From Problem to Net Positive: The transformation of existing, inefficient building stock

The Net Positive studio is a 7-week studio in the penultimate year of a professional M. Arch. program at the University of Minnesota. This studio focuses on developing, assessing, documenting, and representing interaction between architectural form and environmental factors, using energy modeling tools and incorporating frequent quantitative feedback. In the context of existing-building inefficiency as a major contributor to carbon emissions and climate change, students were assigned an existing building, and were required to demonstrate that passive and active modifications of the building and its envelope could lead to an 80% reduction of its baseline energy use. Within this context, students were asked to (a) selectively modify or replace existing envelope conditions to create a responsive deep-boundary; (b) establish a dialogue between energy-modeling tools and conceptual development; (c) incorporate a Net-Positive contribution beyond energy production; and (d) understand variables that develop concinnity between form, occupancy and function, and environmental factors. These goals were established within a cooperative pedagogy, Shifting Allegiances, organized to promote cooperative collaboration and shared authorship of projects in graduate-level studios. This is achieved by collectivizing the ownership of topical subject areas, to which students variously direct their effort over the course of the studio. The paper discusses the studio’s cooperative structures, the process of establishing an ongoing dialogic between quantitative data and conceptual development, the role of energy modeling within the design process, and the emerging definition of passive and active envelope systems. The paper concludes with a discussion of the studio’s discussion-based, student-led final review. 1.0 THE NET-POSITIVE DESIGN STUDIO The Net-Positive Design Studio is offered in the penultimate year of a 3-year professional Master of Architecture degree program at the School of Architecture, College of Design, University of Minnesota. The Spring semester of the second year in the program is divided into two approximately 7-week long modules. The Net-Positive Design Studio, in the first of the two modules, focuses on the integration of architectural design, environmental technology, and high-performance regenerative practice. Although the three or four sections have an overall alignment in schedule for all-studio lectures, consultant workshops, and energy modeling training, each section follows their own projects and emphasis. The brief for all sections reads, “in the Net Positive studio, architectural design integrates design excellence, beauty, and theories of architecture with the achievement of performance standards. Historically, these standards have been checklist based and focused on the built environment as being less bad rather than having positive effects. The goal of the studio is to evolve high performance design strategies, apply processes and techniques to improve performance, and redefine architectural beauty from a socioecological perspective. ” Furthermore, all sections of the Net-Positive studio share the following key topics: first, utilizing design processes and methods to explore the form-giving potential of ecological and performance-driven design; second, measuring ecological sustainability with assessment tools, guidelines,