This week I was finally able to meet with Dr. Moline! She is the ecology professor here in town that designed and built her own house using some sustainable methods. We met at her house, and she gave us a tour while explaining all of the things that went into designing it. This was the first time I got to actually see the process an architect goes through and the relationship they have with a building.It was amazing how much she knew, and what she learned from designing it, and what she shared with me.

Some fun, kind of sad parts she shared were stories of a few mishaps that happened. She told us of when the builders had the wrong measurements for the doors to her bedroom and cut a space for them that was way too tall, and that a section of her concrete floor is wavy from not being smoothed out before drying and a few other things like that.  But the fun part was that she was able to turn all those little miscalculations into something beautiful. She now has a lovely window with tulips painted across it, fitted in the space above her bedroom doors, and a thick, warm rug over the wavy concrete. But there was one mistake that couldn’t be easily fixed. During the beginning of the project, a builder misread the measurements of a door frame and installed it 11 inches to the right of where it was supposed to be. Because of that, her hallway, stairs, cupboard, and mechanical room lost those 11 inches and were squished to the right.  However, if she didn’t tell you, you wouldn’t have known. Normally, something like that wouldn’t be that much of a problem, but in Dr. Moline’s house, it just happened to take the inches from a hallway, staircase, and mechanical room which all have regulated and enforced sizes they need to be; the staircase must be a minimum of 36 inches wide, and same with the hallway. Lucky, she was able to adjust and recalculate it all and pass inspection. Because of this, the most important thing I took from the tour of the house was as an architect or builder; you always need to double check and re-measure, and then double check again before doing anything. Dr. Moline even gave me a set of her design plans to look at and practice reading, so if I ever do become an architect, I won’t make the same little mistakes! 

This is Dr. Moline showing me the design plans and teaching me how to read them and showing me the different pages. Each set of plans has multiple pages, showing specific details of specific parts of the house. For example, one page just shows the outside structure of the house, and another just shows the electrical work etc. Reading the plans is not that intuitive so lucky each page has a little key in the corner, but it's still difficult to understand. 

This is us again, here she is showing me the computer software called Sketch-Up. She designed her house through this software. I just downloaded it a few days ago, and I have been messing around on it for more hours than I care to admit. It's a lot of fun becasue it lets you add in measurements and virtually build a house any way you want, and even add in textures and other details. 

The Joy of Insulation

So this week was all about insulation!

Insulation is one of the most important parts of a building because it is the one thing that determines the temperature, and how much energy is used to heat and cool the building daily. It doesn't really matter how sustainable the flooring or windows or roofing is, because if you have poor insulation your energy consumption will cancel out the sustainability of the other materials.

I began researching the different possible types and as you can imagine there are hundred and hundreds of types of insulation. Mainly because there are so many different raw materials that can make up the insulation, and different buildings require different insulation that matches the function of the building. For example, an office building that runs all year will have pretty thick and complex insulation to maintain the temperature all day and not have a huge energy bill at the end of each year. But other buildings such as warehouses or car garages that tend to be used for short periods of time have very minimal insulation. And then there are other buildings, like I mentioned in one of my earlier posts, that use recycled denim jeans as efficient insulation. All these different variables open a wide range of materials for me to look at so I am trying to narrow it down to either the most common type used, or just what is used here in Flagstaff on the N.A.U. campus.

Slow and Steady

This week was a little slower than most. I did reach out to a few more N.A.U. faculty members to talk about their work, and most got back to me. We are planning to meet after Spring Break. One of the faculty members is Ms. Holly Yeager, who is the Career Development Coordinator for the Professional Science Masters Program in Climate Science and Solutions (CSS). Her job is to basically help students find a career path in climate study and sustainability, so I look forward to hearing how successful she has been helping students, and to hear the different career options students actually have in these fields.
I am still analyzing and comparing materials as well, this week and next week I'll be looking into the manufacturing process of insulation. I am going to be comparing the different types for specific buildings, the advantages/disadvantages of those types, and the different individual raw materials that go into each kind of insulation.
I still haven't had a chance to look at Dr. Moline's adobe house yet due to scheduling complications, but fingers crossed it all works out for next week!

Still Going Strong

Had a few set backs but still going strong.

This has been quite the week. I was forced to deal with some personal health issues so I was unable to make it into the office as much as I would have liked this week, but I still made some progress regardless! Earlier this week, I was poking my nose in around the office trying to get as much information about the renovations taking place on the South Dining Hall on campus as I could, and I was successful!  I am officially on the email list regarding anything about the renovations, and in contact with the head project manager, and the main construction company being used. So hopefully next week, I’ll talk to them and begin to understand their involvement in the project and what they do in general. They should be having a meeting some time next week to finalize the design plans, which I should be attending. The renovation process will be a huge part of my project because as a part of N.A.U.’s 2030 plan, all new buildings and renovations on campus will be LEED certified (building meets certain sustainable criteria to receive a certification) and sustainable, so I’ll get to observe and question the techniques of constructing a sustainable building.

I was supposed to meet with another professor this week, but was forced to reschedule. However I still looked into her work. This professor, Dr. Moline, also built her own sustainable house here in Flagstaff, but it is very different than Dr. Francis’s (the professor who built his net-zero energy house that I interviewed last week). Her house is made of adobe; sun-dried clay bricks, and overall is more similar to the average house in Flagstaff, unlike Dr. Francis's. She doesn’t have the complex electrical systems or the technological accessories like Dr. Francis, yet it is still a full functioning house and completely sustainable. I look forward to talking with her about the planning and construction that went into it, as well as getting a tour.

