Providing an Environmentally Responsible Design Experience in Architecture Education with the Integration of Multiple Courses: A Holistic Curriculum Study for Teaching on About and for Sustainable Development of the Built Environment

Abstract

Sustainability is defined as the core subject of design education today where the effectiveness of environmental design approach on studio courses of architecture discipline is still questioned. Sustainability in higher education must be adapted to curriculums in an integrated approach to enable shared knowledge on the significant amount of core material of applied courses. Therefore better time management can be maintained through design education. Although the subject matter of integrated course structure is discussed in related literature with various different approaches (Celadyn World Trans Eng Technol Educ 15:317–322 2017a Glob J Eng Educ 19:207–212 2017b Sustain For 11(14):3820 2019 Sustain For 12(18):73832020, Steinø and Davidsen J Prob Base Learn High Edu 5(1):1–5 2017, Karlsi Procedia Soc. Behav Sci 106:1532–1539 2013, Domenica Iulo et al. Int J Sustain High Educ 14(4):434–448 2013, Gürel and Potthoff Int J Art Design Edu 25(2):217–230 2006, Gurel Int J Art Des Educ 29:184–199 2010, Hill J Int Des 33:37–52 2007, Fletcher and Dewberry Int J Sustain High Educ 3(1):38–47 2002) It is believed that the complex technical design and detailing requirements of sustainable projects can only be effectively taught through an integrated curriculum approach. Consequently incorporating multiple courses particularly those focused on environmental design and applied technical subjects into design studios is seen as a promising way to foster a cohesive and comprehensive sustainability mindset in the design of built environments. This chapter describes the construction of a holistic curriculum for the teaching on sustainable development of the built environment through the integration of multiple courses in the case of a medium-scale University curriculum. Since studio design courses are conducted by the integration of multiple courses effective time management is enabled through collaboration for different activities cultivated in different integrated courses. Integration will be analyzed through a multi-layer approach. © 2025 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.