Reshaping the Built Environment requires those of us who create the built environment to change what we do and how we do it. This re-learning process requires us to engage with society, education, entrepreneurship and practice, welcoming the feedback loops that continually show us lessons learned. Designers are trained to be practical problem solvers, but designers also need to be systems thinkers, combining their analytical skills with a broad understanding of how it all fits together in society and the built environment. The built environment is complex and so is sustainability. Our team is proposing a hierarchy of needs approach to help establish levels of understanding and skills to build on top of each other to make sense of the complexities of sustainability. To move up in the hierarchy of needs, the previous sustainability need must be met. This new model represents a taxonomy of sustainable practice, and allows all of us to understand both where we are and what might be possible.
At the base of the pyramid are the foundational needs. Understanding the definition of sustainability, its complexities, and how the principle manifests itself in different applications. An important part of the base level is understanding why engineers have a global responsibility to incorporate sustainability in everything we do. Without this purpose and need, engineers can find themselves asking why are we doing this in the first place? Why is it important to me? The next sustainability level is assessing vulnerabilities and uncertainties, to establish security and safety. Once the two foundational sustainability needs are met, the next step is forming community and belonging- understanding that we cannot improve sustainability alone. Efficiency, impact, and legacy can come next, and these sustainability hierarchy of needs will be further explored in the next stage of this design challenge.
Bruna Paranhos
Matt Friesen
Alan Brown
Holly Hall
Sarthak Tiwari
Hi team! Hope the project is going okay?
I haven't heard anything back from yourselves, which hopefully means you're happy progressing with the project, but just wanted to let you know I'm available if you need any more feedback before the submission on Monday. Best of luck!
Chris
Hi Bruna, Matt, Alan, Holly and Sarthak! Thanks for submitting your concept note, and nice to virtually meet you all.
I've been assigned as your mentor on this project. I really like your visual presentation aid, really helps convey your concept. I'm by no means an expert, but hoping my comments and questions can help draw out the expertise you each already have within. I've summarised my initial thoughts below, particularly on how we can present your idea in line with the marking criteria. (To briefly give context to my observations, my background is as a engineering consultant.)
I'm not sure if this formed part of your inspiration, but my first thought after reading your concept was its correlation to the 'Maslow Hierarchy of Needs' in psychology, which might be an interesting comparison to explore if you're not familiar. How did you rank each of these needs in the hierarchy?
Because you've taken a bottom up approach, this could give you very good marks in the 'Inclusive' section of the marking criteria. It will be useful to explore how this concept could be applied in practice, to reach the desired impact. What examples would you use, in both a developing and developed country context? Each giving your own examples of how this theory could be applied will also enable you to gain marks in the 'Responsible' marking criteria.
I really liked your consideration of efficiency, impact, and legacy; as the legacy of engineering is very often ignored. My query is, does efficiency fit at the top of this pyramid, or does it have a part to play in every level going up?
Are you able to expand on how you came up with the base words of society, education, entrepreneurship and practice?
In terms of communication, we can continue dialogue on this platform, but if you would like anything else, such as a video call, please let me know.
Please feel free to respond to anything I've said, or throw out more thoughts, and hopefully our dialogue can help develop this concept even further.