Outdoor Laboratory

The University of Colorado at Boulder College of Engineering and Applied Science is building a unique new teaching and learning outdoor facility that gives its students the opportunity to practice sustainable building techniques in an outdoor setting. The students gain experience with low cost, low maintenance green building materials through active and experiential learning.

The Field Laboratory for Applied Sustainable Technologies (FLAST) allows students to conduct hands-on experiments as part of their course work or for research and development. This outdoor facility is an integral part of CVEN 4700/5700: Sustainability and the Built Environment. Topics covered in hands-on modules include: eco-materials, sustainable water and waste water systems, renewable energy, waste and waste products, green building construction, strawbale construction, natural plasters, and building with earth and straw. After initial construction, the ultimate goal is for this facility to be self-sufficient, generating its own power using solar voltaic panels and possibly biodiesel, and collecting and processing enough rainwater to complete all on-site projects.

This laboratory is envisioned as an extension to the college’s highly successful Integrated Teaching and Learning Laboratory and the Discovery Learning Center. This resource has the potential to serve a variety of constituents including CU-Boulder students in the Colleges of Engineering and Applied Science and Architecture and Planning, students in Environmental Studies, plus Boulder Vocational Technology students, members of the general public interested in sustainable building techniques, green builders, suppliers of green building materials, and others.

The laboratory was developed thanks to the support of the following organizations:

Colorado Strawbale Association
Invisible Structures
Rocky Mountain Solar Electric
Solar Energy International
BP Solar

and to Mark Schueneman and Seth Kassels who helped make the vision a reality.