Student Work

An evening celebration: ENVD Open House

Sierra Brown — Wed, 18 Dec 2024 19:31:57 +0000

An evening celebration: ENVD Open House Sierra Brown Wed, 12/18/2024 - 12:31

Faculty and students decked the halls of the Environmental Design building with a semester’s worth of design work, highlighting architecture, environmental product design, landscape architecture, and sustainable planning and urban design from all class levels. The ENVD Open House on Dec. 13 marked the sixth iteration of the building-wide exhibit.

Couldn’t make it this year? Browse through the photo gallery.

The ENVD Open House on Dec. 13, marked the sixth iteration of the building-wide exhibit.

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Designing with history: students take on Rocky Mountain Land Library site

Sierra Brown — Tue, 17 Dec 2024 03:57:35 +0000

Designing with history: students take on Rocky Mountain Land Library site Sierra Brown Mon, 12/16/2024 - 20:57

Sierra Brown

Nestled among the willow-lined banks of the South Platte River, the Buffalo Peaks Ranch in Park County, Colorado has witnessed many chapters of human history.

Over the past few centuries, the land changed hands repeatedly from the traditional territories of indigenous communities to the invasion of miners and settlers; from an immigrant family’s homestead to a thriving livestock operation; from a bustling railroad hub to a stopover for a gang of stagecoach robbers.

Today, the ranch is relatively quiet—perfect, some might say, for a library.

Established as a non-profit in 1986, the Rocky Mountain Land Library (RMLL) is a network of land-study centers located along the banks of the South Platte River, from the headwaters of South Park to the metro-Denver plains. What began as a personal collection has expanded to a library of over fifty thousand volumes of literature from across the world. The curated collection includes everything from wildlife sketches to cowboy novels to western historical accounts, with a predominant focus on the natural history, landscape and communities of the Rocky Mountain region.

With the help of students from the intermediate architecture Rocky Mountain Land Library studio, taught and led by Teaching Professor Marianne Holbert, a portion of this extensive collection may find its home somewhere in the scattered and semi-structurally sound buildings and barns of the Buffalo Peaks Ranch.

The ranch, however, strives to be more than just a 9,200-foot-high library. According to its 2023 Master Plan, development on the site, which was leased to RMLL by the City of Aurora and Park County to preserve its historic integrity, aims to produce a residential library back home in Colorado, one that celebrates people, land and nature. A place where people could learn from both the books, and the surrounding lands.

This means providing ample housing for visiting artists, opening field sites for researchers, creating shared spaces for classes and community workshops and integrating multiple library nooks scattered throughout. To help restore existing buildings for adaptive reuse and expand facilities with respect to the natural landscape, RMLL leadership turned to consulting teams, including ENVD architecture students.

“It was so much different from any other project we've had,” Andy McMahon (ENVD’25) explained. “The site was massive, and it was very much historically rooted. You’d see a fence and they're like, ‘oh, that fence has been there a hundred years.’ It was pretty daunting.”

Out on the ranch, students engaged in extensive site analysis work, wandering the uneven trails, weaving in and out of corrals and taking in the expansive views of the Rockies. They noted environmental conditions and potential climate-related hazards, deepened their understanding of the land’s history, and identified the specific needs and potential of the site. The course culminated in proposals that reflected students’ interests and personal connections to the site.

Kinsey Anger (ENVD’25), another student from the course, took the opportunity to reimagine the cement horse corrals into a wellness retreat supplementing the library, complete with reading rooms and artistic programming.

“Some of the themes for my design were based in indigenous history. I looked at the Ute tribe that occupied the land first, so I used cultural ideas of circular systems in connection with the land and land as a medicine,” she said. “I programmed the horse barn to be a wellness cafe where they could use plants that have been historically prevalent on the site. A bear root latte for example.”

