Ecology

 

Ecological Literacy in Architectural Education

Submit A Comment | View Comments

 

As a supplement to Architect's education issue, let me point to a study I co-wrote a few years ago. In 2006, on behalf of the AIA Committee on the Environment (COTE) and sponsored by the Tides Foundation, Kira Gould and I co-authored “Ecology and Design: Ecological Literacy in Architectural Education,” a report on how schools are embracing sustainability. Our conclusion was that they aren’t. After months of research, visiting universities, and interviewing faculty and students, we discovered many exciting courses and innovative programs. However, no school of architecture—not one—has committed to ensuring that every student who passes through the doors will become steeped in the principles of ecology. Until this happens, sustainable design education can only scratch the surface.

 

A key step is to adopt an ecology-based curriculum. Academia marginalizes sustainability by parceling it into single courses or programs, but this won’t do. Every school should integrate sustainability into the entire curriculum so that every student becomes ecologically literate. Guidelines already exist. My favorite is the Sustainable Environmental Design Education (SEDE) model curriculum, developed by Margot McDonald and others in and around Cal Poly San Luis Obispo “to fundamentally change the existing paradigm for environmental design education that has limited the imagination and understanding of designers.”

 

NAAB and ACSA should set a target deadline (2015?) for every school to transform its curriculum and ensure that ecology informs every instructor, student, and course.

 

The Tides report and the SEDE model curriculum are both available online in their entirety:
• “Ecology and Design: Ecological Literacy in Architectural Education,” AIA/COTE
• Model curriculum, SEDE

 

 
 

Comments (9 Total)

  • Posted by: somaie | Time: 2:09 AM Monday, February 08, 2010

    Everyone has their favorite way of using the internet. Many of us search to find what we want, click in to a specific website, read what’s available and click out. That’s not necessarily a bad thing because it’s efficient. We learn to tune out things we don’t need and go straight for what’s essential. www.onlineuniversalwork.com

    Report this as offensive

  • Posted by: Anonymous | Time: 1:15 AM Wednesday, January 20, 2010

    UNIVERSITY OF OREGON.

    Report this as offensive

  • Posted by: lancehosey | Time: 2:15 PM Friday, January 08, 2010

    Thank you all for your passionate feedback to my brief article. A few quick replies:

    (1) I’m not an academic; I’m a practicing architect who believes that education is the key to change.

    (2) Personally, I know of no school of design whose curriculum addresses sustainability in a systematic, comprehensive way. (If you do, I’m all ears!) That's not to say that "green building" hasn't become more popular, and certainly every program is doing something to address it. But this isn't the same thing as ecological literacy, which studies the interdependence of living systems and which educators such as David Orr argue is the key to every other subject. If anyone should embrace this, it's architects; as shapers of the environment, we have a responsibility to understand the environment more thoroughly.

    (3) As I've written before, sustainability and environmentalism are not the same thing, and the former includes economic vitality. So it seems important—now more than ever—to embrace sustainability as a smart approach to economic resiliency. Sustainability isn't a burden, it's an imperative, and its overall aim is to enhance quality of life. To see it as a sacrifice or a threat to other aspects of our livelihood misunderstands it altogether. In fact, the most important changes needed won’t cost more, since they have more to do with awareness than expense, particularly in education.

    (4) Sustainability isn't strictly a liberal agenda, and in fact some of the most effective leaders in this field today are conservatives, who understand the importance of economic stability and energy security.

    Thanks again for the input! Keep the dialogue going, particularly if you disagree with me. —Lance

    Report this as offensive

  • Posted by: Anonymous | Time: 4:41 PM Thursday, January 07, 2010

    I have been involved in sustainable design for the past 30 years and am now the director of the Ecosa Institute which was mentioned as an example for teaching ecological literacy in the COTE report cited by the author. I am in total agreement with the author and the comments so far make it abundantly clear the there is a vast misconception about "green" or "sustainable" design. It is not something that needs to be added onto the current curriculum but it requires a restructuring of the way in which architecture and design in general is taught. Being a visiting lecturer and crit of Masters Programs in architecture schools I can say I have seen little evidence of any awareness of the deeper issues in our society. In essence the current curriculum is remarkably close to the one I had in the late 1950s. This is not a formula for moving design into the 21st Century and providing the knowledge base for solving the many gathering crises that will inevitable face us in the not to distant future.

