Arch 226:
Environmental Building Design Fall 2015

Project #1:
SUSTAINABLE CASE STUDY

Project #1: SUSTAINABLE BUILDING DESIGN: Case Study 25%

The intention is for one building per person. There is absolutely NO collaboration permitted, so if I see two essays on the same building they will be carefully scrutinized for collaboration. Many of these buildings are very recent, so splitting up printed resources will be a problem for people choosing the same building. The building selected must:

- have a level of LEED Certification (or be in the process of getting one)
- be visited in person to obtain first person impressions and images
- (you are not to engage in interviews as these would require ethics clearance from the Office of Research)

Case study documentation should include a written report of approximately 1,800 words. Your documentation should address a broad range of sustainable issues, including, but not limited to,

Also include:

DOCUMENTATION:

* Please submit via LEARN as a pdf document. Line spacing to be 1.5. (Single is too hard to read).
* Font to be Calibri, 11 pt. USE LANDSCAPE FORMAT PLEASE AS IT MAKES THEM EASIER TO READ ON THE COMPUTER SCREEN. If the format is not landscape, you will lose 10%.

* Make sure your name is directly under the title at the beginning of your paper. i.e.

Green on the Grand. Kitchener, Ontario.
Snider, Reichard and March Architects.

Joe Student
PUT YOUR FULL NAME AND DO NOT INCLUDE YOUR STUDENT NUMBER.

* FOOTNOTES or ENDNOTES are essential. If your source is internet based, please include the complete web address. (cut it and paste it from the source line on your browser). Please use Arabic numbers and not Roman numerals.
* You must use a minimum of 5 reference documents for your essay. You must use BOTH internet as well as book/periodical references.
* UPDATE! You may combine the bibliography and footnotes or endnotes by making the first citation from the book/article in complete Chicago style and the second and subsequent citations only the last name of the author and the page number. For a short paper this saves space. If you are using a book but not citing anything from it, question why you are saying you used the book...
* You must provide references for all images used. You are best to make a separate list of Illustrations at the end of the document for those. We typically do not mix them with the text references. This is the way the Masters theses are done.

Most of the case study buildings have been constructed during the last 15 years. Do a thorough web search. Keep track of your web sites for reference purposes for both text as well as images.

We have a subscription to an excellent online journal/database called Building Green Suite. Just go the the Research Databases page http://journal-indexes.uwaterloo.ca/ and click on the letter B or look under "Architecture" and choose Building Green Suite. Remember to login to the library site https://login.proxy.lib.uwaterloo.ca/login first if working outside of the School building to access the full database.

GRADING

Research /40
Clarity of Writing /20 (incl. spelling and grammar!)
Images /20
Footnotes, incl. Image references /10 (YOU MUST REFERENCE ALL IMAGES USED IN THE ESSAY!!!)
Bibliography /10
TOTAL /100

WIKIPEDIA IS NOT AN ACCEPTABLE UNIVERSITY REFERENCE!!! It might be a good starting point to find OTHER references, but since ANYONE can edit this, it is not "safe". You can use it to find other references, but please do not cite it as a reference. It is the lens flare filter of academic writing...

Due date:
As per course outline via LEARN or anytime BEFORE that date. You will lose 5% per 24 hour period following.

PLEASE SUBMIT TO THE DROPBOX ON LEARN.

Filenaming instructions:

Please use your last name, ID number and essay. I will have more than 80 of these and if you do not name them properly, it will mess everything up. Example:
yourname_12345678_essay
The last name and ID number should help with issues of the multiple people with identical last names in this class.

Maximum file size will be 5MB. You MUST figure out how to properly pdf your document to reduce its file size! If you cannot email it due to filesize, you will receive ZERO for this assignment. Proper pdf sizing is something you need to learn how to do in order to survive. Please note that if you put very large images into your papers and just use the shrinking by dragging part of Word to make them smaller, they are still huge in the filesize. It is better to reduce their size in Photoshop before putting them into the document or find the "compress pictures" command in MSWord.

Link to LEED ppt from class

ADDITIONAL REQUIREMENTS:

The following points should be examined carefully.

1. ELIMINATE EXTRANEOUS INFORMATION OR DESCRIPTIVE PASSAGES! The paper is short. (Most research papers are 4,000 to 8,000 words). Make sure that all information stated can be directed to the pertinent discussion at hand.

2. TECHNICAL FACTS AND HISTORICAL REFERENCES MUST BE CORRECT. Errors in fact undermine your credibility. Dates, names, addresses, technical terms.

3. SPELLING AND GRAMMAR. These errors undermine your credibility. Use the spelling checker in the computer program. Also reread the paper as spell check does not catch everything (repeated words, words that are spelled correctly but in the wrong place, proper names).

4. ELIMINATE CUTE AND PERSONAL REMARKS. Your high school teacher may have thought that they were fun. University professors think differently. Sound professional.

5. YOUR ESSAY STRUCTURE SHOULD BE CLEAR. Don’t wander. Use headings to organize your material. These make the paper easier to read.

6. For paper: INCORPORATE ILLUSTRATIONS INTO THE TEXT AND CROSS REFERENCE THEM: Do not append a pile of photocopies at the end of the essay that are not given illustration numbers or references in the text. Be selective. There should not be more illustrations than text. Illustrations also required end notes/reference sources. Illustrations require Figure numbers and must also be given credit for sourcing.

7. Plagiarism: Is a very serious academic offense. Do NOT cut and paste from sources. The words must either be your own or adapted and referenced properly.