This advanced building technology seminar explores ways that students can incorporate into their design projects notions of a regenerative and decommodified economy.  We will examine how the collective commons is affected by externalized costs intrinsic to our existing carbon-based economy and imagine future alternatives that foreground the challenges, uncertainties, and opportunities of a more equitable built environment.   Students will test their conceptual ideas with pragmatic solutions based on first-principle calculations and simulations at the scale of the grid, the neighborhood, the building, and the room.   In this fashion, the class is designed to build intuition and test prospective scenarios using digital tools in a fast, iterative fashion. Students will examine the central role that buildings play relative to carbon emissions, exploring how and why buildings use energy, ways of reducing consumption, and methods for sustainably supplying and storing energy. Phased exercises will help students to prioritize the building components that best reinforce the varied and often contradictory goals of visual and thermal comfort, reduced energy use, and increased energy generation.  In the process, students will gain proficiency in different analysis techniques and software packages that can be used in practice. Emphasis will be placed on framing questions and choosing tools that provide feedback loops with the design process while yielding appropriate accuracy and precision.

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