"BROADENING THE PALLET": TEACHING SUSTAINABILITY THROUGH DESIGN

Abstract

As the world population grows and urbanizes, faculty at schools of architecture are increasingly being asked to tackle issues of sustainability. To that end, this paper describes a pedagogical approach we have undertaken at the School of Architecture + Design at Virginia Tech in our third-year undergraduate design lab that attempts to integrate these concepts with the workings of the design process. This paper presents the process and results of a competition initiated by the Town of Blacksburg that asks the question, "What can be done with used pallets, one of the most prevalent waste products of our globalized and industrialized culture?".