Life, Learning, and Sustainablity

Abstract

The thesis Life, Learning, and Sustainablility examines the way in which architects can instill a sense of sentiment towards sustainability in future generations. Architects deplete our resources, and therefore through creative use of their site architects can find more sustainable methods and strategies for building so that we may not have to be without our resources in the future. It is through memories and a sense of community that we impact generations to come and change the future. There is no time like the present to take architecture to the next level and help a world in need by preserving our most precious resources and that natural beauty of the world around us. This thesis will consist of a project under the typology of a 55,000 square foot elementary school in northern South Dakota. This project will specifically look at the rural farming communities of Hosmer, Roscoe, and Bowdle. Communities with a rich German-Russian heritage and weather conditions that can range from drought to blizzards. Successful completion of this project will result in a model for how to preserve small communities that become desolate especially when faced with school mergers; through use of memory it will instill a renewed sense of community and sustainability in future generations and cause architects to rethink the design of a school.