ECOLOGICAL ARCHITECTURE - LESSONS IN VALUE BASED TEACHING

Context one – the imperative to deal with holistic issues of sustainability in architectural education and studio design projects.
Context two - the demise of lecture-based learning in an era of internet-sourced knowledge.

Perhaps, the typical undergraduate experience of sustainability in architectural education has been a series of lectures largely concerned with energy issues and with limited design application in the studio. The end result in schools of architecture being a dry academic understanding on the part of the student with little creative measure in the design process. Traditionally the lecture programme has been about imparting knowledge and methodology from lecturer to student but both the need to make sustainability a design-led subject fully integrated into design values and also the wide sourcing of student knowledge from internet based sources leave lecture based learning at the periphery of the typical university architecture programme.
What then is the role of the lecture and how should issues of sustainability be taught in schools of architecture?

Firstly, I would argue that the lecture is both the establishment of an agenda, the programme, and to put architectural education into the wider context of how we inhabit the world - which is both an issue of ecology and of the responsibilities of civic life. It is not so much about the teaching of values but moreso about the provocation of the student to establish a set of values themselves to deal with increasing and varied knowledge at a time when our reaction to the environment is critical. However, lectures are not the only format for this: the inclusion of student led seminars - tutor guided - are an important part of the examination of values and the encouragement of a reflective understanding. Seminars or workshops should be concerned with student research - the process of knowledge ownership - methodology - how this knowledge can be used - and design. The imperative to develop creative critical faculties in the student requires direction and prompting from the tutor but should allow the student to develop their own judgement on issues of sustainability and design. In this way workshops become the stepping stone between lecture and studio projects whereby the student becomes equipped to take on the challenges of design projects and at thesis level can successfully integrate holistic ecological thinking into their design agendas.