FInal project
Lit Review
Jakob Perryman
Adam Newman
ENG 101
Accessible vs. Sustainable Design
The ideas of building design have always changed to try to improve human’s way of living. From the invention of concrete to the stopped usage of asbestos, building design has improved dramatically in the past century. Now, in this modern age, two of the new types of designs that people seem to be focusing on are sustainable and accessible design. Accessible Design is a type of design where the needs of people with disabilities are specially considered. (Access Living) Sustainable design focuses to reduce negative impacts on the environment, and the health and comfort of building occupants (US General Services Administration). However, there has been little collaboration between the two designs, with just a few examples of successful combination.
Although sustainable design is defined differently by many companies/committees, the overall theme is the same: to lower the output of greenhouse gases and energy use while still providing comfort to the people. Basically, these companies want to provide the same kind of utilities and services while being much more conscious about the environment. For example, the Whole Building Design Guide, which is run by the National Institute of Building Sciences, states that the key principles to sustainable design are to optimize size potential and energy use, protect and conserve water and optimize operational and maintenance practices. These key principles that the design guide mentioned come up through many other guides, too. Of course, to have successful environmental design, one must always keep the environment in mind. The major ranking system for environmental design is LEED. LEED is a program that provides third-party ratings of green buildings. Buildings satisfy prerequisites and earn points to achieve different levels of certification. The highest certification is LEED Platinum. LEED takes into account everything from sustainable sites, which credits encourage strategies that minimize the impact on ecosystems and water resources, to location and linkage credits, which encourage construction on previously developed or infill sites and promote buildings with access to efficient transportation options and open space. The American Society of Designers says that sustainable design is “a design that cares about how such goals (like efficiency, budget, attractiveness) are achieved, about its effect on people and on the environment.” They mention that the local environment should be protected but also mention that collaborative multi-disciplinary teams should develop the integrated building design.
In this regard, many companies and even some schools are starting to implement green design. Take for example my elementary and high school, The Paideia School. When building the new junior high building, Paideia kept sustainability as their main goal for the building. Located in a historic district close to Emory, the school had to respect the regulations and rules of the district and was able to create a sustainable environment that responded to the existing architecture. The project achieved LEED Gold certification and the sustainable features included characteristics like 83% of all construction waste was diverted from landfills by separating and recycling waste materials while energy usage was reduced by 42% over standard building practices by using energy efficient mechanical systems. Furthermore, increased use of natural type of window glaze helped lower the need for artificial lighting. The campus green in front of the junior high and gym addition featured a ground-loop heat exchange system where hot air and water was sent down pipes in the ground, which would eventually cool the air and water and then be reused. Paideia was the first school to receive LEED certification in the city of Atlanta. (The Paideia School)
Accessible design has not been written about nearly as much as sustainable design, but the news has really picked up in the last 10 years. Again, Whole Building Design Guide helped set and write guidelines for accessible design. For them, the most important part of accessible design is to proactively plan for it. That is, WBDG says that in the long run it is more expensive to renovate buildings and then to keep these renovations running than it is to build a new building. Accessibility often refers to the idea that people with a variety of disabilities can use services and facilities independently. Accessibility as a design concern has a long history, but public and private awareness about accessibility increased with the passage of acts such as the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), which stated that public facilities and services must be fully accessible to people with disabilities. The ADA act has brought much needed life to the ideas of accessibility, with a key topic opening up called universal design.
Universal design strives to simplify life for everyone by making products, communications, and the built environment more usable by as many people as possible at little or no extra cost (Center for Universal Design). Sidewalks with curb cuts and doors that automatically open when a person moves near them are examples of universally designed products. They benefit people with disabilities, parents with baby strollers, bikers, and many others. Human characteristics like age, gender, stature, race/ethnicity, culture, native language and learning preference are all considered when using universal designs. The AAF (American Architectural Foundation) thinks that universal design is supposed to empower people of all abilities to live independently in our world. Young or old, disabled or non-disabled, all people should be able to access whatever they want, from school to their own home.
