Incorporating Sustainability Principles Into Architectural Design Education: Results of an Experimental Design Studio

Abstract

Design is a structured process or a tactical guideline to accomplish a unique expectation of a product, while a design studio is the environment where students are taught the skills to design the product, which may be a building. Hence, the design studio course is the most important component of the architectural education curriculum; it is where the students get an opportunity to apply the theoretical knowledge gained through lecture-based courses. Yet most theory is not put into practice; consequently, the principles of sustainable design solutions are developed. There is an urgent need to teach future architects how to integrate sustainable design principles into their projects in order to prevent or mitigate environmental degradation due to the negative impacts of building projects. This experimental study initiated a new design studio pedagogy and a novel teaching structure for integrating sustainability principles into the architectural design projects of 3rd year students. It also evolved a testing method to assess the success of the new pedagogy and the students' final design projects. This paper presents the results of the experimental design studio and delivers recommendations for subsequent sustainable design studio courses.

Teaching Sustainability in Planning and Design Education: A Systematic Review of Pedagogical Approaches

“…The top five pedagogical approaches recognized in design and planning education are teaching through action-oriented approaches (n = 7), interdis-ciplinary approaches (n = 6), problem-based learning (n = 6), project-based learning (n = 5), and experiential learning (n = 4). Overall, pedagogical approaches seem to be more focused in teaching sustainability through practice and learning-by-doing activities [63][64][65]. These practice and experiential strategies rely on group projects, collaboration with local communities, NGOs, industries, and other institutions, and sharing through group presentations [16,55,59,[66][67][68][69][70].…”

“…It pursues more practical knowledge to complement theoretical knowledge by integrating real sustainability issues into design projects. The course content in PAR involves small group projects and discussions, field trips, presentations, workshops with experts, critical design approaches, concept mapping, and reflective journals [63][64][65].…”

Modeling the Critical Factors Affecting the Success of Online Architectural Education to Enhance Educational Sustainability

“…Since buildings account for 39% of global energy-related carbon emissions and 40% of extracted materials are utilized in construction, sustainability is pivotal in AE [39]. Thus, a global demand exists for integrating sustainable AE into academic curricula, aiming to equip present and future architects with the knowledge and skills for more sustainable architectural practice [40,41]. Consequently, numerous architecture schools have incorporated sustainable architecture into their teaching programs [42].…”