    Report this as offensive

  • Posted by: anicajeanne | Time: 4:16 PM Thursday, January 07, 2010

    @bob neuman I think you're mistaken to think that sustainability is at odds with job availability. there may be fewer buildings in design and construction right now, but every single project we're working on in my office right now has sustainability goals. most of the projects actually getting funding right now are institutional (education, healthcare, local government, federal government, etc.) and every one of those markets has seen widespread adoption of standards and targets for addressing climate change, water issues and local community health. If students want to get a job coming out of school then they need to be well versed in sustainability. Not understanding sustainabillity and its relevance to our profession is like not knowing CAD or BIM.

    Report this as offensive

  • Posted by: anicajeanne | Time: 4:11 PM Thursday, January 07, 2010

    I hardly think you can claim that architecture schools are not embracing sustanability based on a survey that is 3-4 years old. I have heard of many programs that are fully integrating it into the curriculum in addition to offering specialty classes for students to pursue increased depth in different areas within sustainability. I started teaching a sustainable design course at Roger Williams University last fall and was pleased to see students learning these concepts in design studio, environmental systems and a variety of specialty course (e.g. Special topics, Masdar City). Not only is it integrated into the architectural curriculum but the entire university has a cross-discipline minor in sustainability available. When I attended the University of Houston several years ago, sustainability was already well incorporated into environmental systems and structures courses. Electives in sustainable design and development were also available, as well as independent focus in design studio. It wasn't crammed down my throat, but the information was definitely there. I completely support improved integration and increased adoption of sustainability across the board in architecture curricula, but I also think you should conduct a more current survey of universities and colleges before making such a broad and disparaging remark.

    Report this as offensive

  • Posted by: bob neuman | Time: 3:40 PM Thursday, January 07, 2010

    Shame on ARCHITECT magazine, for perpetuating this green delirium. The assumption of this article is that we all subscribe to this author’s agenda. Thousands of people in our profession are out of work and this academic has the gall to make these demands of our Architectural education and licensure with frivolity. Shouldn’t we be spending our time on subjects that will actually sustain the relevance of our profession and support our families. The blind zealous promotion of the green agenda further illustrates how out of touch the Brahmin AIA authorities have become. I find it humorous that this self-important liberal author of the article above believes that he has the authority to make demands on our time and what we should focus our attention on. However if we were to hypothetically entertain that one zealot’s agenda should be imposed on an entire profession then I would like to propose a radical idea that Architecture students and Licensed Architects would be better served by a education in business management, accounting, contract law, and ethical practice issues.

    Report this as offensive

  • Posted by: archdude | Time: 3:03 PM Thursday, January 07, 2010

    AS IF sustainablility (whosever definition of that you want to latch on to) is THE paramount issue in educating architects. This shows GREEN is like a religion to these people as they wish to have it permiate ever fiber of our society whether you like it or not, no matter the cost. All hail Al Gore. Lance does.

    Report this as offensive

  • Posted by: retiredfaculty | Time: 1:36 PM Thursday, January 07, 2010

    This is a joke or it is written by someone who has no idea what goes on in a typical underfunded department of Architecture in most of the universities in the US. Get real and propose something more modest that actually has a chance to be integrated into and already overloaded and overstressed situation.

    Report this as offensive

Comment on this Post

Post your comment below. If you wish, enter a username and password though they are not required. Please read our Content Guidelines before posting.

 

Enter the code shown in the image

Username is optional

 

Enter a password if you want a username

 
 

About the Blogger

Lance Hosey

thumbnail image Contributing editor and author of ARCHITECT’s monthly Eco column, Lance Hosey, AIA, LEED AP, Hon. FIGP, is an architect and former director with William McDonough + Partners. With Kira Gould, he is the co-author of Women in Green: Voices of Sustainable Design (2007); his forthcoming book, The Shape of Green: Aesthetics, Ecology, and Design, studies how form and image can enhance conservation, comfort, and community at every scale of design, from products to cities. Lance studied architecture at Yale and Columbia and jazz at the High School for the Performing and Visual Arts in Houston.