BSSD GUIDEBOOK

College of Fine & Applied Arts

University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign

Mission Statement

The major in Sustainable Design offers an innovative, interdisciplinary course of study in design, with a focus on creating sustainable communities. Sustainable design calls on a student's creativity to conceptualize, visualize, analyze, communicate, and build products, buildings, cities, landscapes, and communities that use energy and materials in a more environmentally and socially sustainable manner. You will learn how design can contribute to solving problems of sustainability in a constantly evolving society and building equitable, healthy, and thriving places.

Sustainable design majors complete course work in graphic and industrial design, architecture, landscape architecture, and urban and regional planning. The program combines concrete skills development with opportunities to move between disciplinary barriers and traverse traditional boundaries.

Student Learning Outcomes

1. Students will have a deep level of understanding of the fundamentals of sustainability and their functional links to the built environment.
2. Students will have a deep level of understanding of the fundamentals of design thinking and practice.
3. Students will be proficient in applying basic principles of visual and material communication, including sketching, drafting, model-making, 2-D and 3-D design software, and geographic information systems.
4. Students will be able to combine design theory and practice with sustainability principles to address environmental issues at the product, building, neighborhood, city, landscape, and global levels.
5. Students will be comfortable working in multidisciplinary teams to solve complex design problems.

Required Courses

Foundation

• FAA 101 Arts at Illinois | 1 hour
• LA 101 Introduction to Landscape Architecture | 2 hours
• ARCH 171 Introduction to Design I | 3 hours
• ARCH 172 Introduction to Design II | 3 hours
• FAA 201 Black Arts Today | 3 hours
• FAA 230 Sustainable Design of the Built Environment | 3 hours
• ARTH 211 Design History Survey

Urban Scale Sustainability (select one course)

• UP 136 Urban Sustainability | 3 hours | (Gen Ed: SBS)
• UP 205 Ecology & Environmental Sustainability | 3 hours | (Gen Ed: NST)
• ARCH 237 Urban Scale Sustainability | 3 hours | (Gen Ed: SBS)

Drawing (select one course)

• ARTD 225 Design Drawing | 3 hours
• ARTF 102 Observational Drawing | 3 hours
• LA 280 Design Communications 1 | 3 hours | (Solely for students pursuing the BSSD-MLA 4+2 accelerated graduate pathway)

Core

• FAA 330 Making Sustainable Design | 5 hours
• ARTD 326 Sustainability & Manufacturing | 3 hours
• ARCH 321 Environment, Architecture, and Global Health | 3 hours
• ARTD 451 Ethics of a Designer in a Global Economy | 4 hours

Senior Capstone

• FAA 430 Capstone Seminar | 3 hours
• FAA 431 Capstone Studio | 5 hours

Foundation

FAA 101 Arts at Illinois

Common Arts experience for FAA freshmen that explores contemporary issues in the arts, cross-disciplinary ingenuity navigating a comprehensive research-intensive university. professional practices and exposures to FAA faculty and guest artists through lectures, discussion groups, and online components. This course is waived for intercollege transfer (ICT) and off-campus transfer (OCT) students.

LA 101 Introduction to Landscape Architecture

Introduction to primary concepts and methods of landscape inquiry as a means to understand experiential qualities of landscape and to guide landscape design and planning projects.

• Through lectures, readings, and image study, learn about landscape architecture of the immediate past and present.
• Explore the range of influences and expectations shaping landscape architecture theory and practice.
• Study key built and speculative works, competitions, and landscape-based events.
• Become acquainted with landscape designers themselves.
• Develop a foundational understanding through which to respond, both critically and creatively, to existing works and to further developments in the field.

ARCH 171 Introduction to Design I

The principles of architectural composition including form, space, and order are introduced. Students explore architectural precedents and design conceptualization. Students will apply two- and three-dimensional analog representation through sketching, drawing, analytical diagramming, and physical modeling

• Developing proficiency in freehand drawing methods and physical modeling processes used by architects.
• Develop designs using digital applications.

