Study Architecture 
ProPEL AASL Column, May 2025
What’s New in Architectural Education
Image courtesy of Pixabay
Now that the semester is officially over for most of you, do take time to catch your breath. After that, you may wish to reflect on new trends in architectural education and how they have or could impact you and your pedagogy. Relying on our new go-to AI, the following have been cited as becoming increasingly important. In addition to this list of key trends, we are including relevant resources to help you get started with this process.
Technology and Digital Tools:
Virtual Reality
Carpenter, Paul. Architects in the Metaverse: Designing in Virtual and Augmented Reality. n.p.: Independently published, 2025.
Digital Design
Retsin, Gilles. Discrete: Reappraising the Digital in Architecture. (Architectural Design, 89) New York: Wiley, 2019.
Szalapaj, Peter. Contemporary Architecture and the Digital Design Process. Oxford: Architectural Press, 2005.
Collaborative Platforms
3D Modeling
Brito, Allan. Blender 4.0: Precise Modeling for Architecture, Engineering and 3D Printing. n.p.: Independently published, 2024.
Sustainability and Environmental Design:
Climate-Adaptive
Loorcach, Derk, Veronique Patteeuw, Lea-Catherine Szacka, and Saskia von Stein. It’s About Time: The Architecture of Climate Change. Rotterdam: nai010 Publishers, 2025.
Plesik, Sandra. Habitat: Vernacular Architecture for a Changing Climate. New York: Thames& Hudson, 2024.
Vassileios, Alexandros, Emilios Joannou-Naoum. Architecture Follows Climate: Traditional Architecture in the five Climate Zones. Basel: Birkhauser, 2024.
Regenerative Design
Cheshire, David. Regenerative by Design: Creating Net-Positive Buildings and Cities. London: RIBA Publishing, 2024.
France, R.L. Handbook of Regenerative Landscape Design. Boca Raton: CRC Press, 2008.
Mang, Pamela, Ben Haggard, Regenesis Group, Regenerative Development and Design: A Framework for Evolving Sustainability, 2016.
Pedersen Zari, Maibritt. Regenerative Urban Design and Ecosystem Biomimicry. Hoboken: Wiley, 2016.
Sustainable Materials
Kumar, Ajay. Handbook of Sustainable Materials: Modelling, Characterization, and Optimization. Boca Raton: CRC Press, 2023.
Liden, Daniel. Better Things: Materials for Sustainable Product Design. London: Lawrence Kin Publishers, 2024.
Human-Centered Design:
Well-Being and Health
Botchwey, Nisha, Andrew Dannenberg, Howard Frumkin. Making Healthy Places, Second Edition: Designing and Building for Well-Being, Equity and Sustainability. Washington, D.C.: Island Press, 2022.
Dovjak, Mateja, Andreja Kukec. Creating Healthy and Sustainable Buildings: An Assessment of Health Risk Factors. n.p.: Saint Philip Street Press, 2020.
User-Centered Design
Janning, Michelle. Guide to Socially Informed Research for Architects and Designers. New York: Routledge, 2022.
Neuroarchitecture
Maslin, Steve. Designing Mind-Friendly Environments: Design and Architecture for Everyone. London: Jessica Kingsley Publishers, 2021.
Metzger, Christoph. Neuroarchitecture. Berlin: Jovis, 2018.
Multidisciplinary Approach:
Transdisciplinary Projects
Doucet, Isabelle, Nel Janssens. Transdisciplinary Knowledge Production in Architecture and Urbanism: Towards Hybrid Modes of Inquiry, 11th edition. New York: Springer, 2011.
Polk, Merritt. Co-Producing Knowledge for Sustainable Cities. New York: Routledge, 2015.
Data Analysis
Bernstein, Philip. Architecture/Design/Data: Practice Competency in the Age of Computation. Basel: Birkhauser, 2022.
AI Applications
As, Imdat, Prithwish Basu. The Routledge Companion to Artificial Intelligence in Architecture. New York: Routledge, 2021.
Campo, Matias. Neural Architecture: Design and Artificial Intelligence. Novato: Applied Research and Design Publishing, 2022.
Chaillou, Stanislas. Artificial Intelligence and Architecture: From Research to Practice. Novato: Applied Research and Design Publishing, 2022.
Leach, Neil. Architecture in the Age of Artificial Intelligence. London: Bloomsbury, 2022.
Sourek, Michal. Artificial Intelligence in Architecture and the Built Environment: The Revolution Yet to Come. Boca Raton: CRC Press, 2025.
Adaptive and Situated Design:
Adaptive Design
Arnaud, Michel, Donald Albrecht, Jane K. Creech. Cool is Everyone: New and Adaptive Design Across America. New York: Abrams, 2020.
Lang, Ruth, Robert Klanten, Rosie Flanagan, and Andrea Servert. Building for Change: The Architecture of Creative Reuse. Berlin: gestalten, 2022.
Situated Design
Simonsen, Jesper. Connie Svabo, Sara Malou Standvad, and Kristine Samson. Situated Design Methods. Cambridge: MIT Press, 2014.
