Project One

The College of Art and Architecture has explored aspects of sustainable design for many years. This semester we will apply these principles to campus planning, student housing and a CAA facility. We will evaluate the potential of a few sites on campus and develop master plans for each of them.

The intention of this collaboration of architecture and landscape architecture students in this studio is to foster and demonstrate the integration of building and site systems, to build upon the inherent strengths and sensibilities of each discipline, and to produce work that is richer of content than would be possible alone. The masterplanning of a significant portion of the University of Idaho campus for housing and educational uses carries with it the need to both create a recognizable place while at the same time supporting and improving the current and future physical environment of the campus as a whole. Use of passive solar, daylighting, natural ventilation, district heating and on-site stormwater treatment are among the technologies that the master plans and detailed designs should demonstrate. Integration of living and learning environments and direct access to recreation and campus cultural activities are other expectations of the studio.

As the student population grows, the need for modern and efficient housing increases. This need is coupled with the need to replace some of the existing, aging housing. Finally, the selected sites may provide the opportunity to propose new classroom buildings, organic food production, recreation spaces and even habitat preservation or enhancement.

In addition to the housing component of the project, CAA needs a space that can serve as a studio for design/build activities and materials research and demonstration. In fact, the CAA facility is to be planned to serve students, faculty and contractors that construct the student housing over time. This new facility will free studio space in the existing college buildings to accommodate recent changes to programs in architecture and landscape architecture.

You will be organized into interdisciplinary design teams to develop master plan alternatives. Project teams will include a landscape architecture and an architecture student. We have created the teams already will have you exchange contact information the first day of class.

The project will be choreographed into two phases. During the first half of the project each team will begin by analyzing the sites and conducting research, studying precedents, and developing programs and concepts for different site and building components. Then each of the teams will develop a master plan for one of the potential sites.

During the second half of the project, students will develop components within the master plan in greater detail.

See the UI campus aerial (at left) to identify the sites that you are to study. The boundaries of the sites are approximate and may change based on your study.

This project involves developing a tool to determine the potentials of each site. You will create this decision-making tool based on the client's program (articulated by the UI campus architect and your faculty) multiple visits to each site and based on your research into existing projects elsewhere.

Your analysis of the various sites will contribute to the decision-making tool and to the programs that you develop for the master plans. To assist with your site inventory and analysis Download and print the Context Analysis Checklist and take it with you on the site visits. Each team needs to collect complete information for all the sites.

A CD of images for the three sites is available in your studio. Please download any of the images that you are interested in and return the CD for the use of other students. Please don't remove the CD from the studio.

The elements of the master plan will vary depending on the site. In the conceptual phase you should use your decision-making tool to distribute possible campus uses across all of the site. This may result in redundant elements but that will also help you understand where you have the most and least flexibility in siting various facilities. Consider incorporating the following elements into the initial conceptual study. Other elements may well be appropriate and desirable. Furthermore, you may argue that one or more of the suggested uses below should be eliminated. You should make your arguments with your professors during your desk crits.

Production facilities such as open plots, hoop houses, greenhouses for hydroponic or conventional production

Note: estimate the capacity of the agricuture in terms of the percentage of pounds of food or percentage of calories provided to the residents of the development.

Studio space/Critique space
Shop for construction of one housing unit
Construction yard
Truck access
1 handicape and 1 visitor parking space
On-site stormwater treatment

Faculty housing
Student housing
A variety of units; consider multiple configurations for high-density (20 du/ac min) such as row-houses, and courtyard housing.
600 sf 2-bedroom units
900 sf 3-bedroom units
0.5 parking spaces (remotely located within the campus context)
Public/private transition space at building entries
Private open space or balconies for each unit
Common open space
On-site stormwater treatment

Research/Precedents/Program and Guidelines

Each team will be responsible for conducting research, studying precedents, and developing a program and guidelines for building and site components:

At this review you should have at least three finished sheets either printed or presented as a series of digital images. In this presentation your team should focus on the material listed below:


1. Goals, objectives, program and schematic alternatives
2. Rendered Master Plan (1" = 30'?) with design justification text
3. Site section/Elevation, images of precedents and materials. You should also be able to verbally tell us which potential focus area you will explore in the next phase. Specific presentation scale requirements to be determined.

After the master plan is complete the team will select a focus area to develop in more detail. Alternatives for the same area may be developed with permission of the professors. Each focus area should consider the adjacent areas to illustrate the connections and transitions. Your professors will help you define the extent of the design area. The focus area must include a plan view at a scale to be determined with your professors. The three dimensional aspect of your plan should be illustrated with sections, perspectives or digital models.

So the plan for the first three weeks is to

Reconfigure the studio

Evaluate and revise the focus area plan with an emphasis on design form and microclimate and selection of materials.

Establish performance criteria for sustainability (stormwater, biodiversity and agriculture).

Create a revised focus area plan.