For my next case study, I wanted to identify an approach to sustainability on a college campus, as a place where every semester thousands of students and faculty relocate to live and learn to perpetuate the set of skills and knowledge they obtain there.
At the University of California, Davis campus at West Village, the community works in numerous ways to improve their ecological approach to campus design- A practice that still has yet to tap into many college campuses in the united states.
Some of the sustainable approaches include:
Establishing the feasibility of a goal to exceed California building energy standards by 50%.
Electrical lighting that decreases energy usage (as compared to alternative lighting methods) by 60%.
Employing various new sustainable technologies such as occupancy sensors, day-lighting techniques, and dimming controls.
Using heat-reflecting roof materials, heat-blocking roof sheathing, roof overhangs and exterior window sunshades; added insulation in exterior walls; and high-efficiency light fixtures, air conditioning systems and appliances.
The campus also plans to utilize alternative energy sources such as photovoltaics and Ruihong Zhang’s Biodigester.
West Village is significant for its wide ranging application of ecological design to this location on campus as it combines energy conservation with sustainable energy production, environmentally conscious site and landscape design, and providing access to sustainable transportation.
The project is also significant for the effects of building one example of a sustainable community that will radiate into the rest of the campus and all future construction on the site. This is an approach any university can take in the present day, since although large portions of most Universities were built over 50 years ago, and fail to utilize any current sustainability methods- they can still find ecological ways to add new sustainable projects to universities without necessarily having to tare down historic buildings.
The West Village community is also a new approach to residential urban planning on a University Campus. The project utilizes mixed use construction as it combines student housing with faculty quarters, retail and service space, restaurants, and research / development buildings. It’s a revolutionary concept, as University campus layout tends to greatly segregate each of these functions.
Projects such as UC Davis West Village will provide a new standard for Universities all over the United States, as we figure out how to treat our historic buildings while gradually developing campuses to become energy efficient and ecological throughout their entirety.
Nate Kaylor: Design Thinking 