Materials Analysis and Application

Semester 5 | Environmental Studies

Studio Conductors

The main objective of this project is to understand the ecological footprints of materials.
The bigger learning intent was to analyse the life cycle of a material from the point of view of its environmental and economic impacts and identify sustainable alternatives to that material. The idea is to analyse and bring out what makes the material unsustainable/ sustainable, what are the advantages and disadvantages of the material and explore alternatives that negate the unsustainable aspects and the disadvantages.

The exercise started with selecting a material and having an in-depth research based understanding in groups of students of three. The components of study were the general description and uses, advantages and disadvantages, raw materials, process from raw material to finished stage highlighting unsustainable processes and non-renewable resources that go into it, requirement of water / electricity needed, ecological footprint and properties of the material that factor in its selection as a material for construction. Along with this, students were required to research two other alternatives for the material chosen.

The deliverables of the exercise was to concise the information and understanding along with the alternatives of the material chosen into an infographic.