Scholarship
Thesis
Author Heidi S. Tomkiewicz (Schlegel)
Advisor, Dr Mark Hinchman
Submitted September, 2011
Abstract
This study will evaluate the current barriers to standardization and widespread implementation of sustainable practices in the residential homebuilding industry. A literature review evaluates and defines the relevant tenets of sustainability creating a cohesive definition of sustainable building practices for the purposes of this study. These defined features were used to evaluate current practices and certification programs. An analysis of the current scholarship on barriers to sustainable development combined with this information to create a framework for a case study of homebuilders and their practices in the greater Rochester, New York area. This study was conducted in order to ascertain the understanding, attitudes, perceived barriers and extent of application, of sustainable practices within the greater Rochester marketplace. The study identified several barriers to the standardization of sustainable development within the market but the most prevalent was the lack of information that would allow practical implementation of practices, clarify the reasoning behind the need for these practices and the benefits to the trade. Most notably over 87% of homebuilders did not perceive residential housing as having any negative impacts on the environment. Educational systems and certification programs have failed to communicate effectively a comprehensive view of sustainability. These information gaps extended to create and enhance known infrastructure issues and perceived market barriers to sustainable development. The intent of this research is to clearly identify the barriers to sustainable development within the homebuilding marketplace creating a basis for the trade to address these issues. Understanding these barriers will establish a path to overcoming these impediments allowing the market to open up to widespread implementation of sustainable practices. The negative impacts of housing are palpable. Clearing the barriers to standardization of sustainable residential development practices will negate these impacts to both the ecological and built environments, benefitting the health of both the planet and its inhabitants.
Scholarship Focus
Goals:
globalism, collaboration, programmatic intelligence
For the past several years, scholarship has focused on the culturalSYNERGY International Cyber Design Charrette established in 2016. My co-founder and I have investigated the varied perspectives, values and connections supported by these global interactions as a means to support: intercultural understanding, collaboration and communication skills, globalist perspectives and higher level risk taking. This cyber design charrette experience has been implemented at RIT for several years within a writing intensive sophomore design thinking/programming course: Design Issues.
The Design Issues course has served as an inspiration to develop methods for students to gain globalist perspectives and programmatic intelligence. Formatting the course has served as an opportunity for additional scholarship aimed at supporting development of critical thinking skills, globalist perspectives and programmatic intelligence.
Scholarship 2015 - 2016
Scholarship 2017 - 2018
Scholarship 2019 - 2020
Future Scholarship Goals:
Scholarship will continue to focus on means and methods of supporting collaboration, developing a globalist perspective and supporting higher levels of programmatic intelligence in future designers.
In addition, recent opportunities to revisit the topic of my thesis have arisen. It has been my goal for years to revisit the condition and continued barriers to sustainability in the homebuilding industry. This original work was inspired by the construction of the sustainable case study home in 2008. Through direct observation, it has been apparent that homebuilding practices remain mostly unchanged over the past 13 years. This has inspired me to take a tangential approach and complete a residential renovation case study: how can sustainable systems and universal design be implemented within existing structures? Construction is slated to be completed during a 3 year span beginning the summer of 2020. It is hoped that outcomes can serve as a model for homebuilders and renovators to gain tools to shift their construction methodologies to a more profitable sustainable paradigm.