Raising awareness for sustainability in basic design

Abstract

This study is conducted within the Architecture Department Basic Design II course in 2011-2012 spring semester, aiming to raise awareness from the early stages of architectural education, within an ecological context with an environmentally conscious and responsible approach. Besides the conventional agenda of basic design education, a comparative study has been conducted with a test group being aware of sustainability issues, and the control group who follows the routine. In order to introduce sustainability issues and ecological awareness to the control group of students for the first time, seminars on active and passive concepts are given, working on their projects are encouraged. Especially passive concepts such as orientation, material usage, recycling and reusing of rain and waste water, energy conservation and use of alternative energy sources are introduced as fundamentals. For the comparative study, both groups will be followed in the process with weekly exercises and the final work will be evaluated via questionnaires. © 2012 WIT Press.