“Engaging students with the environmental dimensions of urban design via the web” applied, evaluated, and expanded elementsdb in courses and design studios at UBC. Through this resource, students were introduced to rigorous digital design precedents, through an interface that is interactive and models that can be manipulated. elementsdb helped students to attain literacy and familiarity with abstract, empirical and three-dimensional information about the forms and systems that make up cities.

Through this project, we also added tutorials, refined protocols for students to create cases, and added building energy content to elementsdb. We trained faculty /teaching assistant (TA) teams to use elementsdb in their courses to expand students knowledge base about the form and metrics of urban sustainability. Students themselves engaged in critical cross-disciplinary consideration of the complex factors of urban sustainability, and some students assisted with database creation and evaluation.