Theses and Dissertations from UMD

Permanent URI for this communityhttp://hdl.handle.net/1903/2

New submissions to the thesis/dissertation collections are added automatically as they are received from the Graduate School. Currently, the Graduate School deposits all theses and dissertations from a given semester after the official graduation date. This means that there may be up to a 4 month delay in the appearance of a give thesis/dissertation in DRUM

More information is available at Theses and Dissertations at University of Maryland Libraries.

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    Designing to Engage Users in Sustainable Buildings
    (2015) Grzywa, Ashley; Draper, Powel; Architecture; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)
    This thesis is an investigation of how buildings can be designed to encourage pro-environmental behavior by engaging users in a sustainable built environment. By engaging users in sustainability building design can reestablish a cultural understanding of humanity’s interdependence with the natural environment. The basis for investigation is a brief analysis of how cultural perceptions of the natural environment have changed over time and an understanding of what motivates pro-environmental behavior. Understanding of the types of work done and spaces used by building occupants throughout a work day informs opportunities for user engagement in the production, consumption, recycling and monitoring of energy, water and waste. Insights revealed through this research culminate in a design proposal for an office building that integrates user engagement with sustainable building performance and puts us on a path toward cultural transition to sustainable behavior and symbiosis with the natural environment.