The Teaching Green Building: Five Theoretical Perspectives

Abstract

Teaching Green Buildings (TGBs) are designed to educate building users about green building design and often broader themes about the connection between buildings and their surrounding ecosystems. The outcomes of a well-designed TGB range from increasing knowledge to fostering a sense of place to promoting environmental behavior change. To date, however, these buildings have been weakly theorized in scholarship and haphazardly designed in practice. This chapter draws on an interdisciplinary research base to discuss five potential roles for TGBs as: symbol, science museum, 3D textbook, call to action, and place.