Abstract:

Facing the challenge of climate change has a major impact on research and education regarding the built environment, considering that 40% of CO2 emissions originate from the construction, use, and demolition of buildings, their interiors, and the urban spaces around them. While research in this regard is developing rapidly, driven by paradigms of circularity and bio-innovation, educational programmes still struggle to integrate new knowledge and skills in teaching. Furthermore, professional practice in the various fields dealing with the built environment faces disciplinary and regulatory boundaries.

This contribution to the EDULEARN25 conference presents a multidisciplinary and cross-sectoral approach that integrates knowledge co-creation among academia, enterprises and civil society organisations with educational innovation. Developed within the CiD- Circular Design Innovation Alliance, funded in the Erasmus+ programme, this transversal approach links innovation in academia with accelerator formats to support start-ups and upskilling initiatives focused on green, resilience, and entrepreneurial skills. The orientation of academic programmes towards sustainability responds to market needs and career-orientation, in the interest and motivation of students. Additionally, lifelong learning and upskilling respond to the needs identified by professional bodies such as the Chambers for Architects.

Based on the theoretical and conceptual frameworks regarding advancement in research and innovation in education towards resilient and sustainable transformation of the built environment, this contribution discusses the project’s innovative methodological approach, along with the tools and formats it develops. Then, it critically evaluates findings towards the transfer of results in research and education, as well as potential updates to legal and organisational frameworks.

In particular, the contribution highlights Circular Design as a new field, emphasising cross-sectoral and multi-actor formats for knowledge co-creation. It presents a challenge-based and situation-based approach in the development of new educational programmes, including academic courses, an entrepreneurial accelerator programme, and new formats for continuous education. While setting up collaborative research to establish benchmarks for rethinking design for circular economy, innovating urban design, architecture, and product/service design to support carbon-neutral cities and for enhancing bio-based innovation in the built environment, the approach of the Alliance simultaneously develops innovative teaching and learning tools. These tools simultaneously transmit and experiment with the provision of new knowledge, such as Flipped Learning materials and a format for Flip Sessions, continuously refined in an interactive process through validation in academic and lifelong learning environments.

Challenge-based approaches in research and education are interrelated, fostering new project concepts that engage students in research processes. Thus, students and learners become an interactive part of an Innovation Ecosystem, further extended through a network of 100 stakeholders from enterprises, public entities and civil society bodies organised in thematic and local observatories. These observatory stakeholders collaborate in all steps of the methodology, from the definition of challenges and co-creation of knowledge to the evaluation of new educational formats.

Keywords:

Sustainable Built Environment, Educational Innovation, Challenge-Based Learning, Knowledge Co-Creation, Multidisciplinary Approach, Lifelong Learning, Upskilling, Entrepreneurial Skills, Research and Education Integration, Flipped Learning, Innovation Ecosystem, Cross-Sectoral Colla.