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Water as a Design Priority

AIAU26-WATER-S
2 Courses
Course expires on: 09/24/2029
$60
Architect$60

Member Price

$85

Non-member Price
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Description

Water is a limited, shared resource and a connected design system. Decisions about buildings and sites influence how water is sourced, used, moved, treated, stored, reused, discharged, and returned to the environment—and these decisions also affect infrastructure, energy use, ecosystems, public health, communities, and long-term resilience. 

This two-course series helps architects and design professionals recognize these connections and put water at the center of project decisions, from early planning through design, implementation, and operations. 

You’ll examine water availability, reliability, and quality; operational and lifecycle water use; rainfall, stormwater, wastewater, and reuse; the water-energy connection; infrastructure and watershed relationships; climate and resilience; and issues of access, affordability, health, and equity. The series delivers a practical process for turning these considerations into project goals, strategies, responsibilities, and follow-through. 

Learning Objectives

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Identify water-related conditions and connections that influence building, site, infrastructure, community, and watershed decisions.
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Explain how project decisions affect water demand, supply, and quality, as well as energy use, lifecycle impacts, public health, equity, and resilience.
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Apply a practical process to establish water goals, assess demand and potential supply, develop a baseline, and evaluate strategies for project fit.
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Coordinate and document water-related decisions across design, implementation, handoff, operations, and performance review. 
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Advisory Committee

  • Stacy A. Bourne, FAIA, NOMA

  • Paola Capo

  • Kenneth J. Filarski, FAIA, LEED Fellow, LEED AP BD+C

  • Craig Garcia, AIA, NCARB

  • Orrin Goldsby, AIA, LEED AP BD+C

  • Matt Green, AIA, NCARB

  • Matt Hutchins, AIA

  • Nathan Kipnis, FAIA, LEED AP BD+C

  • Diantha S. Korzun, AIA, LEED AP

  • Nekoye Masibili, Ph.D., Int'l Assoc. AIA, NOMA

  • Alyssa Manypenny Murphy, AIA, LEED AP

  • Ana T. Orosco, AIA, Fitwel Amb., LFA, NOMA, PHIUS Assoc.

  • Rodolfo Perez, PhD

  • Veronica Pochet, AIA, LEED AP BD+C, WELL AP, CPHC®

  • Alan Scott, FAIA, LEED Fellow, LEED AP BD+C, O+M, CEM, WELL AP

  • Daniel Stalker, AIA Emeritus

  • Erica Weeks, LEED Fellow, AIA, NCARB, LEED AP BD+C, ID+C

Courses

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Designing for Water

Water shapes decisions across every project.

Before systems are fully designed, architects make choices that influence how a project interacts with water. Site selection shapes exposure to flooding, drought, groundwater, and infrastructure conditions. Program and building-system choices influence demand, while landscape and grading affect rainfall and runoff. Materials, construction, and energy create water impacts beyond the site, while operations influence long-term use, water quality, maintenance, and performance.

This course introduces a systems-based approach for recognizing these relationships and incorporating water into architectural decisions. You’ll explore water availability, reliability, and quality; operational and lifecycle water use; the water-energy connection; rainfall, stormwater, and wastewater; infrastructure and watershed relationships; climate and resilience; and connections to health, access, affordability, equity, and communities.

Through project examples, decision prompts, and short activities, you’ll practice recognizing conditions, identifying less-visible impacts, tracing connections, and raising useful questions while decisions remain open.

2 LU|HSW
$35
Architect$35

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$50

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Turning Water Goals into Design Strategies

Water priorities become actionable when project teams translate conditions and opportunities into clear goals, informed comparisons, coordinated decisions, and follow-through.

This course introduces a practical five-step process for moving from project context to implementation. You’ll establish water goals and targets; identify major water demands and potential supplies; develop an appropriate baseline, comparison method, or preliminary water budget; explore and screen strategies; evaluate tradeoffs; document decisions; assign responsibilities; and plan for verification, handoff, operations, and post-occupancy review.

Using project examples and a continuing public recreation-center scenario, you’ll examine demand reduction, fit-for-purpose water sources, rainfall and stormwater strategies, landscape approaches, lifecycle considerations, the water-energy connection, cost and financial considerations, regulations, public health, equity, community impacts, and owner capacity. The emphasis is on selecting strategies that fit the project and carrying design intent through implementation and operations.

2.5 LU|HSW
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