Work case 03 / Cornell · Systems engineering
Designing a school as a system.
What a community needs, how a building responds and what resources can support it: in sustainable education, those questions stay connected.
- Period
- Fall 2022–Fall 2023
- Project team
- 34 people · interdisciplinary
- My role
- Community lead · sustainability/building integrator
Context / CUSD Sustainable Education
A concept shaped by more than the building.
I spent three semesters with Cornell University Sustainable Design’s Sustainable Education project. Our 34-member interdisciplinary team developed a budget-conscious school concept for Nepal, aiming towards near-self-sustaining operation.
My work connected community, sustainability and building perspectives. Environmental, social and economic conditions sat alongside construction, cost and stakeholder needs in assessing feasibility.
This case covers my work on the school concept and its planning.
My contribution / Three connected areas
Connect work that happens in different teams.
- 01
Community needs
As community team lead, I worked with the environmental, social, economic and stakeholder conditions affecting the feasibility of sustainable education.
- 02
Integration across teams
I helped connect the sustainability and building workstreams, bringing community, building, budget and systems perspectives into the same discussion.
- 03
Plans and reports
I contributed to reports, plans, design initiatives, systems architecture and sustainability recommendations. I also completed an individual project management plan in SYSEN 5190.
Team project & individual course plan
Give the concept a plan to move forward.
Sustainable education concept & integration
Reports, design initiatives, systems architecture and sustainability recommendations were among the team deliverables I contributed to. They brought the different workstreams back to a shared school concept.
Individual project management plan
For the ongoing education initiative, I developed a separate individual plan connecting short- and long-term milestones with scope, responsibilities, configuration, quality, and verification/validation planning.
- Scope & work
- Connect objectives to scope, milestones and organisational responsibilities.
- Configuration & quality
- Plan how the design stays consistent and how quality is managed through delivery.
- Verification & validation
- Plan how deliverables will be checked and how their fit to the needs will be assessed.
SYSEN 5100 / 9 DECEMBER 2022 / INDIVIDUAL COURSE REPORT
What comes after the design?
My Life Cycle & Technical Process Report uses the CUSD concept to connect needs, design, handoff, operation, maintenance and retirement. The first three entries revisit work at the time; the last three describe the report’s projections for later stages.
- Work at the time
Read needs through use
The report revisits early meetings, previous teams’ material and requirements. I used use cases, functional flows and operating states to connect a broad sustainability goal with situations involving teachers, pupils and administrators.
Original section: Concept Stage · Requirements Definition - Work at the time
Discuss the design across teams
In this 2022 report I describe moving from the community team to sustainability, and joining design charrettes with the other teams. I considered how supporting facilities could fit the building concept and what a change would affect.
Original section: Business/Mission Analysis · Design Analysis - Work at the time
Return to requirements while designing
The report places requirement checks within the design work and describes stakeholder meetings to clarify open questions. Those checks concern the concept; it also explicitly says the project had not reached physical construction and integration.
Original section: Verification Analysis · Integration Analysis - Later-stage projection
Prepare for a handoff
I considered the checks and handoff between construction and use: whether facilities meet the originating needs, what equipment still needs testing, and what information users need. The implementation date was not known.
Original section: Utilization Stage / Transition Stage / Operation Stage Analysis - Later-stage projection
Bring maintenance records back into review
The maintenance section considers repairs, failure causes, risk, maintenance logs and configuration records. These are proposed arrangements for future operation, rather than collected operating data.
Original section: Support Stage & Maintenance Process - Later-stage projection
Think beyond the period of use
The report also considers retirement, relocation and disposal. Reading it now, that longer view keeps useful questions in sight: who uses and maintains a design after handoff, and what happens when conditions change?
Original section: Retirement Stage & Disposal Process
READ ACROSS THE ORIGINALS / 2022–2023
One question, across three moments in the work.
Start with a design question and read my individual management plan alongside two semesters of team reports. These thematic summaries follow how the work develops and which choices remain open.
- Individual plan · Fall 2022
- Team report · Spring 2023
- Team report · Fall 2023
All four topics, read in source-date order.
What does a bathroom need beyond a floor plan?
Individual plan · Fall 2022
Separate uses, then plan the checks
My plan distinguishes water used inside the buildings from irrigation water, and sketches a future check of rainwater collection and storage. This is a testing proposal for a later stage of the project.
Source location ↗§2 Milestones and Control Gates; §4 Key TestingsTeam report · Spring 2023
Connect privacy, circulation and drainage
The spring proposal connects toilet placement with ventilation and access to the septic tank. It considers queues at school-day peaks and privacy walls. Connecting pour-flush toilets to rainwater collection remains further work.
Source location ↗§6.5 Bathroom Design; §6.6 SustainabilityTeam report · Fall 2023
Test the appealing option against upkeep
The fall report considers handwashing, privacy, accessibility and menstrual-product disposal under WASH: water, sanitation and hygiene. Although §7.4 explores compost toilets, §7.5 records the team deciding against composting after reviewing cost, sanitation and maintenance, with other options needing more research.
