Energy and thermal performance in complex design in a high-density urban context: educating environmental sustainable design in B. Arch graduation theses

Abstract

Building sector consumes a considerable portion of energy and is contributes to global warming due to relevant emissions. Therefore the request for environmental sustainable development poses a critical challenge to human society, particularly to developing countries, as it is of paramount importance for the nations to balance between fast development and low environmental impact. Environmental sustainable design education is gaining popularity in architectural schools worldwide. Many of them are for graduate students. This paper reports an attempt to teach environmental sustainable (or passive and low energy architecture) design in a Bachelor of Architecture final-year design studio. Under the framework of the so-called "principles-tools-applications" knowledge triangle, the 16-week studio aims to equip the students with theoretical and practical experiences in passive and low energy design through a real-case design. The syllabus and the process of the course are elaborated, the final output of each studio member is presented, the lessons learned and experiences gained through the 16-week teaching experiment are shared, and suggestions to integrate environmental sustainable design agenda into the complete teaching circles are proposed.