Midterms are upon us, and it is time to make your design more earth- friendly. The Ecological Design Center wants to encourage your sustainable tendencies by offering an opportunity to chat about your project with green-minded faculty and professionals.

The first annual Green Re-Scheme will be held Monday, February 11th from 11:00am-1:00pm in room 278, and again on Wednesday February 13th from 11:00am-1:00pm in room 286. The reviewers on Monday will be Leslie Ryan (landscape architecture), Nico Larco (architecture), and Charlie Brown (architecture). Wednesday's reviewers will be Brook Muller (architecture), Alec Dackers (Rainbow Valley Design and Construction), and Jess Gracie (Pivot Architecture). Remember, do not be afraid of receiving feedback from people in other disciplines!

Please feel free to drop in any time between 11:00 and 1:00, and have your drawings ready for critique. Food, pins, and sustainable ideas will be provided.

Hope to see you there!

Section drawing of winning Rainwater Catchment design.

The Rainwater Catchment project, organized by Jonathan Dunn and Nic Smith, began with a charrette to design an affordable, portable rainwater catchment system that would be suitable for use in disaster relief situations. Funded through a Parters in Education (PIE) grant from the Eugene Water and Electric Board and a grant from Lunar Logic, a prototype of the winning design from the charrette will be constructed in the Lawrence Hall courtyard for display durring the HOPES Conference.

Update - the Certificate is now available! For more information, go to the AAA Certificate website.

In order to achieve a balance with our own habitat, designers need to recognize and begin designing in a sustainable and holistic fashion. Practicing a sustainable, holistic design process means taking a critical look at current conditions, recognizing and clearly articulating our relationship with nature, learning from it, reconnecting with it, and creating a new culture of sustainability.

The Ecological Design Certificate emphasizes the recognition of the earths natural processes and designing within and congruent with those parameters. It will prepare students to become designers with the ability to:

Since its creation in 1995, the EDC's HOPES (Holistic Options for Planet Earth Sustainability) conference has remained the only ecological design conference developed and managed by students. Held every year in April, HOPES works to promote the deeper understanding and broader application of sustainable design principles.

Over the past ten years, the conference has brought such luminaries as Sim Van der Ryn, Samuel Mockbee, James Hubbel, Angela Danadijieva, Michael Pyatok, Steve Badanes, Richard Register, David Orr, John Schaeffer and Clare Cooper Marcus to the University of Oregon campus.

Prototype design for materials exchange station.

The model material exchange repository program will allow students to reuse modeling materials instead of having these materials go to waste. Currently and historically students have had few options in disposing of their scrap materials beyond throwing them away or putting them in the recycle bins. We hope this new program will encourage students to participate in the sustainable use of resources on a daily basis and also educate them about the lifecycle of these materials, while also reducing the waste stream of the AAA.

Portable Pedal Power design sketch

The Center for the Advancement of Sustainable Living and the edc are proud to present an opportunity to GET INVOLVED in a hands on design project that will develop of a state-of-the-art pedal-powered energy machine!

Check the Portable Pedal Power website for more information or to volunteer to help with the project.

Listen to the Lecture