Raising the Roof on Sustainability

Dec. 14, 2015

This semester, a team of UA College of Architecture, Planning and Landscape Architecture students has been building a pavilion as part of a design build studio project under the college's newly adopted, award-winning "Sustainability Pedagogy."

The students are being engaged in the project — which merges landscape, engineering, architecture and sustainability — through a studio course taught by Chris Trumble, an assistant professor of architecture. Trumble said the studio, called studio PANGOLIN, is an educational environment that is meant to enhance student confidence while they work on workforce-relevant projects. 

The pavilion is located on the west side of the college’s building and is transforming a previously unused space, merging landscape and architecture to create a symbiotic environment for plant and human habitation. 

The project includes a gridshell, an experimental lightweight lattice structure with about 4,000 connections with welded steel rods and metal panels, that the team designed and erected in multiple stages. The structure was designed for efficiency in a desert environment, providing shade, walkways and seating spaces. 

Students also are learning important values associated with sustainability, for both the built environment and humans. Among other things, the Sustainability Pedagogy curriculum trains students in professional ethics and techniques to increase sustainable practices in the field — related to both environmental and cultural sustainability. The curriculum won a Crescordia Award at the Environmental Awards Gala in Phoenix in September.

Learn more about studio PANGOLIN online: http://www.studiopangolin.love/

To support the design build studio, visit: http://www.studiopangolin.love/support/

Share