Last spring, five students from Ohio State decided to “go green” and demonstrate they were the best in the buckeye state. Next month they will move on to compete against teams from across the country.
Three students from the Knowlton School of Architecture joined two students from the College of the Arts and entered a project in the United States Green Building Council Natural Talent Design Competition. Their designs took first place in Ohio’s regional competition and they will soon move on to nationals, held in Denver, Colo. in Nov.
Their project was developed in architecture 343, an architectural design studio course led by Associate Professor of Architecture Lisa Tilder. “We got involved in the competition through a seminar we were taking (led by Tilder),” said group member Alex Stitt, a senior in architecture. “This is the first time I’ve actually designed a piece of green architecture.”
The OSU students competed with teams in Ohio to design a Community Hall and Interpretive Center for Imago Earth Center, a nature reserve in Cincinnati. They were to develop the site employing principles from the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design Green Building Rating System, a nationally accepted method for designing and operating green buildings.
Group members Stitt and David Ruffing, a senior in architecture, worked with Kelly Murphy, a senior in landscape architecture, Ron Crowe, a senior in interior space design and April Fiorelli, a senior in industrial design, on the project.
“Lisa really did a lot to gather us together and make a collaborative effort among disciplines happen – which is important because it makes designs richer. And when entering into our fields, especially working with ecologically sensitive design, experience with collaboration is essential,”Murphy said.
Along with Professor Tilder, two local professionals, Allen Schaffer and Liz Sanders conducted reviews of the students’ project.
“We incorporated a building that regenerates the land it sits on, getting energy from the sun and capturing rain water and storing it for all sorts of uses,” Crowe said. We also tried to minimize the actual amount of land the building would sit on.”
Part of their prize for winning first place in the region was funding for a team representative to attend the national competition in Denver. Through a scholarship from the Knowlton School of Architecture, the trip for two other students will be funded, so Stitt and Ruffing will join Murphy in representing OSU at the competition, which takes place during USGBC’s national conference.
“Based on the criticism we got from the Cincinnati portion, we are tweaking our work slightly to make it marketable on a national level,” Stitt said.
“We’re not really redeveloping it, but putting finishing touches on what we already have,” Murphy said.
Crowe said he is glad OSU is encouraging students to join the green architecture movement. “It’s good that they’re getting students who will actually go into the field of design and architecture to support it, because it is pretty much the future of our field, with everybody so concerned about our environment. It also makes us very marketable, so kudos to OSU for that,” he said.