Source location ↗§7.3 WASH; §7.4 Bathroom Design; §7.5 Disposal MethodsWho keeps a learning garden useful after the drawing is done?
Individual plan · Fall 2022
Give outdoor space an owner
My work breakdown places the learning garden alongside outdoor activities, vegetation, water and storage in the landscape scope. The management discussion brings maintenance and failure reporting into the longer-term plan.
Source location ↗§2 Responsibility, Authority and General Work Plans; Management ActivitiesTeam report · Spring 2023
Read the garden within the whole site
The spring scheme separates classroom blocks and creates a courtyard. Outdoor gathering space and a rain garden belong to the wider site proposal. A rain garden manages runoff; a learning garden serves a teaching purpose, so the two need different questions.
Source location ↗§6.6 Sustainability; §7.4 Multi-use Space for Community; §7.5 Rain GardenTeam report · Fall 2023
Connect planting to teaching and maintenance
The fall learning-garden proposal calls for a teacher to coordinate safety, upkeep and lessons, early discussions with families and school management, and opportunities for all grades to participate. It includes crop-care guidance; the handoff still calls for a detailed bill of materials, costs and construction documentation.
Source location ↗§6.5 Rain Garden; §6.6 Learning Garden; §8.4 Future Work – LandscapeHow does a classroom respond to the children who use it?
Individual plan · Fall 2022
Different ages, different activities
My plan separates younger children’s colourful, creative classroom ideas from the more organised, multifunctional spaces and storage needed by older pupils. These become considerations for design iterations and reviews.
Source location ↗§2 Milestones and Control GatesTeam report · Spring 2023
Let the site and room work together
The spring report develops classroom layouts and interiors within a revised arrangement of three classroom blocks grouped by grade. The spaces between them create a courtyard for breaks, activities and supervision.
Source location ↗§6.2 Classroom Design; §6.3 Classroom Interior Design; §6.6 SustainabilityTeam report · Fall 2023
Bring language and culture into the room
The fall community chapter proposes local art, multilingual educational posters, plants and cushions for floor activities. The recommendations extend the discussion from the building’s structure to how the room could feel and be used each day.
Source location ↗§7.7 Classroom DesignWhen can a team say a requirement is satisfied?
Individual plan · Fall 2022
Plan the review before the next stage
My individual plan connects responsibilities and milestones with quality records and future subsystem checks. It treats testing as work that needs people, resources and a place in the project schedule.
Source location ↗§2 Milestones and Control Gates; §3 Quality Control; §4 V&VTeam report · Spring 2023
Prepare the next round of feedback
The spring report brings stakeholder requirements and local context into the design, and includes questions and plans for collecting and unpacking user feedback. Those plans identify work to carry forward rather than proving that every user need has been confirmed.
Source location ↗§5.0 Requirements; §8.0 User Feedback Questions and Material; §9.1 Future WorkTeam report · Fall 2023
Make the unresolved items visible
The Customer team uses test plans and a verification cross-reference matrix to link requirements to design elements. Daylight and ventilation remain open because their criteria need clarification. The report also notes drinking-water access entering the requirements late, and passes further coordination and documentation to the next team.
Source location ↗§4.4 Requirements Verification; §8.1–8.5 Continuing WorkThe three works behind this reading
The individual plan and team proposals are identified separately. Both team reports describe their deliverables as recommendations or guidelines requiring qualified professional review and authorisation before implementation. Section references locate the originals; the reading cards are new summaries.
Individual plan · Fall 2022
SYSEN 5190 Final Project SEMP/PMP
My management plan connects work breakdown, control gates, quality and future testing for the school concept.
Initiated 5 December 2022 · individual courseworkTeam report · Spring 2023
Sustainable Education – Nepal / Spring 2023 Final Report
The team revised the site and classroom layout, developed bathroom and sustainability proposals, and planned user feedback.
16 May 2023 · team report; listed as a second-semester participantTeam report · Fall 2023
Sustainable Education – Nepal / Fall 2023 Final Report
Community research, the learning garden and requirements verification appear alongside unresolved questions and the next team’s work.
8 December 2023 · team report; listed as a third-semester participant
PROCESS READER / NEEDS, COORDINATION & PLANNING
Read the work between the concept and the plan.
Four perspectives on the experience. Roles and scope draw on the CV, individual plan and team reports; handoff notes and review questions are retrospective commentary.
COMMUNITY
Start with the people the concept is for.
My role: community team lead.
In the Sustainable Education project, I considered environmental, social, economic and stakeholder factors affecting the feasibility of a school concept for Nepal. Community work gave those wider conditions a place in the design discussion.
Revisiting this work, I would read a design proposal alongside the need it is meant to answer: who would use it, what support it assumes, and what still needs to be checked locally.
