background: Introductory geology or consent of instructor.]

 

MECHANICAL ENGINEERING

ME 572          Sustainable Energy Engineering (3) [requires consent of instructor; recc. background ME 331]

 

PHILOSOPHY

PHIL 545 – Topics in Environmental Ethics (3)

 

POLITICAL SCIENCE

POLS 581      Fundamentals of Planning (3)

POLS 582      Land Use and Comprehensive Planning (3)

POLS 584      Environmental Planning (3)

 

PLANT SCIENCES

PLSC 421      Native Plants in the Landscape (3) [Prerequisite(s): 220 or Ecology and Evolutionary Biology 330 – may be possible to                                                   waive for graduate students]

PLSC 515      Agroecology (3)

PLSC 536      Ecology of Grazing Land Systems (3)

 

SOCIOLOGY

SOCI 465      Social Values and the Environment (3)

SOCI 562      Sociology of Environmental Policy (3)

SOCI 661      Environmental Theory (3)

 

SOCIAL WORK

SOWK 546    Evidence-based Social and Economic Development Practice Across Systems (3) [Non-MSSW students may register with consent of instructor]