Ten Aspects Concerning Educational Design Within Environmentally Sustainable Design Studios

Abstract

Environmentally sustainable design (ESD) is the critical response in the building sector needed to mitigate ecological impacts caused by high resource consumption and enabling us to achieve sustainability targets. Education is crucial for sustainability, and architectural education has openly welcomed and introduced ESD studios into pedagogy. These sustainable studios possess both similarities and deviations from a conventional design studio, arousing interest among scholars. Hence, a growing body of knowledge is found, covering numerous important aspects of ESD educational design. Understanding the anatomy of an ESD studio–defined by unique characteristics, challenges, sustainability concepts, learning outcomes, underpinning learning theories, embodied educational design elements, design artefacts, and design thinking–are the major concerns for educators. An extensive literature review on ESD education projects within built environments revealed themes for these concerns, presented across ten aspects. The study is concluded with a synthesized concept map that could be used for pedagogical designs within ESD studios.