ARCH 172 Introduction to Design II

Principles, concepts and theories of architectural design and their spatial experience are explored. Students are introduced to methods of observation and documentation of the environment and associated activities and behaviors. Students develop techniques for analyzing and designing relationships between programs, people, and places.

• Communicate, graphically and textually, your ability to observe and see the environment surrounding you.
• Document and analyze the details of your surroundings through drawing and writing,
• Analyze and represent your observations of people in environments to others.
• Formulate and convey critique of design action through analysis of evidence you have collected.
• Assess the implications of a design action for equitable use of the environment.
• Develop, communicate, and present your creative ideas, orally, graphically, and textually.

FAA 201 Black Arts Today

A global course in theorizing Black cultural expression. It surveys artistic and cultural responses to types of racism (racial formations), modes of Black resistance and resiliency, and expressions of Black liberation and self-determination.

• Topics range from Spirituals, Gospel, and "ring-shouts" to Western classical music, ballet and modern dance; from Blues, Jazz, and Hip-Hop to African-inspired architecture and Blues tropes embedded in urban and regional segregationist planning; and from the lineage of Black Art + Design to the power of place of the Black Metropolis.
• As such, the course attends to the geographies of place and ontologies of time, i.e., moments formed from the intersection of Black social movements against white supremacy and Black reimagining of what it means to be human.
• Through a series of engagements with faculty-artists and researchers in the College of Fine & Applied Arts, Black Arts Today explores the practice and speculative spaces (imaginaries) in which FAA artists-instructors-researchers engage Black Arts or transmit Blackness to the arts.

FAA 230 Sustainable Design of the Built Environment

This seminar introduces fundamental readings in sustainability and resilient design. Presents diverse perspectives on sustainability and their relation to design, encouraging students to understand and critique different meanings of sustainability over time and geography.

• Understand the history, scope, and meanings of the term "sustainability"
• Gain familiarity with sustainable design practices globally
• Gain exposure to sustainable design discourses through readings, discussions, and guest speakers
• Analyze sustainability of examples of the built environment through analysis, writing, and group discussions
• Synthesize knowledge on a selected topic through a final research paper

ARTH 211 Design History Survey

The historical, social, and cultural context of design concentrating on manufactured products, communication, media, and design from the Industrial Revolution to the present. Lectures, seminars, and individual research projects.

• Historical Knowledge and a growing awareness of the history of design in the West. Through reading, writing, and discussion, students will learn about a range of historical and contemporary art and design practices with the goal of understanding how those practices affect culture at large. Students will also learn how to recognize gaps in their own knowledge-and how to fill those gaps through research.
• Expanded sense of what design is and how it affects everyday life and the social world more generally. This course seeks to introduce students to new ways of thinking about design and to challenge assumptions about what design is. By the end of the semester, students should feel comfortable engaging questions such as: What constitutes a designed object or space? Can design include approaches to problem solving? Can design function as an oppositional discourse?
• Critical Looking (art criticism and art history). Students will learn how to look at objects with an eye to making solid, rational interpretations even in the absence of complete information. In this way, students will learn how to approach and analyze artworks and designed objects that might at first appear confusing.

Urban Scale Sustainability (select one course)

UP 136 Urban Sustainability

Provides students with a basic understanding of how to make cities more sustainable by connecting how and where we live to environmental issues. Emphasis on green infrastructure and urban systems, vulnerability and resilience, green design and construction methods, energy production and consumption, and water conservation.

• Develop a more critical, multi-scaled perspective about decisions in the built environment.
• Build a vocabulary and the ability to communicate about the built environment, sustainability, and sustainable development.
• Engage in critical self-reflection about where and how they live.
• Become an agent for positive social and environmental change and contribute substantially to local knowledge of sustainability.

UP 205 Ecology & Environmental Sustainability

Basic ecological principles underlying environmental sustainability. Examination of problems that arise from inadequate consideration of structure and function of ecological systems, and approaches to ecological restoration and environmentally sound planning.

