INTRODUCTION OF THE SUSTANAIBILITY’S CONCEPT IN THE ARCHITECT’S TRAINING. APPLICATION AND RESULTS

This article presents the results of the application of the Project for Educational Innovation and Improvement “ARQUITECTOS para el FUTURO. La sostenibilidad como factor de calidad en la arquitectura” [“ARCHITECTS for the FUTURE. Sustainability as a quality factor in architecture”] (PIME/UPV 2017-2018), through several degree and master’s subjects within the current training of architecture students at Universitat Politècnica de València (UPV).

Although sustainable thought, design and construction are not innovative activities, as it has been shown to be so by such architects as nonagenarian Balkrishna Doshi, recent winner of the 2018 Pritzker Award, Alejandro Aravena (Pritzker 2016) or Diébédo Francis Kéré (Global Award for Sustainable Architecture 2009), among others, at the UPV School of Architecture a lack of understanding of the term has been observed, as has its subsequent misguided and fragmented application. In view of the above, this project was implemented to generate teaching/learning of new knowledge, skills and competences relating to the concept of ‘sustainability’.

The execution of the project was based on the learning by doing methodology through three main practical tasks. The first was to identify and define the three fields - environmental, socio-cultural and socio-economic - on which sustainability is based. The second was to examine the sustainability of historically relevant architectural constructions and 21st-century works. Finally, learning and becoming skilled in the operation of the certification tool has shown the high cognitive level of students, their extensive cultural baggage, predisposition to teamwork and excellent skills in critical thinking.

Results have exceeded the initial expectations for the project, which has produced the interest of our students in increasing their knowledge of design, composition, materials, building techniques and authors working in the field of architectural sustainability on the one hand, and on the other a fluidity in the analysis of architectural works and development of critical thinking on these in terms of sustainability.