Purpose Sustainability, especially in terms of development and growth, has been in the agenda of the world community for several decades. However, apparently not all the aspects of sustainability are given equal importance. Ecologic and economic components of sustainability have been in the focal point of many theoretical and practical works, as the social aspect has been mostly left out of emphasis. The purpose of this paper is to examine the social aspects of sustainability and its relation to architecture, with respect to the strong connection between the society and the built environment. Design/methodology/approach The core of the paper consists of a case study conducted at a design studio course for third-year architecture students whereas the outcomes of the student works on the design problem are evaluated as examples for design approaches to reflect the effects of the built environment on social sustainability. The case study is supported with a literature review and examination of existing approaches to similar subjects regarding social sustainability. Findings The findings resulted in a better understanding of social sustainability in architectural education which is reflected on the built environment through several architectural strategies. Originality/value This paper contributes to the literature by providing a holistic understanding of sustainability including its social aspects and creating an awareness for the importance of social sustainability in architectural education.

This article discusses the process of a study designed to develop university students' sketching skills in schools of architecture. Acknowledging the relationship between cognition and writing, it aims to investigate the role of writing in learning sketching among architecture students and to examine how students regulate their thoughts by writing as they work on their freehand sketches. It includes writing texts before and after sketching tasks to improve sketching. The study was implemented in a school of architecture at a Turkish university as part of an elective course on sketching. The students' works were evaluated in terms of their sketches, texts and self-reports of their thinking and the views and comments of the tutor who carried out the programme. This article discusses how the study was conceived and developed. The results of this study may provide insights for educators in developing strategies in teaching and learning of sketching and design, using multi modes of thinking. JADE 29.3 (2010) Abstract

Sustainability was an umbrella term in a design studio in one of the architecture schools in Turkey. Students were offered a site on the flat plains of Central Anatolia. The objective of this paper is to depict certain design propositions that investigate sustainability in cultural facilities reinterpreting the organizational and spatial structure of the existing surroundings. The students were asked to design a project focusing on the following issues:• To design a culture complex or building near the existing fabric of an ecology-friendly "Village Institute" on the site, these institutes being widely acknowledged as a significant attempt of the early years of the Republic to create an integrated education and production system in Anatolia.• To develop a spatial program to discover new potentials for a contemporary culture complex, providing its users with a maximum of outdoor facilities.• To foster a design for a zero-carbon environment through recycling the water of the nearby river and through waste management and the design of an eco-farm, balancing strategies for emission and dispersion on the site. Examination of the integrated system of the institutes, which fits with the distinct character of the place and the global culture and environment, laid the groundwork for the design solutions. Ultimately a site visit, discussions with experts in the studio, research studies and a series of workshops allowed for very fruitful propositions. These projects also incorporated miscellaneous ecostrategies discussed in the studio toward the goal of a zero-carbon environment.

This study is conducted within the Architecture Department Basic Design II course in 2011-2012 spring semester, aiming to raise awareness from the early stages of architectural education, within an ecological context with an environmentally conscious and responsible approach. Besides the conventional agenda of basic design education, a comparative study has been conducted with a test group being aware of sustainability issues, and the control group who follows the routine. In order to introduce sustainability issues and ecological awareness to the control group of students for the first time, seminars on active and passive concepts are given, working on their projects are encouraged. Especially passive concepts such as orientation, material usage, recycling and reusing of rain and waste water, energy conservation and use of alternative energy sources are introduced as fundamentals. For the comparative study, both groups will be followed in the process with weekly exercises and the final work will be evaluated via questionnaires.

Turkish cities, architecture and lifestyle were all ecology-friendly until the breaking point of transformation of cultural issues, living habits and physical environment. Traditional large families lived in one or two story houses with courtyards where the design of houses and the neighborhoods were utilizing basic design approaches such as proper siting and orientation of buildings, interior and exterior spaces, friendly living with nature taking benefit of the sun, topography and vegetation. After the 1950s, rapid population increase in modern Turkey brought with it problems such as re-structuring of existing traditional environments due to the increasing urban population as a result of migration and urban sprawl. Uncontrolled urban sprawl meant unplanned re-structuring and socalled 'development' of existing urban environments. Unfortunately the natural balance of urban and architectural environments were lost during the false urbanization process and authorities including governments, NGO's and universities in Turkey are now trying to restore the situation with a hope of bringing it back to humane conditions under the name of 'sustainability'. Considering sustainability is the process of maintaining ecological systems at a certain level indefinitely, in the Turkish case, success is a utopia; or the question is at which level should the environment be maintained? At the level before the 1950s?