• Develop a more critical, multi-scaled perspective about the intersections of the ecological systems that underly the built environment.
• Build a vocabulary and the ability to communicate about the built environment
• Engage in critical self-reflection about where and how they live.
• Apply principles to case studies drawn from urban planning, natural resource management and sustainable development.

ARCH 237 Urban Scale Sustainability

Focuses on understanding and conceiving holistic approaches to urban-scaled sustainability challenges, by looking at environmental, economic, and social factors affecting built environments.

• Explore in greater depth the relationships between architectural and urban design in creating a sustainable built environment.
• Emphasis placed on illustrating individual and collective social roles in producing healthy and robust communities, currently challenged by climate change and environmental degradation.
• Students will investigate and propose actions ranging from simple gestures like reducing, reusing, and recycling, to highly complex neighborhood, city, and regional design decision-making and policy implementation.

Drawing (select one)

ARTD 225 Design Drawing

Introduction to rapid drawing methods and tools used by designers. Focuses on theory and application of orthographic and perspective drawing for communication of design ideas.

• Understanding orthographic and perspective drawing systems used by industrial designers.
• Developing drawings that accurately portray shapes and provide technical information to guide design and manufacturing.
• Creating realistic images of envisioned designs, forms, and materials.
• Learning to make quick, simple design sketches that express 2-D and 3-D objects rapidly, expressively, and professionally.
• Understanding use of basic light, shade, shadow, and color.
• Use of communication mediums common to the professions (felt-tipped markers, colored pencils, and others).
• Developing proficiency in freehand and instrument assisted drawing methods.
• Lettering by hand for communication of technical and related support information.
• Creatively resolving design problems through participation in active learning and the iterative process of discourse and critical analysis as part of design improvement.

ARTF 102 Observational Drawing

Theory and practice in observational drawing with emphasis on fundamental principles such as mark/line, shape/form, space/composition, linear/perspective, scale/proportion, value/tonal range, and pattern/texture.

• Fundamental skills for drawing from observation of the natural world.
• Develop drawings that accurately represent form, proportion, perspective, value and tone of observed objects and sites.
• Develop and maintain rigorous sketchbook practice and vocabulary of mark making practices for use in design ideation and communications.

LA 280 Design Communication I

Fundamentals of visual communication in the design process and presentation for landscape architecture. Includes freehand and constructed drawing, color, media, and models

• The course is divided into units that address different aspects of landscape representation.
• These are accompanied by a semester-long sketchbook assignment.
• Together, these exercises will introduce students to a wide array of drawing methods, both analog and digital, that will guide students in developing their own graphic identity.
• Seats in this course are exclusively for students pursuing the BSSD-MLA 4+2 accelerated graduate pathway

Core

FAA 330 Making Sustainable Design

Introduction to techniques and tools for representing and realizing sustainable design ideas. Using a case study method, students are introduced to digital and analog means of representing concepts, data, and spatial forms across multiple scales. Through hands-on assignments, tutorials, and workshops, students learn the basic skills to express ideas graphically and in three dimensions.

• Gain broad knowledge of sustainable practices in contemporary design.
• Analyze several case studies using written, graphic, and verbal communication methods.
• Learn the advantages and limitations of different design tools and techniques.
• Experiment with hands-on representation, including sketching, drafting, and model-making.
• Utilize multiple types of software, including the Adobe Creative Suite, AutoCAD, GIS, and 3-D modeling programs.
• Create an independent design project synthesizing course concepts and skills.

ARTD 326 Sustainability & Manufacturing

Exploration of environmental origins, theory, and practice of sustainable product design. Environmentally responsive design methodologies and topics such as industrial ecology, dematerialization, design for disassembly, design for recycling, and life-cycle assessment.

• To prepare the design student to integrate environmental and cultural considerations throughout the design process.
• To equip the design student with specific environmentally responsive tools, principles, and methodologies in preparation for professional application.
• To foster teamwork and to encourage self-learning.
• To instill knowledge of sustainable materials and manufacturing.

