Knowledge of green buildings and environmental worldview among interior design students

Abstract

The concept of green buildings is one of the main features of sustainable urbanism. Additionally, sustainability oriented lifestyles have the potential to create a sustainable society, and have recently been understood to be a significant driving force behind sustainable development. Younger generations are the professionals and decision makers of the future. Therefore, both as individuals living in the 21st century which has witnessed many environmental catastrophes and as future professionals with a direct impact on the environment via architectural planning and design, it is crucial for interior architecture undergraduate students to acquire sufficient knowledge and perception with regard to sustainability, ecological design and construction in particular. Within this framework, a survey was conducted among 100 participants who were randomly selected undergraduate students in Nicosia. In the first section, several subjects were asked about their environmental awareness and knowledge regarding various issues, including the concept of green buildings. In the second section, the level of their environmental worldview was assessed and the third section measured the participants' environmental behaviours. Furthermore, interior architecture instructors' environmental awareness was also examined with the help of a disparate survey. The results revealed that the participants did not exhibit a high level of endorsement either for environmental knowledge of the concept of green buildings, environmental worldview or for environmental behaviours. (C) 2018 The Authors. Published by IASE.