McMahon’s proposal took a more direct approach. His plan was focused around developing the lambing barn cluster into a co-working space and library expansion. He emphasized connecting themes of cross-pollination, community and land appreciation. “The landscape is so apparent there. Really connecting the building with the land in terms of views, capturing an indoor-outdoor feel, but also using natural materials,” he said. “I used stone and mass timber to make it feel like it was blended into the landscape.”

The students shared that retrofitting a remote, weather-impacted and mostly decrepit cluster of structures came with its own unique set of challenges. While the RMLL has invested more than $100,000 in stabilization and restoration of three existing buildings, the dream of a residential learning library has a long way to go.

“The site was pretty worn down. The lambing barn that I was working around, we couldn't even go in because it wasn't structurally stable. You're trying to place a building basically on a blank canvas,” McMahon said.

However, the challenges provided the future designers with practical experience, something that’s often hard to find within the confines of a classroom. They expressed how the complexities of the site encouraged them to think more holistically and intentionally about all aspects of their designs.

"It was kind of like a simulation into real life design,” Anger said. “I'm really glad for this trial run.”

While it’s unlikely that the Rocky Mountain Land Library will be able to implement the exact floor plans of the students’ designs at the Buffalo Peaks Ranch, the ideas and perspectives shared between the students and RMLL stakeholders marks an important step in shaping its next chapter.

Architecture students in the Rocky Mountain Land Library (RMLL) studio spent the semester developing design proposals for Buffalo Peaks Ranch in Park County, Colorado.

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Landscape architecture students help Green Schoolyards take root

Sierra Brown — Wed, 23 Oct 2024 04:00:01 +0000

Landscape architecture students help Green Schoolyards take root Sierra Brown Tue, 10/22/2024 - 22:00

Sierra Brown

Last fall, we spoke with Associate Teaching Professor Emily Greenwood to learn more about her third-year landscape architecture studio, Green Schoolyards. At the time, students proposed new schoolyard designs emphasizing learning, creativity, mental health and interactions with nature for six Boulder Valley School District (BVSD) schools.

According to Greenwood, accepting and advancing the design proposals depends on the needs of each school, availability of funding and district support. Schools aren’t always readily equipped with the resources and support it takes to implement even the most minimal design.

Over the course of spring and summer 2024, two out of the six BVSD schools have worked to successfully advance their projects from planning to planting.

Mesa Elementary School in south Boulder used inspiration from student designs to transform its southern courtyard into a multi-use outdoor classroom they named Mesa Oasis. What was once barren soil with few amenities is now an interactive play area with a shaded pergola bench, rock sculpture garden, art gallery and turfed picnic space.

Mesa Oasis before transformation

Mesa Oasis after transformation

��Ҵ�ý�ƽ�� one mile east of Mesa Elementary, Fairview High School is also implementing student designs. In their proposal for Fairview, Theodore Johnson Mencimer (ENVD’24) and Logan Shockey (ENVD’25) emphasized supporting student agency through garden therapy and interactive landscapes. The drawings added sensory trails, increased tree canopy and pollinator gardens as intervention to improve mental health and well-being of the high schoolers.

When Fairview expressed interest in implementing aspects of the proposal last fall, the two jumped at the opportunity. They soon realized, however, that moving from planning to implementation can be an arduous process.

“Most of the work that we did from January till April last semester was less so design and more logistics and communication,” Mencimer described.

“We had this giant email chain going back and forth,” Shockey elaborated. “It was between us and Fairview and Emily and all these other members of the school district. There was a lot of communication going in all directions.”

Before breaking ground, the two needed to address concerns from invested stakeholders in regard to student safety and maintenance of the greenspaces. This meant determining exact dimensions of tree growth for mowing purposes, narrowing down a list of acceptable non-fruiting tree species, drafting a detailed maintenance document and crafting multiple iterations of design plans to satisfy various school community members.

"It’s funny how much implementation drives the actual design,” Shockey commented. “It was mostly just slowly convincing the maintenance crew and some other members of the school district to actually let us start installing some landscaping that is not just a grass lawn.”

Mencimer described the back-and-forth process as useful, albeit tricky and slow moving. “Yeah, I think it was a good experience for both of us, undergoing that real world treatment,” he said.

