The Sustainable Design Program is fortunate to have faculty from across the College of Fine and Applied Arts that teach courses in our interdisciplinary curriculum. Join us in celebrating these incredible individuals by learning more about the courses they teach and how they think about sustainability in the practice and research.
Professor Terri Weissman from the School of Art & Design teaches ARTH 211: Design History which, "focuses on the history of design in the U.S. and Europe from the early twentieth century to the present, though periodically examines material from earlier moments and other geographical areas, particularly East Asia. The class studies all kinds of design, including industrial, building, interior, graphic and clothing, with the goal of demonstrating how design is embedded in everyday life. I also hope students come away from class with at least some understanding of how relevant design is to social change. The class is usually pretty big, but it’s fun for me to get to know the students through the work they produce, especially for the assignments that combine traditional research with making. Last year, the Sustainable Design students made some amazing zines and posters. This coming Spring, I’m going to incorporate some assignments that ask students to make replicas of past designs, and I’m very excited to see what the BSSD students come up with!"
With regard to integrating sustainability practices, Weissman says, "I’m an art historian, so my own work is mostly written text. Most of my books and articles focus on the relationship between documentary practice and social justice, but I’ve also written about contemporary urban gardens and water usage. And many of the photographers I’m interested in and/or write about (artists like LaToya Ruby Frazier, who has documented the Flint Water Crisis) produce imagery about environmental racism, climate crisis, corporate pollution, and the effect of war on the environment."
Savio Mukachirayil is an Industrial Designer and Researcher-in-Residence in the School of Art & Design who teaches ARTD 326: Sustainability & Manufacturing a course that "cover a broad range of manufacturing processes and materials. Following the theoretical component, students engage in hands-on activities with mycelium. They work in groups to explore this novel material and its potential applications by utilizing various substrates and machining techniques. At the conclusion of the mycelium project, students are assessed based on their documented learnings, which are presented through an exhibition, a report, and a vlog, available here: go.illinois.edu/SustainableManufacturing"
With regard to sustainability research, Mukachirayil says, "I believe that sustainable practices are crucial for aspiring to be good designers. However, the term "sustainability" is often used so frequently that we forget why it is good. Our creations should aim to enhance human life and promote human flourishing, with sustainability being integral to our responsibility for the things we produce. My practice is highly interdisciplinary; and at these intersections, I pose "what if" questions that could potentially improve human life. For me, sustainability naturally aligns with this approach. For example. recently, I did a project in Prof. Braulio Macias-Rodriguez lab in the Department of Food and Materials Science, I posed the question, "What if we reimagine our interaction with toothpaste?", which was a great project that created room for people to question what we take for granted, realise “there is a better way” (always). I enjoy collaborating with various disciplines and I always welcome people to reach out for a chat."
Associate Professor Eric Benson from the School of Art & Design teaches FAA 431: Sustainable Design Capstone and ARTD 451: Ethics of a Designer in a Global Economy (EDGE). "Capstone is the final studio for BSSD students where they pitch and implement a semester long project that matches their interests and career goals. It is a very self-directed course where the students create the parameters for their sustainability project, deliverables, and the timeline. It’s great experience for the “big world” after graduation. EDGE is a course I created back in 2008 with John Jennings. In this class we question, discuss, define, and make “ethical design.” It is intended to be thought provoking and challenge current paradigms we have about the world and how we fit into it through design."
When asked about sustainability, Benson says, "It is the foundation of what I do. We are all part of nature and therefore must design and live within her rules and boundaries."
Dr. Tait Johnson from the School of Architecture teaches ARCH 417: Modern and Contemporary Global Architecture and ARCH 416: Architecture of the United States. Of these courses, Dr. Johnson says, "Students learn that sustainable architecture has been a practice of architects for thousands of years. But, modern architects who studied these practices adopted them into their designs when it became advantageous or an ethical concern. For instance, architect Judith Chafee designed the Ramada House in Tucson, Arizona (1975) having learned about how a ramada (trellis shade structure) used by Native American home builders can shade the house. She also learned from the thermal mass-holding properties of thick adobe brick walls, absorbing the sun’s heat all day, protecting the interior from the heat, and then slowly radiating the heat into the interior of the house at night when warmth is most welcome."
