Sustainable Environmental Design
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Program Type
Overview
The Sustainable Environmental Design (SED) major recognizes that the emergent field of sustainability is growing rapidly in cross-sector activities from product design and manufacturing to governance and social equity. As the world population grows and urbanizes, the planning and design of systems that produce outcomes that are resilient, resource-efficient, healthy and socially just is profoundly important. The College of Environmental Design, with its long-standing, multidisciplinary focus on innovation and social equity is an ideal setting for an undergraduate major in SED, with a strong focus on systems.
The major offers students a critical understanding of the sustainability challenges facing regions in California and around the globe, and equips them with the technical and analytical tools key to solving sustainability problems that affect people, products and places. Graduates have many career paths and fields of graduate study open to them as a function of the diversity of topics and tools they will encounter and engage in SED. Students who complete this major will:
Understand the features and functions of systems that drive sustainability challenges
Analyze the relationships between technological systems, systems of governance, and production systems.
Identify interactions between sustainability, equity and social justice.
Use quantitative analysis to understand the potential of sensors and information dashboards to produce innovation in design and management approaches.
Leverage the potential of strategy, policy, business and institutions to adapt to and influence environmental, social and economic trends.
Program Overview
Features of the major include the following
Core Classes designed exclusively for SED students include:
The Gateway Course, ENV DES 110, is taken by all incoming SED first years and transfer students. The course is an opportunity to meet your cohort and explores varying interpretations of sustainability through the fields of design, economics, policy, law, and advocacy. Exploration of case studies and the core, systematic aspects of sustainability and its implications for environmental and design challenges are considered. Guest speakers will walk students through various career and life paths in the field of sustainability, and demonstrate how the field is being constructed and professionally explored and defined in diverse ways.
A Design Frameworks course, ENV DES 104 introduces SED majors to various aspects and approaches of the design process as it relates to socioenvironmental aspects of sustainability. Students will develop their skills to recognize and utilize design as both a thought process and set of communication tools and techniques. Topics of interest will include understanding and representing life cycles, material flows, spatial articulations, system processes and intervention strategies aimed at regime shifts and large-scale spatiotemporal phenomena. Students will develop skills in representing complex topics and dynamics through approaches ranging from hand drawing to the use of specialized software.
A Capstone Workshop, ENV DES 106 builds student abilities to synthesize their knowledge and skills applied to real-world challenges that they scope, define and execute as a capstone project. Linking sustainability science and technology with urban form and social dynamics, the workshop requires independent and collaborative research towards an innovative capstone project, which students gain confidence developing and refining this project for use by (and/or in collaboration with) a professional partner or client.
SED students will gain technical skills related to various disciplines and coursework across CED departments. Classes stressing a technical orientation include:
A methods and technology course, LD ARCH 188/GEOG C188 Geographic Information Systems. GIS has become a basic tool for a wide range of analytic tasks across all environmental design fields. The course addresses both GIS theory and applications, offering a dynamic analytical framework for gathering, integrating, interpreting and manipulating temporal and spatial data at various scales.
A hands-on applied methods course LD ARCH 12, Environmental Science for Sustainable Development, introduces students to the scientific basis of sustainability as explored through the study of energy, water, food, natural resources and the built environment, with a focus on the application of scientific insights to sustainable development strategies. The course emphasizes hands-on learning through field-based exercises such as measurement of atmospheric particulate matter, micro-climates, channel form, aquatic insects and water quality, and direct observations of green infrastructure, green building methods, and urban agriculture.
A performance-oriented technology and design course ARCH 140, Energy and Environment, examines building technologies, design strategies, best practices and standards related to building materials and processes, and presents the fundamentals of building science while recognizing the evolving nature of building technologies, energy efficiency, ecology, and responsible design.
SED students will also engage in coursework geared towards understanding social systems and design insights related to environmental justice and equity, including:
Examination of the values and experiential dimensions of design, LDARCH 140, Social and Psychological Factors in Open Space Design, considers ways that various processes and projects involving public space come to matter in individual lives and the communities and societies in which they exist. The course critically examines issues related to design as a nexus of communication, social equity and the environmental needs of various communities.
Urban sustainability-focused coursework, including CYPLAN 119, Planning for Sustainability, examines how the concept of sustainable development applies to cities and urban regions and gives students insight into a variety of contemporary urban planning issues. The course combines lectures, discussions, student projects, and guest appearances by leading practitioners in Bay Area sustainability efforts. Ways to coordinate goals of environment, economy, and equity at different scales of planning are addressed, including the region, the city, the neighborhood, and the site.
NOTE: SED majors do not have access to Architecture studio courses (ARCH 11A, 11B, 100A-D, 102A-B). Architecture studio courses are reserved for Architecture majors only.
Admission to the Major
Students must declare one of the CED majors at the time of application to the college; however, current UC Berkeley students may apply to change into CED. Transfer applicants must complete two years worth of lower division coursework to be considered for admission to CED. For information regarding admission to the major for freshmen, transfer students, and current students who wish to change majors or colleges, please see the College of Environmental Design (CED) page in this Guide or the CED website.
Sustainable Design Minor Program
The Department of Architecture and the Department of Landscape Architecture and Environmental Planning jointly offer a Sustainable Design Minor program. This minor program is open to undergraduate students at UC Berkeley except those in the Sustainable Environmental Design Major.