What ultimately helped solidify the project was the team’s focus on improving the mental health of the high schoolers and emphasizing the educational benefits of biodiverse spaces, something both the teachers and students asked for during the studio’s initial design feedback sessions.

Mencimer and Shockey were also grateful to receive direct support from the high schoolers themselves. While the ENVD team conversed with the school board, motivated students from Fairview High fundraised nearly $10,000 to purchase plants and materials. Along with parents and other community members (including Mencimer's mom Kristine Johnson, Principal at Climate Resilient Landscapes), the students also helped Mencimer and Shockey plant the initial 14 trees at the front of the school, completing the first phase of the proposal.

Despite the hurdles, Mencimer and Shockey acknowledged the importance of their work, especially to provide support for students during a particularly difficult time in their lives. “I think that I have really benefited from working with high school students just because I did not have a good time in high school,” Shockey shared. “The kids at Fairview were really involved and really wanted to help.”

Mencimer, who attended Fairview High, described returning to his old school as cathartic. “The energy that the young people had was really heartwarming,” he noted.

“It feels good to plant trees with a group of people,” Shockey said. “I don't know, there's just something that's very healing about it.”

Last fall, students proposed new schoolyard designs emphasizing learning, creativity, mental health and interactions with nature for six Boulder Valley School District (BVSD) schools. In the spring and summer of 2024, two out of the six BVSD schools have worked to successfully advance their projects from planning to planting.

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Restoration, Salvation and Climate Adaptation

Sierra Brown — Tue, 22 Oct 2024 23:00:00 +0000

Restoration, Salvation and Climate Adaptation Sierra Brown Tue, 10/22/2024 - 17:00

Sierra Brown

The third floor of the Museum of Boulder was exceptionally lively for a Thursday evening in late September. Guests filled the galleries, where colorful hues and intricate floral patterns from hand-painted artifacts adorned the walls. Spicy aromas of chai tea wafted through the museum’s halls, mingling with the hum of footsteps and conversation.

The Restoration, Salvation and Climate Adaptation symposium drew a crowd of over 80 academic researchers, design professionals, city leadership and Environmental Design community members to the museum. The symposium took place in conjunction with Elemental: Tajik Arts, a public exhibition that celebrates the work of 16 ENVD students who spent much of their summer speckled with paint and perched high on scaffolding as they meticulously restored the exterior west face of the Dushanbe Teahouse.

“The work was a bit exhausting and sometimes physically hurting for them. They have to hold postures with their hands or with their bodies on the floor,” Associate Teaching Professor Azza Kamal described of the students’ summer work. “To be honest, it was nothing close to what you have seen in the symposium, they were very articulate, well dressed, which I think is a good takeaway about the good work it takes also to deliver.”

In the second iteration of the special topics course, History and Historiography of Environmental Design: Restoring the Dushanbe Teahouse, students explored the intersection of cultural heritage, restoration and sustainability within the context of Central Asian culture and architecture. Visiting Researcher Maruf Mirakhmatov, a renowned Tajik artist and grandson of the artisan who helped build the Teahouse, returned to Boulder to co-teach the course with Kamal and facilitate the restoration.

While similar in scope to the course’s previous rendition, led in 2018 by Associate Professor Shawhin Roudbari and Nate Jones, ENVD Assistant Director of Advising & Professional Development, Kamal aimed to expand the focus this year to cover the pressing issues of climate change and resilience. “Restoration is part of climate adaptation. Preserving buildings saves a lot from the landfill and deconstruction minimizes emissions,” she noted.

Historic preservation is nothing new to Kamal. Her academic studies, professional experience and research pursuits have taken her from the Middle Age-era craft districts of Cairo to the historic neighborhoods of modern-day San Antonio. As one of eleven commissioners in San Antonio, her role involved collaborating with the Office of Historic Preservation (OHP) and the community to preserve historic and culturally significant areas while allowing for mindful development.