The Difference of Just Being Aware

The weeks are really starting to speed up, and all my work is starting to blur. But in a good way! I had my first meeting with Dr. Alan Francis this week, which showed me how much I really don’t know, but I’ll learn it all soon enough! The very first topic we discussed was the definition of sustainability. He defined it as “development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the needs of the future.” This definition comes from ‘Our Common Future’, or more commonly known as the Brundtland Report. It is a piece of work published in 1987, by an organization called the World Commission of Environment and Development, (WCED) that was convened by the United Nations. The report outlined the concept of sustainability across environmental, economic and social aspects. It is supposed to be the most generally accepted, broad definition of sustainability, but since being published there have been hundreds of rebuttals and comments against it. Many experts are starting to agree that sustainability is largely factored around the popular social ideas of the time, saying that what is sustainable today, might not be sustainable tomorrow, which is why it is so difficult to find an exact definition of the word. 

We discussed his house for a majority of the time, all the planning and designing that went into it, and the separate systems involved. A big part of how the house is as sustainable as it is, is that he uses a type of technology called ‘Dashboard’. Which uses hardware and software to constantly measure the amount of water and electricity used and when. The way he does this with the use of monitors hooked up all over his house  that directly synch to his phone so he can see exactly how much energy his house uses per day. He justified it by comparing it to a car. Saying that living in a house without a Dashboard system is like driving a car without a dashboard, so no speedometer or fuel gage, (hence the name Dashboard). We would just drive like normal, and get a gas bill at the end of each month telling us how much gas and oil we used. The problem with is this is that we don't know if theres anything wrong in the car.  With the Dashboard, we can be more aware of problems or dis-functioning equipment in our buildings and houses, like in cars.  Dr. Francis summed it up by saying that all it takes to be sustainable or have net-zero energy is just being aware of the energy you are using. 

Here'a the link to a Daily Sun article about Dr. Francis's house if you are interested!  

http://azdailysun.com/news/local/the-many-ways-to-build-green/article_79eb9bea-bda7-5cf8-96b2-3555fce0583e.html 

Starting Some Actual Work...

I am now more comfortable in the office, and I believe I am actually starting to get some real work done. This week was more reading but also a lot of emailing. My advisor Agnes gave me a contact list of experts who work on campus that I could interview and question, and said I had to email them. So I did, and I explained my project and asked if they were willing to meet with me. Almost all got back to me willing talk, which is amazing considering all of them have major projects going on and I am not a college student. Most of them said they were just excited that someone as young as me was interested in their work. So this week I have a meeting scheduled with a professor who teaches construction graphics and mechanical/electrical systems, Dr. Alan Francis. But the cool part is that he also works with net-zero architecture. And when I say, “he works with” I mean he designed and built his own house as a net-zero energy house that is completely off the grid, and completely functional. Net-zero architecture means that the total amount of energy used by the building on an annual basis is roughly equal to the amount of renewable energy created on the site. I’m excited to talk to him about it. We’ll see how it goes.

Along with emailing, I began reading about the different sustainable buildings we already have on campus, and the materials they used for them. Fun fact: there is a building on campus, the ARD science building, whose insulation is 90%, recycled denim jeans. This building is rated platinum on the LEED building scale, and was two points away from being the most sustainable building of its kind (commercial building with a lab) in the country. However, I have talked with some of those who work in the building, and apparently the windows don’t close and the toilets don’t flush…. but it is still the 2^nd most sustainable building of its kind. 

I have also been reading about the whole LEED rating system. LEED, (Leadership in Energy & Environmental Design) is a point-rated system. Depending on the number of points a building gets, it is awarded the certification of being just certified, silver, gold, or platinum. The points are awarded based on several different factors, such as energy use, location, water efficiency, air quality, materials and a bunch of other things. So far, the N.A.U. campus has nine LEED certified buildings. And right now, they are working on renovating the South dining hall to be LEED certified. In the future I hope to sit in on those meetings in the next few weeks to observe the designing process. 

Getting Situated.

Getting situated. 

My first week at the internship was spent becoming acquainted with the ways of the office. I found a parking spot that didn’t already belong to someone, I got a tour of the building, and learned who is willing to answer a high schooler’s questions and whom I should avoid in the lunchroom. An important part of my first week at the office was also meeting the “Dream Team”, which is a team of people who all work under my advisor, Agnes on the different construction projects taking place on campus. These people are the designers, engineers, construction workers and sustainability experts that actually carry out the projects. These guys are fun because they show the different options you have to work with in sustainable architecture in “the real world”.  I am still working on names and faces, but all of them have been very welcoming and offering help when I need it, and sometimes even when I don’t need it.

Since it was the very first week, I spent a majority of the time at the office reading and messing around on a computer. I was not aware how much computer software I would actually have to use, and how little patience I have for any technology. Nonetheless I did learn how to use it, with help from many members of the “Dream Team” of course. Along with the computer stuff, I had to read article upon article about all the possible sustainable materials that can be used for a building. I read about how they are all made, where they are made, how they’re transported and used and then how they are disposed of. Which I am going to be doing for another few days considering there are a lot of different materials that can be used.

This week I did realize that one of the best parts of this project is that I am working in an office with people who have established careers in the field I wish to study, and I am on a college campus with professors that teach the stuff I want to learn. It is amazing because I can now constantly bug these very hard workers with any questions I may have regarding any topic similar to their fields of expertise. I haven’t had the chance to actually ask any questions just yet, but it is still nice to know that if I do need some answers all I have to do is walk into the next office.