Many other types of design have branched off of accessible and universal design. Another example of a similar type of design to accessible design is SLCC building of Gallaudet University. The SLCC, which was built in 2008, was one of the first buildings that tried to use the visu-centric environment. The visu-centric concept goes beyond changing a structure to meet the specific needs of people with disabilities and instead tries to embody "the deaf way of being," Deaf people, including even a deaf architect, were charged with thinking about and building a space that is easily recognized as a room built by and for deaf people. The exterior and interior designs incorporate natural sunlight, large, open spaces and room layouts that are conducive to visual communication.
As mentioned before, combinations of accessible and sustainable design have been far and few between. One of the few examples of the designs coming together is in a building in Chicago. The headquarters of Access Living, which is one of the leading “companies” in accessibility legislation, is believed to be the first building to integrate sustainable and universal design. Not only is the building accessible to anyone of any ability, but it is also LEED gold Certified. The gold certification is the second highest certificate a building can get when it comes to green design, which takes into account everything from the faucets to building structure. Building Green, which, as the name suggests, is a website that helps people think about green design, reiterates the point of planning proactively for universal design. However, the site also mentions that planning for universal design from the get go can cost less money than renovation, which could then lead to the “saved” money being used to help make a building more environmentally friendly.
Unfortunately, I have simply been unable to find virtually any other examples of a combination between accessibility and sustainability. People have yet to think really of combining the two types of design, which is in part why I chose the topic. I believe that sustainable and accessible designs are the two designs that are most prevalent to the human population because of the amount of lives and environment it can affect. More than 60 million people have a disability of some sort, so accessible design speaks to a lot of people. When it comes to sustainable design, we need to do all we can to help slow down global warming and make sure our future descendants have a world they can still live in. It seems like a natural step to bridge sustainability and universal design, and it is one that I think will happen sooner rather than later.
Personally, I think that a lot more can and will be done in regards to sustainable and accessible design. Both concepts are relatively new because people are just now realizing how much easier and safer their lives can be by combining the two design structures. It could save a lot of money and effort, too. There wouldn’t be nearly as many lawsuits against companies who didn’t have accessible buildings, and energy costs would be lowered, too. Overall I think it is a win-win situation to build completely new buildings that are fitted with accessibility and the environment in mind. As people have proven before, we can only continue to improve our building designs and ideas.
WORKS CITED
"Beyond Accessible: Universal Design for Green Buildings." Building Green. Environmental Building News, n.d. Web. 11 Nov. 2013.
"Land and Resource Stewardship." Sustainability at Paideia. Paideia School, n.d. Web. 12 Dec. 2013. <http://www.paideiaschool.org/about_us/greenteam_resourcestewardship.aspx>
"Sustainable Design." ASID. American Society of Interior Designers, n.d. Web. 11 Nov. 2013. <http://www.asid.org/content/asid-position-sustainable-design>.
Sustainable Design." Sustainable Design. GSA, n.d. Web. 19 Nov. 2013. <http://www.gsa.gov/portal/content/104462?utm_source=OGP>.
Katz, Ashley. "About LEED." U.S. Green Building Council. N.p., 25 July 2012. Web. 29 Nov. 2013. <http://www.usgbc.org/articles/about-leed>.
Sykes, Kathy. "Sustainable, Visitable, and Universal by Design." American Architectural Foundation. N.p., n.d. Web. 18 Nov. 2013. <http://www.archfoundation.org/2013/06/sustainable-visitable-and-universal-by-design/>.
Unknown. "Integration of Universal Design and Green Design – Access Living." Integration of Universal Design and Green Design – Access Living. Lutron, n.d. Web. 8 Nov. 2013.
WBDG Accessible Committee. "Accessible." WBDG. National Institue of Building Sciences, 31 July 2013. Web. 11 Nov. 2013.
WBDG Sustainable Committee. "Sustainable." WBDG. National Institute of Building Sciences, 4 Sept. 2013. Web. 11 Nov. 2013.