ARCH 321 Environment, Architecture, and Global Health

This course surveys current research at the intersection of the built environment, health, and well-being. It emphasizes relationships among people and multiple scales of the environments they inhabit and the health and well-being consequences of these relationships. It comparatively examines these relationships within a broad range of Western and Non-Western cultures and contexts by introducing significant historical and contemporary theories, data of relevance, research processes, and applications in environmental design and planning processes. To improve person-environment fit, the roles of social groups, institutions, and organizations in the person-environment-health/well-being nexus within various

ARTD 451 Ethics of a Designer in a Global Economy

Ethics of a Designer in a Global Economy (EDGE) studio presents complex problems of ethics within the graphic design practice. Individual sections address social and environmental issues.

• A discussion of ethics in graphic design
• To activate social change perspectives around systems, sustainability, and design-led social change
• Work on real projects that will have a campus or community impact
• To learn how design can help shape a positive future for people and for the planet

Learn about current design trends in our social and professional practice

Program Policies

Academic Honesty

You are strongly encouraged to discuss class assignments with others, but your work in papers and exams must be your own. Do not quote directly or paraphrase from published works (including the world wide web) without a proper citation. Footnote ideas and information that are not common knowledge. When in doubt about what academic integrity requires, ASK! Failure to abide by the principles of academic honesty will result in a failing grade for the course. See the student handbook, studentcode.illinois.edu/article1/part4/1-401/ which is incorporated into the program.

Rights and Responsibilities in FAA Learning Environments

The BSSD learning environment includes dialogue, collaborative work, and service-learning. By enrolling in a course in the BSSD, students agree to be responsible for maintaining a respectful environment in their academic and professional training. The expectations outlined in this code apply to all people participating in B55D activities, including classes, projects, and extracurricular programs.

Rights in the BSSD learning environment

All participants in BSSD activities have the right to feel comfortable sharing in the conversation, to be free of intimidation or ridicule, and to face no discrimination on the basis of their views. Through classroom discussions, opinions are questioned and challenged and may be strengthened or revised. In group project work, students have the right to be included, to contribute, and to have their voices heard by team members. Group projects prepare students for working with a wide variety of colleagues and allow for the opportunity to learn from classmates.

Responsibilities in the BSSD learning environment.

Students, faculty, and staff are responsible for maintaining an inclusive, respectful environment and all are expected to respect the opinions and backgrounds of others. In order to have successful dialogue, basic rules of courtesy should be followed. Students and faculty are also responsible for dialogue that meets the standards of academic and professional settings, where opinions are valid when they are supported with appropriate evidence and logical arguments. Students and faculty may speak from personal experience but should not make arguments based on uninformed stereotypes, misrepresented information, or unsupported assertions. In group work, participants are responsible for providing the opportunity for each group member to contribute. Ideas and contributions should be valued and considered equally as long as they meet the basis of accepted academic and professional standards for design work.

If you are having troubles in the course or in your life more generally, please use the resources available on campus. The FAA Associate Dean for Undergraduate Academic Affairs-Student Affairs is Zelda Gardner who can be reached at 217.333.9198 or zgardner@illinois.edu. The Student Assistance Center can be reached at 217.333.0050. The Counseling Center is committed to providing a range of services intended to help students develop improved coping skills in order to address emotional, interpersonal, and academic concerns. The Counseling Center provides individual, couples, and group counseling. All these services are paid for through the health services fee. The Counseling Center offers primarily short-term counseling, but they do also provide referrals to the community when students could benefit from longer term services.

Affiliated Faculty

Architecture

• Mohamed Boubekri: indoor environments, health, sustainable architecture
• Sara Bartumeus Ferre: architecture and landscape architecture
• Benjamin Bross: urbanism and material culture
• Lynn Dearborn: health and equity
• Ralph Hammann: energy and architectural design
• Kevin Hinders: urbanism
• Tait Johnson: history of architecture and materiality
• Paul Hardin Kapp: historic preservation
• Sudarshan Krishnan: lightweight structures
• John Stallmeyer: history and theory of architecture
• Mark Taylor: solar design

