Weather Object 1: Hiking Backpack

1. Hiking backpacks are designed to engage with a variety of types of weather, but typically are constructed with waterproof materials, like nylon with a waterproof coating or laminate. This protects internal contents of the pack from water damage. 
2. What if instead of simply protecting the contents of the hiking backpack, that pack also provided weather protection for the hiker? This concept drawing by Frits Aslefeldt demonstrates this idea. Create your own hypothetical sketch for each object that you select!

Repeat activity for Weather Objects 2-5 (5 objects total) 

Look around you. Look at the clothes you wear and the places you go. Whether is an omnipresent part of our lives, and and the physical world around us has been intentionally designed to allow us to interact with the weather in different ways. Windshield wipers on a car create visibility in the harshest of rainstorms, the subtle slanting of pavement pushes excess water to the nearest drain, an adjustable bamboo curtain that filters sunlight - each object and artifact has its own relationship to the weather. 

What are people wearing, when and why? Is it a day for shorts? Or a day for the hoodie? Within each of these objects, there is deliberate and intentional design. What benefits do these objects give us?

Prompt:

Explore your house and local neighbourhood, and look for objects or artifacts that have been intentionally designed to interact with a specific type of weather. 

Instructions:

1. Document at least five weather objects with photographs and sketches (try to think beyond the umbrella and rain boots!).
2. For each object, respond to the following two questions: 
   1. How has this object been designed to interact with the weather (think about its shape, materials, scale, and how a person uses it)?
   2. How could this object be re-imagined to accommodate multiple types of weather conditions? (For example, what would sunglasses look like if they allowed the wearer to disperse fog in additional to blocking UV rays?) Create a quick sketch of your hypothetical new weather object!

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Introduction

Throughout history, the built environment has mediated between the natural world and human experience. The way humans experience and perceive environmental conditions is due in large part to the way architecture is designed. For example, the primitive thick rock walls and grass roofs at the Neolithic settlement of Skara Brae in Orkney provided warmth and protection from icy Atlantic winds; Philip Johnson’s Glass House in Connecticut bridges feelings of being both outside and inside at the same time; and DS+R's Blur Building at the 2002 Swiss Expo immersed people in an ever-changing atmosphere of fog.  Each design harnesses an aspect of the weather in order to create a specific human experience.

UN Sustainable Development Goal #3 focuses on ensuring healthy lives and promoting well-being for all at all ages, including the prevention and treatment of noncommunicable diseases such as mental health disorders. In achieving this goal, architecture has an important role to play, and one that extends well beyond simply providing shelter.  

Using the Scottish bothy as our unit of scale and Scottish weather as our inspiration, students in this Discovery Course will design architectural interventions that address our complex (and tenuous) psychological relationship with climate.  Can we create structures that harness, interact with, and respond to specific weather conditions in order to promote positive mental health and wellbeing? Designing for a sustainable future requires us to build more intentionally and with a greater purpose beyond just physical expansion.  Exploring this piece of the puzzle will expose students to new ways of thinking about space and our interconnectedness with the natural world.  

Focus Skills/Subjects/Technologies:

   Design

   Architecture + Urban Design

   Engineering

   3D Modeling

  Social Sciences

  Prototyping

   Sketching 

  Storytelling

UN Sustainable Development Goals:

  Goal 3: Good Health and Well-Being

Using the Scottish bothy as our unit of scale and Scottish weather as our inspiration, students in this Discovery Course will design architectural interventions that address our complex (and tenuous) psychological relationship with climate.  Can we create structures that harness, interact with, and respond to specific weather conditions in order to promote positive mental health and wellbeing?

Time Commitment 

This Discovery Course will take place over five weeks, including a pre-studio activity before the course begins. All student participants should be prepared to commit 4-6 hours each week over the five week time period. Each week, you will meet synchronously with your instructor for 1 hour, and you will work independently for the other 3-5 hours each week.

Schedule 

STEP 1: In the top-right corner, click the word "login." 

STEP 2: When the black menu appears, click "reset password," and enter your school email address, and then click "Send Password Reset Link."

STEP 3: Check your email account for an email from NuVu. Be sure to check your junk email folder as well if you don't see the email in your inbox. Follow the instructions in the email to reset your password.

STEP 4: You should now see your name in the top right corner. Success! (your screen will look slightly different than mine).