With regard to sustainability practice, Johnson says, "I study the historical use of aluminum in architecture, on facades, and for building technology such as heating and cooling systems. In terms of sustainability, you can see it both ways. Three quarters of all aluminum in use today is recycled. Aluminum is resilient, resisting heavy corrosion and remaining strong for a long time. In fact, the cap of the Washington Monument is a small pyramid of aluminum that is still virtually unchanged from the day it was installed in 1884. On the other hand, aluminum takes an enormous amount of electricity to produce. 70% of the electricity used in aluminum comes from fossil fuels. So it is not blameless. However, it generally has a positive reputation for sustainability it can remain useful for one hundred years or more, being highly recyclable to obtain a second, or third life. Ultimately I like studying aluminum in architecture because it is, on balance, sustainable, and tells us how deeply architecture is influenced by manufacturers."
Associate Professor Dr. Julie Zook from the School of Architecture teaches ARCH 321: Environment, Architecture, and Global Health which, "gives me a chance to reflect with students about fundamentals of why we design the world the way we do, the specific conditions we run up on that constrain us, and how we might approach design questions in a more broad-minded and integrated way. We change disciplinary hats four times over the course of the semester, which is what it takes to do justice to the topics of the course."
When asked about sustainability research, Zook says, "My academic training is in uncovering social, behavioral, and aesthetic dimensions of spatial systems, and this expertise is what shows in my practice and research record. A limited amount of my research has addressed sustainability indirectly, like how to design street networks to encourage walking or how to identify hospital morphologies that are amenable to expansion or reuse. For me, sustainability is most active in my teaching in studios, lectures, and seminars. From where I sit, it is students who push faculty and institutions to focus on sustainability more. Keep pushing; it’s working."
Assistant Professor Benjamin Bross from the School of Architecture teaches ARCH 237: Urban Scale Sustainability. Of this course, Bross says, "For 2022-23, I was selected as an iSEE Levenick Teaching Sustainability Fellow. Starting in 2022 and into 2023, with the help of people like Andrew Greenlee, Nicole Turner, and Karin Hodgin Jones, I developed ARCH 237 that focused on large-scale holistic sustainability. While there are several excellent courses that focus on the granular scale, for example that help students learn how to select more sustainable materials during the design process, or the best way to site a building, I felt that BSSD, Architecture, and the UIUC campus in general, would benefit from a Gen Ed course that introduced students to thinking in terms of systems, cost-benefit analysis, stakeholder participation and other holistic analyses when considering environmental, social and economic sustainability. Because of this approach, students can explore why developing and implementing large-scale, e.g., neighborhood to regional, sustainability policy is so complex and fraught with pitfalls. One of the major goals of the course is to introduce students to the reality that there are always trade-offs when talking about long-term holistic sustainability."
When asked about sustainability practices, Bross says, ""Just as I strongly believe that every course must have a sustainability component, my practice and research consider holistic, i.e., economic, social, and environmental, sustainability a crucial driver. As a practicing architect, I constantly consider the best way to holistically design the built environment, from siting and rainwater collection systems to a community’s traditions and rituals passed on from generation to generation, to produce a sense of place. Here, placemaking is a holistic sustainability strategy because it is a process by which the built environment is rooted to a site because of the specificity in design, construction, and use, is respectful to the site’s geography, history, and sociocultural practices. In this sense, my research examines the way that sense of place, what Christian Norberg-Schulz called the genius loci, or spirit of the place, emerges and expresses embodied energy."
Assistant Professor Colleen Chiu-Shee of the Department of Urban & Regional Planning. Chiu-Shee states, "I teach skills, ideas, and critiques related to city design and development, with a focus on urban and environmental sustainability. Since 2023, I have been developing new courses that integrate design thinking, visual representation, and social research methods. The combination of these skills enables students to investigate the built environment and complex socioecological systems while developing the imagination of alternative future visions. As an example, UP426 Urban Design and Planning (Fall 2024)--an introduction to urban design skills--focuses on free thinking and creative imagination. Students are asked to explore ideals of the future city, study precedents of various practices of sustainable urbanism, and choose a site to conduct urban analysis and propose spatial, social, and ecological interventions."
When asked about sustainability, Chiu-Shee says, "My past practice and ongoing research have explored a wide range of idea(l)s and practices of green, ecological, and sustainable urbanisms, drawing on experiences in diverse geographical, cultural, and political-economic contexts. I reflect on the meanings of these concepts and their impacts on practice, space, and society. The goal is to identify opportunities for improving policy and practice toward human-nature reciprocity and socioecological equity."