“What we need to preserve matters and how we keep the materials matters. Some of the these buildings are constructed with much better quality materials with longer life span than the standard building materials now,” she shared.

Kamal pointed out that despite the importance of restoring buildings, especially when they hold cultural significance, such as the Teahouse, historic buildings are not always the most ecologically fit. They rarely meet modern green building standards such as energy efficiency, water use and indoor air quality.

However, with the current national discourse to interconnect preservation with climate adaptation strategies, there is a hope that with careful retrofits, municipalities could improve the performance of historic structures and landmarks, so they can be climate-ready.

Last month’s symposium brought together a multidisciplinary panel of academics, artists and city officials to discuss these efforts. According to the night’s keynote speaker, Distinguished Professor of architecture and historic preservation at Roger Williams University, Hasan-Uddin Khan, it all comes down to stewardship.

Stephanie Phillips, a circular economy senior manager for San Antonio’s OHP and one of the night’s panelists, agreed. “The stewardship of the built and living heritage exists in the same vein as stewardship of the natural environment,” she commented.

Phillips’ work deals primarily with deconstructing aging buildings at the end of their life spans. This slower but more intentional process produces less waste and emissions than machine-heavy demolition and generates more jobs in skilled labor. Panelist Jonathan Koehn, the director of Boulder’s Climate Initiatives Department, spoke about deconstruction work being done locally, including the recent deconstruction of a Boulder community hospital where 94% of the building waste products were recycled and diverted from landfills.

In his keynote presentation, however, Khan warned that part of our identity is lost when we lose historic buildings, even in deconstruction. He spoke of the importance of upholding the culture of restoring buildings using traditional techniques, something the ENVD students were able to experience this summer while suspended up on scaffolding.

The symposium underscored the importance of balancing cultural heritage with sustainability and resilience, reminding attendees that restoration is not just about preserving the past but adapting it for the future.

“We can learn from the past, but we need to look forward,” Khan stated in his final remarks. “At the end of the day, architecture isn’t about buildings, it’s about people.”

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Two majors come together for cross disciplinary collaboration

Allyson Maturey — Tue, 22 Oct 2024 19:28:26 +0000

Two majors come together for cross disciplinary collaboration Allyson Maturey Tue, 10/22/2024 - 13:28

For the first time, students from the Fundamentals of Planning & Urban Design (1140) and Fundamentals of Architecture (1120) studios came together for an interdisciplinary interaction. During this session, 1140 students presented their studio project plans and visions, allowing 1120 students to select a public building to be designed as part of their studio work. This collaboration highlights the unique role that interdisciplinary education plays at ENVD.

Second-year architecture and sustainable design and urban planning students came together for an interdisciplinary interaction.

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ENVD 1030 hosts spring design competition

Anonymous — Tue, 14 May 2024 17:47:39 +0000

ENVD 1030 hosts spring design competition Anonymous (not verified) Tue, 05/14/2024 - 11:47

This spring, the Introduction to Landscape Architecture Studio hosted a design competition. The competition was reviewed by Shihomi Kuriyagawa and Emily Urquhart at the City of Boulder Parks and Recreation Department. Students who made the list were encouraged to acknowledge the recognition in their portfolio, resume and LinkedIn profiles.

Spring 2024 ENVD 1030 design competition winners:

Overall Design Excellence: Anthony Haberkorn (s15)

Runner Up: Cameron Cheney (s11)

Innovation: Cameron Cheney (s11)

Runners Up: Emma Browning (s15) and Clara Denham (s14)

Ecology: Maddie Veasey (s14)

Runner Up: Ella Seevers (s11)

Art: Clara Denham (s14)

Runner Up: Emma Browning (s15)

Honoring Culture: Leighton Larson (s17)

Community Commitment: John Davis (s19)

Youth in Nature: Ella Seevers (s11)

Runner Up: Caroline Gilchrist (s12)

Land Art: Arina Volkova (s13)

Sustainability: Caroline Gilchrist (s12)

Projects that are in the running for pop-up installations in summer 2024:

Clara Denham (s14), Leighton Larson (s17), John Davis (s19), Emma Browning (s15), Ella Seevers (s11), Caroline Gilchrist (s12)

The competition was reviewed by Shihomi Kuriyagawa and Emily Urquhart at the City of Boulder Parks and Recreation Department.

