Hi Carol, I took the class here in Houston this past fall and found it overall helpful and I recommend it.
While it is mostly geared toward commercial buildings, certain classes do apply to residential design (daylighting, insulation, orientation, psychrometric chart, etc.).
As a whole, the program seems to need a more cohesive approach and I would have liked more handouts and useful takeaways, but each speaker provided a host of helpful website resources.
Another missing element was a premise-- it was assumed, without providing any scientific evidence or formulaic proof-- that buildings do indeed contribute 40% of carbon into the air and what effect this has.
Climate change is simply seen as a given and is not debated, but heeded as gospel truth and the curriculum (I use that term loosely) proceeds from there.
It's not a replacement for AIA's 2050 challenge or LEED. And it doesn't seem to have the data behind it that the LCB (Low Carbon Building) Method (
http://www.lcbmethod.com/) has nor does it reach the level of the Living Building Challenge (obviously, as this came later or is separate).
The emphasis within the Arch+2030 course was more on Mechanical engineering than architecture, from my perspective.
Please feel free to email me with any questions you may have:
tara_imani@yahoo.com Good luck with your decision. It is a big time commitment and some of the material presented is quite distressing and, frankly, depressing.
I have yet to blog about it (
www.indigoarchitect.com) as I've found it difficult to encapsulate the 40 hours' worth of info into a succinct, comprehensible, meaningful post.
Tara
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Tara Imani AIA
Principal
Tara Imani Designs, LLC
Houston TX
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