Wally Peters Nadia Craig Veronica Addison Laboratory for Sustainable Solutions

A “SHORT STORY” ABOUT A SERVICE LEARNING PROJECT—SUSTAINABLE DESIGN OF A HABITAT FOR HUMANITY HOME Wally Peters Nadia Craig Veronica Addison Laboratory for Sustainable Solutions Department of Mechanical Engineering College of Engineering University of South Carolina Columbia, SC

ESTABLISH THE “WORKING” CULTURE Service learning projects involving sustainability are “complex”, therefore it is beneficial to establish a fundamental culture that allows the team to deal with complexity. The Shewhart/Deming Cycle (following slide) embraces activities that allow the team to deal with complex problems.

Continuous Improvement– The Shewhart/Deming Cycle: Plan, Do, Check, Act (PDCA)

ATTRIBUTES OF THE PROJECT “PROCESS” The following slides are taken from the student presentation of the actual project ( Habitat%20Presentation.pdf). “Bullet” slides that follow the student presentation slides give attributes of the process.

HABITAT FOR HUMANITY SUSTAINABLE DESIGN HOME AT ARTHURTOWN TEAM MEMBERS Alison Aldridge Elizabeth Perlman Donny Alexander Stanley Young David Nestor

The builder, Habitat for Humanity, was an integral part of the design team (concurrent engineering). Habitat’s office is two blocks from campus. Authurtown is one mile from campus and easily accessible. The student team is diverse: one M.S. School of Environment, one Media Arts B.S., one Civil Engineer B.S. and two Mechanical Engineer B.S. students. There are two females and three males.

OBJECTIVE To enhance the sustainability of a Central SC Habitat for Humanity Home, balancing economical, environmental, and social factors

Diverse service project student teams need an objective or vision when they start the project. The vision should be flexible and allow for learning as the process happens. The vision should be simple and straightforward, but it should embrace the fundamental principles of the project.

OUTLINE OF TALK OBJECTIVE HABITAT LOCAL CHAPTER SURVEY AND ANALYSIS LOCATION OF HOME NEW HOUSE DESIGN BUILDING MATERIALS

Design team surveyed 64 Habitat home owners (33 surveys returned) as the “customer” for the design—the actual homeowner was not known during the design process (concurrent engineering). The site location was known during the design process—the home could then be connected to “earth.” Habitat agreed that this could be a “new house” design and thus allow for out of the box thinking. One way the students divided work was to delineate areas of focus—i.e. “building materials.” The design was a “cafeteria design” where appropriate—lots of choices that Habitat could chose from.

OUTLINE OF TALK (cont.) MORE DESIGN CHANGES BUILDING RECOMMENDATIONS COMMUNITY MODEL CONCLUSION ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

“More Design Changes” allowed the students to alter the fundamental design of a Habitat home to enhance sustainability—i.e. add ceiling fans, bigger porches, gravel driveways etc. “Building Recommendations” allowed the students to recommend changes for the building process—i.e. reusing construction waste, caulking, weather stripping, etc. The students studied the community and “designed for place.” This is an important concept for sustainable projects. Positive relationships to the complex community must be built into the design.