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Environmental Design 2024 Latin Honors Recipients

Anonymous — Wed, 08 May 2024 16:56:23 +0000

Environmental Design 2024 Latin Honors Recipients Anonymous (not verified) Wed, 05/08/2024 - 10:56

Each spring, a group of environmental design honors students defend their theses to their dedicated thesis committee. Afterward, the Honors Council meets and awards Latin honors at the levels of cum laude, magna cum laude or summa cum laude.

Projects worthy of the honors designation will be works of creative expression, including design, research, and theoretical work that demonstrates a high level of intellectual and creative ability and analytical skills. Completing an honors project allows students to investigate topics of interest, provides the opportunity to work closely with a faculty thesis chair and creates a culminating intellectual experience that produces both a meaningful project and an invaluable learning experience. The Honors project represents the climax of their college careers.

Congratulations to the following students graduating with Latin honors!

Abel Chamberlin, magna cum laude

Balancing Global Building Standards and Contextual Design: A Critical Regionalist Analysis of the WELL V2 Building Standards Impact on Design and Wellbeing

Sean Donovan, summa cum laude

Interdisciplinary Approaches to Grassland Restoration: Exploring best practices and interdisciplinary collaboration in the context of grassland restoration

Lakin Fain, summa cum laude

Reinforcing Appalachia

Nicole Tschan, summa cum laude

Briki: Re-Brick Your Dorm

Annie Geoghegan, summa cum laude

The Green Paradox: Gentrification & Greenness in the Mile High City

Congratulations to this year's Latin Honors recipients!

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For the win: A semester worth celebrating

Anonymous — Tue, 19 Dec 2023 18:23:46 +0000

For the win: A semester worth celebrating Anonymous (not verified) Tue, 12/19/2023 - 11:23

The Program in Environmental Design hosted its Open House exhibition on Dec. 15, 2023. The Open House is a building-wide exhibition of design and research produced by students and faculty during the fall semester. The event was established in 2018 to encourage the connection between students, their peers, alumni and friends, as well as the Boulder community.

Couldn’t make it this year? Watch the video reel above!

At the end of each fall semester, Environmental Design (ENVD) hosts a building-wide exhibition of design and research produced by students and faculty.

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Green is the New Asphalt: Landscape Architecture Students Redesign Green Schoolyards in Fall Studio

Anonymous — Fri, 15 Dec 2023 20:15:53 +0000

Green is the New Asphalt: Landscape Architecture Students Redesign Green Schoolyards in Fall Studio Anonymous (not verified) Fri, 12/15/2023 - 13:15

Sierra Brown

Sticky metal playgrounds and hot asphalt. Bare patches of dirt on browning soccer fields. Limited shade with no space for solitude and quiet. A small cluster of trees - sometimes. This is what tends to come to mind when we think about a typical schoolyard. Soon, however, six Boulder Valley School District (BVSD) schoolyards may receive a green makeover.

In the third iteration of the Green Schoolyards Studio, third-year landscape architecture students have spent the past semester analyzing schoolyards, collaborating with school communities, and crafting feasible plans that redesign schoolyards for learning, creativity, mental health, and interactions with nature.

We spoke with Assistant Teaching Professor Emily Greenwood about how her class approached this monumental task:

What’s the idea behind “Green Schoolyards”?
The inspiration came from work I did in my graduate program. A professor at CU Denver started this movement called Learning Landscapes which began with a few schoolyard designs and then became this 15-year-long project of redesigning all 52 Denver public schoolyards. I’m still really involved in the one that I designed from conception through construction. It planted a seed.

