Teaching Sustainability: Applying Studio Pedagogy to Develop an Alternative Post-Hurricane Housing Solution Using Surplus Shipping Containers

Abstract

This paper illustrates the use of studio teaching as a technique for promoting an interdisciplinary approach to teaching students about sustainability. It emphasizes an iterative decision-making process to help students think 'outside the box' when exploring sustainable solutions. The paper focuses on a particular case adopted by a combined studio of architecture and landscape architecture students to help provide sustainable housing solutions for post-hurricane victims. The studio format provides a student-centered learning environment where students, faculty, and industry professionals work together to propose alternative post-disaster housing and community restoration strategies. The students gained a heightened understanding of the need to address global challenges in an interdisciplinary manner, which is key for solving sustainability problems. The focus of the paper is to explore the advantages and disadvantages of using the studio format that is most often associated with the design disciplines as an alternative educational pedagogy for teaching sustainability in real estate programs. Specifically, this paper will illustrate the application of an interdisciplinary approach for teaching sustainability concepts in programs focused on the built environment. A case study of the Sustainable, Environmental and Economical Development (SEED) Alternative Post-Disaster Housing project, which was developed for a studio course taught in the fall of 2009, will serve as an example of how the studio approach can be used to tackle real estate problems and teach the basic principles of sustainability. A multidisciplinary group of students representing architecture, landscape architecture, city planning, and welding disciplines worked together in a studio setting throughout the research and development of the housing prototype and its implementation strategy. Issues were addressed through open discussion, desk critiques by the faculty, and studio 'pin-ups' with guest critics and industry professionals helping to make sure the students understood the various facets of the problem and that they came up with viable solutions. Industry partners were also actively engaged with the students throughout the process, offering a business perspective to influence their decision-making process, mentorship, and industry contacts for future employment.