Board 323: Integrating Servingness in a Mini-Capstone Project: Resilient and Sustainable Emergency Housing Design

Abstract

Emergency housing has become a necessity in Puerto Rico due to the size and frequency of extreme natural events such as earthquakes and hurricanes that affect the island. The Resilient Infrastructure and Sustainability Education - Undergraduate Program (RISE-UP), funded by National Science Foundation (NSF) has developed an interdisciplinary curricular sequence to educate students to design infrastructure to withstand the impact of natural disasters. Three campuses of our university system collaborate in this interdisciplinary effort. Participating students, pursuing undergraduate degrees in engineering, architecture, and surveying, take courses together and participate in co-curricular activities (both online and in person through field visits). RISE-UP integrates servingness as a tool that contributes to the formation of students' sensibility to social dynamics connected to the educational experiences. The final course of the curricular sequence was designed to integrate servingness by addressing a community need during and after a natural disaster. During the final course, students apply the knowledge gained in the program to provide a solution to a design problem. The spring 2021 semester exercise was the design of a set of emergency houses based on a repeated unit. The houses' design requirements include environmental considerations, rainwater management, the use of natural ventilation, electric power autonomy during blackouts and structural stability of the units to face both seismic and wind loads. This paper discusses the semester project and presents the design solutions of the interdisciplinary groups of students who took part in the course. It also discusses the results of a survey whose goal was to explore the perception of the students about their achievements when taking part in the course and the dynamics seen in the course.