Exit Interview

(1) What is your essential question and answers?  What is your best answer and why?

                What is the most important factor when designing a "green" structure? An architect should consider window placement and style, utilize alternative building materials that are found on-site, and designing so that a structure can have bio-mimetic characteristics. My best answer was an architect should consider window placement and style because window orientation is a small yet important energy efficient way to save energy and ultimately money.

(2) What process did you take to arrive at this answer?

                This was the answer that seems as the most reasonable as the best answer because as people around the world are becoming more energy aware having great window orientation can help you be green while not changing your lifestyle. Many people think that simply adding a solar panel makes a building green but this is not true. Being green is a lifestyle for those who wish to make a true difference but green architecture allows for the average person to save energy because the energy saving techniques are incorporated into the buildings themselves. 

(3) What problems did you face?  How did you resolve them?

              There were no major problems that did not allow me to complete my senior project. One small problem that did present itself was the challenge of finding a mentor close to my house. Many of the architects I contacted were located in Pasadena or in a city that was a large distance. I resolved this problem by contacting the activities coordinator of an organization called Uncommon Good. This organization has recently constructed an adobe building which interested me in the energy savings in buildings. Luckily for me the offices of the firm that designed the building were located in Claremont which is only minutes from my house. 

(4) What are the two most significant sources you used to answer your essential question and why?

                Solar Energy: Fundamentals to Building Design by Bruce Anderson was one of the my most important sources because not only was it loaded with what seemed like unlimited information, but also the word choice by Mr. Anderson was easy to comprehend.

My second most important source was Sustainable Architecture and Urbanism: Concepts, Technologies, Examples by Dominique  Gauzin-Müller and Nicolas Favet. This book gave me a broad understanding of sustainable architecture and the ways that it could be achieved. This book also gave me my second and third answers and elaborated on both topics.