Integrating Sustainability within Architectural Education in Cairo

Abstract

Architectural education has great potential to moving the entire in-dustry towards sustainability within buildings and cities. Having the fundamental knowledge to apply the sustainable strategies can help solving different environmental challenges being faced today. Sus-tainability is then recognized as a core topic in architecture and to re-flect this recognition, it is crucial to integrate it into the architectural education curriculum. Many approaches are used to introduce the concept of sustainability into the architectural programs ranging from integrating the concept into existing modules to adding new mod-ules that are entirely dedicated towards this subject. The design stu-dio is the most dominant module in architectural education having the highest credit hours per week; and being a pool within which all subjects dissolve. The studio is characterized by creating a unique learning environment modelled around a problem solving practice. Introducing sustainability into design studio was then found to be a key potential that enable graduate architects to make sustainable de-cisions within their design process rather than handling it separately. Realizing that potential; architectural educational institutions used different approaches in order to include sustainability within their curricula.
 This paper sheds lights on the education of sustainability within the architectural curricula in a number of Egyptian universities. It dis-cusses the teaching and learning of sustainable design then, identi-fies and analyses different approaches used in integrating the con-cept of sustainability into the curriculum. Follows, a qualitative anal-ysis takes place from semi structured interview conducted to practi-tioners and educators from various universities in order to stand on methods used to integrate sustainability into their architectural cur-ricula. The findings are to develop recommendations that could help discovering the best practices that could enhance the learning experi-ence for integrating sustainability in design studio modules.

Factors Impeding the Integration of Sustainability Elements in Built Environment Academic Curricula

“…The criticality of the issue related to non-prioritisation of sustainability by accreditation bodies shows that the government retains the most important role in integrating sustainability in academic curricula. This viewpoint is consistent with the position reported in El-Feki and Kenawy (2018). El-Feki and Kenawy (2018) recommended that when the government mandates sustainability integration through enabling legislation, and the provision of requisite resources, uptake will flourish.…”

“…This viewpoint is consistent with the position reported in El-Feki and Kenawy (2018). El-Feki and Kenawy (2018) recommended that when the government mandates sustainability integration through enabling legislation, and the provision of requisite resources, uptake will flourish. The position of the government and its regulatory bodies to the overall integration of sustainability is significant not just in the built environment but also in other fields.…”

“…The result also conforms to the findings of De Coninck ( 2008) which indicated that effective curriculum development is a duty of the entire society. Moreover, the nexus between human, society and sustainability discourse is not also in doubt, hence respondents' view about the interrelatedness of stakeholder's collaboration for effective curriculum change towards sustainability is consistent with the literature (Barr and Tagg, 1995;Tramontin and Trois, 2016;and El-Feki and Kenawy, 2018). Tramontin and Trois (2016) obtained that blended interdisciplinary competencies are required to implement sustainable construction strategies in project delivery.…”