Title Join the Scrum! Regenerative Environmental Design for Autism
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
Title Join the Scrum! Regenerative Environmental Design for Autism Summary Host a Design Charette to inform a class project with students from Architecture, Interior Design, and Historic Preservation. The project will repurpose existing buildings into homes for adults with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD). Invited guests and stakeholders will include adults with ASD and their families, non‐profit and government housing providers, civic leaders, and local architecture firms. Students will be able to engage with stakeholders to produce designs that meet their needs. Duration 2/28/2019 ‐ 2/28/2019 Amount requested $4999.7799999999997 Primary Applicant Julie Irish Interior Design Fiscal Officer Amanda Youngquist College of Design Collaborators Andrea Wheeler Architecture Diane Al Shihabi Interior Design/Preservation & Cultural Heritage Mikesch Muecke Architecture/Preservation & Cultural Heritage Nora Ladjahasan Institute for Design Research and Outreach Eric Olson Apparel, Events, and Hospitality Office check notes Follow up info IOWA STATE UNIVERSITY – OFFICE OF DIVERSITY AND INCLUSION INCLUSIVE INITIATIVES GRANT 2019 1) Narrative Title of initiative Join the Scrum! Regenerative Environmental Design for Autism Overview In Fall 2018 a collaborative team was awarded the College of Design BNIM Regenerative Grant ($9,500). The grant recognized the need to provide suitable homes for young adults with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD). After a young adult leaves fulltime education there are few housing options that meet their unique needs. With around 1:59 children being diagnosed with ASD, this is a problem being faced by increasing numbers of young adults and their families. Coupled with this is the need to preserve and protect existing resources in our world, particularly in relation to sustainability and regenerative architecture. Regenerative architecture suggests that buildings could give more than they take from an environment, that is, they are net-positive, not just in terms of energy consumption but they add more than conventional buildings to the multiple social, economic, and environmental contexts of a building. The funded project aims to identify, repurpose, and redesign existing buildings into homes for young adults with ASD. This semester, students in Community and Regional Planning are identifying suitable buildings. Next semester, students in several classes in Architecture, Interior Design and Historic Preservation will be redesigning the buildings into homes for young adults with ASD. The classes will be open to all graduate students and seniors in design. The element of the project that is currently unfunded which this proposal is seeking funding for is the “design charette” component. A design charette is where a group of designers, community members, policy makers and other interested parties come together for a short but intensive collaborative “brain storming” session. This format includes everyone to make sure they have a voice. It also moves design ideas and goals forward quickly without a protracted consultation period, as is often the case with design projects. Design goals are reached in a more focused and collaborative way. We are calling our design charette a “scrum” in recognition that it is a hands-on, immersive experience. The aim of our project is to host and facilitate a one-day scrum. The purpose of the event is to draw students and community members together to consider the housing needs of young adults with ASD. This is a population who are often not directly included in design decisions. Students will be able to use the knowledge gained to apply to their design projects. Invited guests and stakeholders will include ISU students; young adults with ASD and their families; local architecture and design firms; government leaders at the city/town of the buildings identified for repurposing; non-profit housing providers; government housing providers; ISU student housing providers. Targeted stakeholders to invite include, e.g., Autism Society of 1 Iowa; LinkedIn Housing and Residential Supports Network by Autism Speaks; Iowa Autism Council; BNIM architecture and design firm. Students will be able to directly engage with stakeholders to help inform their studio projects to design housing for young adults with ASD. This is especially important to find out the views of young adults with ASD and their families and their needs and wants in terms of housing. This is a group who it can be hard to engage with and include, especially for parents who are fulltime caregivers. Bringing all parties together provides students an opportunity for empathy and understanding of diverse views. At the center of our proposal is our wish to introduce students to a) engagement with real world problems that need solving in our communities, b) a method of research which will have practical applications in professional life, and c) engagement with members of the community with a disability, they will gain a broader perspective of inclusivity and the views of others they may not be familiar with. As students engage with young adults with ASD and their families and other community leaders to find out what they want in terms of housing accommodation, this will directly inform their design projects. At the end of the event, the keynote speaker on regenerative design will be engaged to speak at an evening event open to all ISU students. Our aim is to include all students so that they can benefit from an awareness of regenerative design and sustainability, key concerns for all students whatever their major. After the event, students will design their projects using the research information they gained from the event. We expect to have a variety of feasible, regenerative ideas for transforming existing buildings into homes for young adults with ASD. At the end of the semester, there will be a second “extra time” event in which students will present their projects to the participants who attended the “scrum.” Students will gain valuable feedback on the success of their designs. Student projects will be uploaded to the project website so that the rest of the ISU community, the Iowa community, and people interested in regenerative design and housing provision for individuals with ASD can access the ideas. We are also interested in how the design charette format can be used as a teaching method to bring students and the Iowa community together. At the end of both the “scrum” and the “extra time” event we aim to administer a survey to participants to measure the success of the event. We will also administer an evaluation to students in class at the end of the semester to measure the success of the design charette format as a learning opportunity. We will seek Institutional Review Board (IRB) approval prior to data collection. The charette could be used for other types of design projects, by other design disciplines, and by other majors such as engineering and business school students. Therefore, after the event, we aim to publish a guide on how to host a design charette type event that can be used by the ISU community. 2 a) Objectives See b) criteria, i) collaborators for identification of collaborators. Objective Evaluation method When Collaborator(s) Students in Final buildings are selected April/May JI/AW/DA/MM Community & for student projects 2019 Regional Planning identify suitable buildings for regeneration Host design “scrum” Administer end of day survey September Event event to participants to measure Management; NL, effectiveness of the event; IDRO independent data analysis Keynote speaker on Numbers of ISU community September Event regenerative design who attend the event Management at scrum event to be engaged for evening event open to ISU community Host design “extra Administer survey to December JI/AW/DA/MM; NL, time” event participants at end of the IDRO event to measure effectiveness of the event; independent data analysis To use design Teaching evaluation December JENI/AW/DAS/MM; charette as a administered to students to NL, IDRO teaching and measure the effectiveness of learning method for the design charette as a students teaching and learning method; independent data analysis Publish guidelines Event guidelines published December Event on how to host a on ISU website available to Management design charette type the ISU community event 3 b) Criteria i. Collaboration This project is a collaboration between the following faculty in two colleges, College of Design and College of Human Sciences: College of Design: • Julie Irish, PhD, Assistant Professor, Interior Design (JENI) Primary Applicant • Andrea Wheeler, PhD, Architecture (AW) • Diane Al Shihabi, PhD, Associate Professor, Interior Design/Preservation & Cultural Heritage (DAS) • Mikesch Muecke, PhD, Associate Professor, Architecture/Preservation & Cultural Heritage (MM) • Nora Ladjahasan, Assistant Scientist, Institute for Design Research and Outreach (IDRO) (NL) College of Human Sciences • Eric Olson, PhD, Assistant Professor, Department of Apparel, Events, and Hospitality Management (EO) • Event Management Independent Studies Students Financial support: Amanda Youngquist, Program Assistant, College of Design In addition, services will be provided for the event by the ISU community, including students in ISU Catering, ISU MU Graphics Team, and ISU MU Marketing Services. This will provide real world experience for students and expand the reach of the grant. ii. Impact on the ISU community 1) As a standalone event, this event will demonstrate to members of the autism