At that time, we realized that schoolyards weren’t just for play - they can also be for learning. Schoolyards are really just public open space that we’ve accidentally set aside. So, taking advantage of them more as this public amenity and not just for play between the hours of nine and three. That’s the Green Schoolyards movement.

What does the process look like for your students in the studio?
I tell them that this project is their world, their oyster. They do a pretty good precedent analysis at the beginning and they’re designing it according to how they compiled that initial information. Then all of the student groups do a community engagement activity with students and parents.

My students love this bit. Kids never get asked questions about what they want their spaces to look like. They can be super imaginative, and we can take those probably unrealistic ideas and make it into something that’s grounded. It’s totally the way to go. Because otherwise you go in and only respond to the site. And that’s such a small piece of the equation. There’s nothing cuter than asking kids what they want to see in their schoolyard.

My students also did research to understand the mental health piece of the Green Schoolyards movement and then reached out to the community to elicit their feedback as to their needs and constraints.

Can you tell us more about the mental health piece?
This is from more modern research - we’re realizing that schoolyards should be play, they should be learning, they should be a community amendment and they could have spaces for all different types of people. There should be quiet spaces, private spaces, thinking spaces. It’s trying to incorporate all of those principles into schoolyard design.

Are schools designed the same way for all age groups?
It’s very different. It’s interesting culturally what we think students need. There’s a ton of research on developmental stages, but it feels to me that we kind of abandon them around middle school. I always use the example of swinging – you can’t tell me that a seventh grader doesn’t want to swing. It’s this universal human, self-regulating, nourishing activity that we just kind of pull out from under them at this certain, pretty random age.

The elementary schools usually are rich with play equipment but not with other learning tools. Middle schools will just have tether ball courts and that’s it. And then there’s high schools – the one we’re working with has a great view of the Flatirons but every space around this school is just totally unprogrammed. The day we visited the sites I was wondering – are we actually making high schools harder for people who are already in the hardest years of their life? They are more easily bored and the mental health crisis in teens is horrifying. Maybe we could help with this.

To find out how redesigning schoolyards might be helping, we sat down with Lily Flanum, Slater Weil, and Danny Eisenstein, some of the students involved in the studio:

What are the main focus areas for your school’s design?
Lily: We’re mostly focused on designing outdoor classrooms for mental health and incorporating Native land acknowledgment. Rather than just making a plaque we wanted to create a design centered around traditional medicinal herbs for students to learn and interact with. We also put seating in there and color-coded the different plants around it.

How was the engagement with the students?
Lily: This is our first community project. I loved it. We had a day where we asked them what their dream playground would be. Would they want more social space, more learning space? Their brains work so differently, they are so imaginative. In design, we’re so used to these standards that we confine ourselves to - why would we ever think outside the box? This one girl wanted tanning chairs and a pool. Other kids just wanted shade and more nature. One kid wanted a horse track.

Danny: Generally, they wanted creative spaces and more terrain, more things to climb on. It’s very primal: they really just want to crawl around, dig in the dirt.

Do you think pieces of your project will be implemented?
Lily: Each school has different parameters. Our school will take our suggestions into account and budget for them. There's a lot of analysis that goes into it and you have to consider what’s actually important to the site and what the kids would actually use. A horse track would be awesome, but it’s also not the most realistic.

The horse track may not make the cut, but other aspects of the student designs will likely be incorporated in the future. Greenwood elaborated:

Are these schools going to be able to implement the plans once they are finished?
Some schools have enough money to execute phase one in the first year, other schools use the material to apply for grants. What happens to those drawings depends on the school’s needs. But they at least have well-designed documents that could be pushed forward through a professional to become something that’s executional. This is part of how I convince the schools to do it. You’re going to have hundreds of donated design hours. Even if it’s not perfect, in the end, you have this amazing tool that saves so much money.

Do you see growth in your students through this studio?
Yes, it’s super cool. We all have these preconceived notions of what schoolyards are, largely based on our experience in whatever schools we went to. So, it does feel like as we add more research and better understanding of the precedence, the students understand more of the intricacies of what those spaces could be. It’s beautiful to bring fresh minds into that conversation.

