Architectural education plays a fundamental role in achieving sustainable development by training future professionals who can contribute to sustainability through their practice. Nevertheless, to ensure the introduction of sustainable development in the education of future architects, it is fundamental to understand what is being done and what could be improved. Despite this, a big gap has been detected in the assessment of architectural education in Spain and worldwide. Thus, a close-ended questionnaire for students has been designed based on the outcomes from a literature review, exploratory interviews with specialists, and the qualitative analysis of two schools of architecture. Additionally, it has been revised by experts, through the pilot study of a preliminary version, and with the supplementary analysis of the answers to a final test with students from different schools. In particular, this questionnaire allows for comprehensively measuring the students’ perception of their sustainability learning outcomes, their learning experience, and the connection between, with the aim of facilitating the adjustment of Spanish architectural education towards the introduction or enhancement of sustainable development by education managers, teachers, policymakers, and professional associations.

We propose a C 0 Interior Penalty Method (C0-IPM) for the computational modelling of flexoelectricity, with application also to strain gradient elasticity, as a simplified case. Standard high-order C 0 finite element approximations, with nodal basis, are considered. The proposed C0-IPM formulation involves second derivatives in the interior of the elements, plus integrals on the mesh faces (sides in 2D), that impose C 1 continuity of the displacement in weak form. The formulation is stable for large enough interior penalty parameter, which can be estimated solving an eigenvalue problem. The applicability and convergence of the method is demonstrated with 2D and 3D numerical examples.

This research aims to analyse the development of a multiculturalist discourse in European postwar architecture (1950s-1960s). It focuses on the work of the Dutch architect Aldo van Eyck (1918-1999), who built his theoretical framework by merging modern architecture, prewar avant-garde and the artistic production of non-Western cultures. The Otterlo Circles, presented by Van Eyck during the last CIAM (1959), were an attempt to synthesize a complex design methodology based on a concept of time inherited from James Joyce. After introducing the postwar architectural context of his time, we take the writings of Carola Giedion-Welcker, Van Eyck's mentor in Zurich, as a starting point for a conceptual analysis of his essays. The three official versions of the Otterlo Circles are then presented, suggesting an unofficial fourth version: Van Eyck's house in Loenen aan de Vecht, which will be interpreted as a Collection of experiences-objects-memories. The house and its objects will be used as an initial step to unpack how global travel and art collecting sustained a non-universalist view which gave rise to a profound reconceptualization of architecture. By using the Otterlo Circles, Van Eyck's work appears as the result of a reconciliation of many different cultures, discovered through travels and reading. The keys to understanding his designs are to be found in his house, in the multicultural Collection of objects and strategies he used to build his personal discourse. Following this research, Van Eyck's own house stands out as a necessary place to start any analysis of his work. This research, for the first time, attempts a conceptual explanation of the Otterlo Circles, exploring its theoretical implications for architectural design. Moreover, it develops a novel analysis of his home in Loenen, not only as an architectural project, but as a device intersecting with objects, inhabitants and spatial concepts, a holistic approach to the analysis of domesticity.

Architectural education has been called to become education for sustainable development to empower future professionals to make conscious decisions and act responsibly in favour of environmental quality, social justice and an equitable and viable economy in the long term. To achieve this, it is essential to understand what is being done and what can be improved in its transformation towards this type of education: Are architects being trained so that they can promote the achievement of sustainable development? Are the characteristics necessary to do so being integrated into education? To what extent does their qualifying training contribute to attaining it? However, there are gaps in knowledge on that subject at the national and international levels.As a response to this situation, and to facilitate the integration of education for sustainable development in the training of future architects, the main objective of this doctoral thesis is (MO) to know the students' perception regarding the current state of the Spanish qualifying academic program constituted by a bachelor's and a master's degree concerning education for sustainable development. To that end, four specific objectives have been established: (SO1) to determine the degree to which they consider that they have acquired the learning outcomes required to achieve sustainable development, (SO2) to establish the level at which they think that their bachelor's learning experience has integrated the characteristics of this type of education, (SO3) to estimate the level at which they believe that this learning experience has contributed to acquiring the assessed learning outcomes, and (SO4) to analyse the relationship between the degree acquisition that they attribute to these learning outcomes and the level of integration of the characteristics of education for sustainable development that they assign to the bachelor's learning experience.To achieve objectives SO1, SO2 and SO3, a descriptive, quantitative, nonexperimental and cross-sectional study has been carried out through surveys created ad hoc addressed to students from the Spanish Master's Degree in Architecture (Máster Universitario en Arquitectura) through a non-probabilistic sampling. Its distribution has allowed knowing the perception that 282 students from 19 of the 22 schools of architecture that offered these studies during the academic year 2020/2021 have in this regard. In addition, to achieve the specific objective SO4, a correlation and a regression analysis of these responses have been developed.

El plan Bolonia ha supuesto un cambio de paradigma centrado en un aprendizaje basado en competencias. En este contexto, las competencias transversales son fundamentales y un valor añadido para los egresados a la hora de integrarse en el mercado laboral. La Universitat Politècnica de València inició un proyecto para trabajar trece de ellas: Proyecto de Competencias Transversales (http://www.upv.es/contenidos/COMPTRAN/). Como consecuencia de esta iniciativa, en distintos cursos –desde segundo hasta quinto– del Grado en Fundamentos de la Arquitectura, en la Escuela de Arquitectura de esta universidad, las asignaturas basadas en el desarrollo de proyectos arquitectónicos iniciaron varias experiencias educativas para trabajarlas y evaluarlas. Este trabajo se enmarca en un repositorio online de buenas prácticas en el ámbito de la arquitectura que recopila un conjunto de casos de Aprendizaje Basado en Proyectos, describiendo las diferentes actividades educativas llevadas a cabo, y cómo éstas desarrollan y evalúan las competencias transversales seleccionadas: trabajo en grupo y liderazgo, comunicación efectiva oral y gráfica, planificación y gestión del tiempo, pensamiento crítico, conocimiento de problemas contemporáneos, responsabilidad ética, medioambiental y profesional e instrumental específica; con el objetivo de motivar, estimular y ofrecer herramientas a cualquier profesor que trabaje mediante proyectos y quiera mejorar las competencias transversales de los alumnos. Como resultado, se presentan las actividades llevadas a cabo durante el desarrollo de un proyecto de alojamiento colectivo –cohousing–, para personas de la tercera edad. Se analiza el trabajo realizado y, en particular, una actividad colaborativa donde los estudiantes participaron en un juego de inmersión mediante la interpretación de roles de personas de la tercera edad con alguna limitación física. Concretamente se desarrollan las competencias de comunicación oral y gráfica y de conocimiento de problemas contemporáneos relacionados con esta temática. Asimismo, se presentan los vídeos de los reportajes realizados por los alumnos como resultado de la actividad.