- The handoff
- Community needs give the building and sustainability teams questions to resolve together.
- A review question
- Can someone trace a proposed feature back to a need?
TEAM INTERFACES
Bring related choices into the same discussion.
My work connected the sustainability and building teams.
A school concept brings community, building, sustainability, budget and systems perspectives together. My coordination work connected the sustainability and building workstreams rather than treating their outputs as separate finished answers.
The relationship map below is a later way to explain that habit. Selecting a perspective reveals what else should be reviewed alongside it; the connections are discussion prompts, not measured causal effects.
- The handoff
- A change in one workstream gives the other teams something specific to review.
- A review question
- Who else needs to review this choice before the next version?
SYSEN 5190 / INDIVIDUAL
Give the concept responsibilities and milestones.
A separate individual project management plan, Fall 2022.
For SYSEN 5190, I developed an individual plan for the ongoing sustainable-education initiative. It linked scope, schedule and organisational responsibilities with short- and long-term milestones, risk, configuration, quality, and verification/validation planning.
Configuration management matters when several teams work on the same concept: which design version is being reviewed, what changed, and which related documents should be updated? Read the plan as an approach to organising the work, alongside the team’s design outputs.
- The handoff
- Scope and responsibilities connect the design discussion to the work that comes next.
- A review question
- Does everyone reviewing the concept have the same version?
VERIFICATION & VALIDATION
Check the design—and the need behind it.
Two questions that belong together.
Verification asks whether a deliverable conforms to its design requirements. Validation asks whether the concept fits the needs it is intended to serve. My SYSEN 5190 plan addresses future subsystem checks and the people and resources needed to carry them out.
In this retrospective, I use the hypothetical change rehearsal to keep both questions visible. If a cost assumption or a user need changes, revisit the relevant design, budget and review criteria together.
- The handoff
- Review findings should lead to an updated assumption, design or task with a clear owner.
- A review question
- Does it meet the requirement, and does that requirement still address the need?
System relationships / Choose a perspective
A choice reaches beyond its own corner.
Choose a node to see the questions it connects to. A line marks a relationship worth discussing together.
Community
Who will use, support and live with the school?
Community needs shape spatial choices and sustainability priorities. They also belong in the criteria used to review the concept.
Stakeholder needs → design criteria → review questions
Review alongside
- Building
- Sustainability
- Review
Read all relationship notes
Community · Who will use, support and live with the school?
Community needs shape spatial choices and sustainability priorities. They also belong in the criteria used to review the concept.
Stakeholder needs → design criteria → review questions
Building · How does the physical concept answer those needs?
A building choice has consequences for resource use, cost and the evidence needed to assess the design.
Design concept → interfaces → feasibility checks
Sustainability · Can the concept remain useful over time?
Environmental ambition needs to meet community context, the building concept and the resources available to support it.
Sustainability objectives → assumptions → operating questions
Budget · What makes the proposal feasible with available resources?
Building and sustainability choices affect costs. A budget also needs assumptions that can be checked as the proposal develops.
Scope → cost assumptions → budget review
Review · What evidence would show the concept meets its goals?
Review connects community needs and design choices to checks. Cost assumptions need evidence too.
Goal → criterion → evidence → review
Change rehearsal / Three hypothetical situations
When a condition changes, what travels with it?
Open a situation, work through its review prompts and mark the checks you have considered.
0 of 9 review prompts considered
01 / HYPOTHETICALAn important cost assumption changes
Open review prompts ＋
Imagine a major cost estimate rises after the first concept review.
- Budget
- Building
- Review
02 / HYPOTHETICALLong-term support is uncertain
Open review prompts ＋
Imagine responsibility for ongoing upkeep is still unresolved.
- Community
- Sustainability
- Budget
- Review
03 / HYPOTHETICALA user need changes
Open review prompts ＋
Imagine a new stakeholder need appears after an early design is drafted.
- Community
- Building
- Review
The map and rehearsal are method examples reconstructed in 2026. All three situations are hypothetical.
Reflection / A habit to carry forward
Ask who—and what—else is affected.
Looking back, I pay particular attention to the interfaces between workstreams. Does a promising choice still hold up when community needs, budget and long-term use are considered together? Bringing those questions into the same discussion helps clarify what to resolve next and who needs to be involved.
MATERIAL GUIDE / FOLLOW THE WORK
Open the material behind the case.
Each entry identifies the kind of material: an experience record, a submitted artifact or a later method example.
The CV account
Read the team role and the separate SYSEN 5190 individual project management plan.
Open material↗02 / Original-work readerThree moments, four design questions
Read the individual management plan alongside the Spring and Fall 2023 team reports.
Open material↗03 / Method demonstrationThe map and change rehearsal
Inspect relationships, then open hypothetical situations about costs, upkeep and user needs.
Open material↗
AFTER READING / THE CONVERSATION
What would you add?
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