CEE 11Q: Sustainability Design Thinking
General Education Requirements
Not currently certified for a requirement. Courses are typically considered for Ways certification a quarter in advance.
Newly added to Spring! Please note, catalog number and weekly schedule pending as of Feb 15.
Course Description
How can we create high-impact solutions to our planet’s most pressing sustainability challenges? And can we use Design Thinking to come up with creative, feasible, and impactful ideas that will promote sustainability in peoples’ lives?
This seminar and design studio introduces techniques for applying the Design Thinking methodology (pioneered at Stanford’s d.School) to create design ideas that are compelling, effective, and realizable. You’ll have opportunities to explore and experience how the design thinking methodology can be applied to solve real-world sustainability challenges through a series of design projects where you will exercise and apply design thinking skills to design and propose solutions that promote sustainable behaviors and practices.
You will apply contextual, functional and human-centered design thinking techniques to create design ideas that promote sustainability by holistically considering space, form, environment, energy, economics, human behavior, and health. Working independently and in small teams, you will propose designs that meet the needs of real users and illustrate your strategies for approaching the challenges and opportunities you uncover – developing project ideas that demonstrate how you’ve used the design thinking process to make a measurable impact on improving sustainable behaviors and practices.
Meet the Instructor: Glenn Katz
"I’m an educator at Stanford University and an Associate Director of the Sustainable Architecture+Engineering program. I’m also a practicing architectural designer with many residential design projects throughout the Bay Area.
"My classes at Stanford focus on building information modeling (BIM), analysis of building systems to design high-performance buildings, and parametric design and optimization – all in service of promoting sustainability in our built environment. And I’m currently exploring how emerging VR/AR techniques can create immersive architectural environments that improve our design processes.
"I have many years of industry experience working at the intersection of Architecture/Engineering/Construction, education, and technology. And I’m continually publishing online learning materials for architecture and engineering students through my educational website and YouTube channel – BIMtopia.
"My undergraduate work was at MIT, where I focused on architecture and structural engineering. And then I came to Stanford to complete my graduate degree in construction management."
