Healthy Buildings for the Future: How Can We Ensure that Designs or Adaptions Deliver Sustainability Principles and Can Be Integrated into Studio Based Teaching?

A successful sustainable architecture studio based course will have to be awell balanced blend of established scientific theories and design principles inrelation to the healthy buildings and environments; It should aiming to raisethe awareness and mold the practicing ethos of future design professionals.The integrated studio teaching should allow students to consider the sustainablearchitecture design theories and principles and at the same timeraise their awareness of potential issues of human health in buildings. Studentsshould be given the opportunity to critically analyse current sustainablearchitecture and low energy design principles and technologies usedin practice.Studio based teaching should encourage students, to build knowledge,skills, understand, building occupant needs, and consider the environmentalimpact of their design decisions. It should also teach them, how toundertake holistic sustainable design and construction analysis integratedwithin the building design process using Building Information Modellingand Building Simulation Tools.Studio class students practice skills and techniques and learn new conceptswhile working in an environment that encourages: learning by doing, workingtogether and seeking advice or assistance from mentors and tutors. Thestudio is often an environment similar to that which students will experiencein the workplace. The traditional lecture theatre, tutorial room and laboratoryenvironment is replaced by a model based around the development ofcollaborative learning, integrated curriculum and problem-based learning.A studio classroom is where students work in groups and are responsible fortheir own learning. Studio Tutors serve as guides or mentors. The interactiveclassroom promotes holistic skills, including thinking, inquiry, creativityand reflection by students, frequently involving peer review and critiquing.In addition to two basic arenas of learning: teaching the art and science ofarchitecture and teaching about the architectural world beyond the classroomthere are eight other important kinds of general cognitive and attitudinaldispositions can be developed in an studio based sustainable architectureclass (Develop Craft, Engage & Persist, Envision, Express, Observe,Reflect, Stretch & Explore and Understand Architectural World).Studio Tutors should design informal and sometimes more formal ways thatstudents interact with them and one another to create a social climate thatnurtures learning. As students progress with their projects, Studio Tutorsobserve and intervene. Such observation and responsive teaching is criticalto student learning. Studio Tutors are also aware and thoughtful of students’needs for privacy at times to develop a relationship with materials, tools,and their own work.Studio Tutors also need to ensure that students feel safe and respectedby each other. They need to create a climate where students are engagedwith each other, collaborating and learning to participate in a community ofdesign & building professionals. Studio Tutors should organise space, time,and interactions in their classes by using variations on just three studiostructures: Demonstration-Lectures, Students-at-Work structure emphasises,CritiquesThese structures foster an apprentice-master-craftsman relationship betweenstudent and teacher creating an atmosphere in which students workas design professionals together with other design professionals (Studio Tutorsand peers).

Volume Editors
Martha Thorne & Xavier Costa

ISBN
978-0-935502-83-1