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EPOP Shop: Student designed, sustainably built

Anonymous — Tue, 21 Nov 2023 19:16:21 +0000

EPOP Shop: Student designed, sustainably built Anonymous (not verified) Tue, 11/21/2023 - 12:16

Allyson Maturey

On Saturday, Nov. 11, at the corner of Pearl Street and 13th Street, the laser cut sign read: Student Designed. Sustainably Built. Nestled in the wooden structure was a half-moon-shaped display of 12 products that students from the third-year intermediate environmental product design studio designed and produced less than three months before. Each one ready to make the perfect gift.

At the end of day two of the Firefly Handmade Holiday Market, nine of the 12 products sold out and the EPOP Shop made $7,500 in sales. The funds will be reinvested into the next EPOP studio.

The EPOP Shop made its first pop-up debut during the Environmental Design Open House in December 2019. Teaching Professor Marcel de Lange and Teaching Associate Professor Jeremy Ehly introduced the pilot studio with funds secured through an ENVD-sponsored SEED grant. The environmental product design studio has since been embedded into the ENVD core curriculum for students majoring in environmental product design.

ENVD Teaching Assistant Professor Jared Arp took the lead for the EPOP studio in the fall of 2021 and integrated the first in-person market outcome at a Firefly Handmade market in Denver. “The Firefly seemed like a good fit because of the handmade aesthetic,” Arp said. “It fits the professional level that we perform at, and their market happened to fall towards the end of our semester.” This fall, Arp is co-teaching the studio with Teaching Assistant Professor Melissa Felderman.

The outcome is more than just setting up shop and selling products at a market. Students learn from and are challenged by the design process and key parameters of sustainability and teamwork. To kick off the fall assignment, students were sent to Pearl Street gift shops to pick out gifts for five different people in their life. The goal: understanding what motivates gift selection and how it differs from other kinds of shopping.

From there, individual product pitches were made. “We asked each student to pitch a product, concept or idea and then students vote on their top 10 or 12, depending on the class size,” Felderman said. Groups of three are formed around each concept, where they collaborate to identify and refine the final form of a sustainably designed product along with quantity. “We think a lot about how much effort goes into reproducing each product. So, we’re encouraging our students to figure out [some kind of a] production or assembly line since there’s three students, how do you take advantage of having three sets of hands to make [products] in the most efficient way possible without sacrificing quality?”

Group work is the foundation and one of the key parameters of this capstone studio. “Maybe it’s teamwork that makes this studio so unique, probably amongst all of ENVD, I would say,” Arp said. Students perform the entire semester in the same team. “So, it’s a long-term team commitment, which you’ve worked in teams, teams are tough, right? Everybody's got their own agenda. Sometimes communication is tough. One person on the team gets what you said, and the other person misinterprets. We’ve got to get there together, and we’ve got to do it quickly. They’re learning team dynamics.”

From the student perspective, teamwork is an experience they do not take for granted. “I feel like working in a group can be kind of a pain,” Owen Forsythe, a third year EPOD student from Crested Butte, Colorado said. “But at least our experience has been nice. Each one of us has a specialized skill set that maybe the other person doesn’t have. So, we’ve been able to teach each other what to do through the design process.” Forsythe's team, which includes Mia Colletto, a third year EPOD student from San Francisco and Chloe Lapierre, a third year EPOD student from Cape Cod, developed Round 2, glassware inspired by the 14er mountains of Colorado made from recycled wine bottles.

While Arp and Felderman lead the course, the duo expressed that the students deserve all the credit. “It’s the students. They’re incredible. They’re going to design the store, they’re going to merchandise it, they’re going to build it, they’re doing everything we’re advising,” Arp said. “It’s something really beautiful to watch them work like that,” Felderman said.

Earlier this month, students from the third-year intermediate environmental product design studio set up the EPOP shop at the Firefly Handmade Holiday Market in Downtown Boulder.

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