Art and Design

• Carlos Aguiar: sustainable manufacturing
• Susan Becker: sustainable fashion design
• Molly Briggs: design theory
• Karin Hodgin Jones: digital art and sustainability
• Deana McDonagh: empathic design
• Chiara Vincenzi: sustainable fashion design
• Teri Weissman: history of design

Dance

• Jennifer Monson: urban ecologies and movement

Landscape Architecture

• Brian Deal: sustainable planning and design, modeling, climate
• David L. Hays: landscape theory and history
• Kelley Lemon: PLA, LEED AP, EDAC, vernacular design
• Mary Pat McGuire: water and sustainable landscapes
• Pollyanna Rhee: modern environmentalism
• D. Fairchild Ruggles: landscape history
• Stephen Sears: landscape design
• William Sullivan: Director of the Smart, Healthy Communities Initiative

Music

• Michael Silvers: traditional ecological knowledge, materials

Theatre

• Kim Curtis: sustainable theatre and costume design

Urban and Regional Planning

• Dustin Allred: urban sustainability
• Lindsay Braun: sustainable transportation
• Bumsoo Lee: land use and transportation
• Magdalena Novoa: historic preservation
• Lou Turner: community organizing

Accelerated Graduate Pathways

Accelerated Graduate Pathways

Master of Urban Planning in Urban Planning (BSSD - MUP 4+1)

The five-year joint BSSD - MUP 4+1 program combines a BS in Sustainable Design with a MUP in Urban Planning. Current University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign undergraduate students enrolled in the Sustainable Design undergraduate major who have completed between 60 and 96 credit hours and maintain superior academic performance are eligible to apply for this program. Students admitted to the program will receive the BS degree after four years and the MUP degree after one additional year.

Students interested in the BSSD - MUP 4+1 program will need to plan their schedules well in advance of their Junior year to ensure they have taken the appropriate course work. By judicious selection of general education courses and major electives in their sophomore and junior years, students will be prepared to apply to the 4+1 program in their junior year.

The professionally accredited MUP program prepares students for careers in planning practice. Such careers involve public service at all levels of government, in private consulting practice, in the nonprofit sector, and in a wide variety of organizations in need of planning services.

Master of Art & Design, concentration in Design for Responsible Innovation (BSSD - MFA DRI 4+2)

The six-year joint BSSD - MFA 4+2 program combines a BS in Sustainable Design with a MFA in Art & Design, concentration in Design for Responsible Innovation (4+2 program). Current University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign undergraduate students enrolled in the Sustainable Design undergraduate major who have completed between 60 and 96 credit hours and maintain superior academic performance are eligible to apply for this program. Students admitted to the program will receive the BS degree after four years and, contingent upon successful admittance to the Graduate School, will receive the MFA degree after two additional years.

Students interested in the BSSD – MFA DRI 4+2 program will need to plan their schedules well in advance of their Junior year to ensure they have taken the appropriate course work. By judicious selection of general education courses and major electives in their sophomore and junior years, students will be prepared to apply to the 4+2 program in their junior year.

The MFA in Design for Responsible Innovation focuses on interdisciplinary making for research and practice. This program prepares students to contribute to the field of design by entering into practice, academia, or both. Students can explore responsible futures through research in traditional print media and emergent technologies including, but not limited to, data visualization, digital interaction, information design, systems thinking, and visual narrative.

Master of Landscape Architecture (BSSD - MLA 4+2)

The six-year joint BSSD - MLA 4+2 program combines a BS in Sustainable Design with a MLA in Landscape Architecture. Current University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign undergraduate students enrolled in the Sustainable Design undergraduate major who have completed between 30 and 96 credit hours and maintain superior academic performance are eligible to apply for this program. Students admitted to the program will receive the B.S. degree after four years and the MLA degree after two additional years.

Students interested in the BSSD - MLA 4+2 program will need to plan their schedules well in advance of their Junior year to ensure they have taken the appropriate course work. By judicious selection of general education courses and major electives, students will be prepared to apply to the 4+2 program in their sophomore year, and to the Graduate College in their senior year.

College of Fine & Applied Arts

University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign