EDUCATE - sustainability in University curricula
Awareness of the role that buildings play in the current environmental crisis - together with the requirements arising from recent regulations - is triggering professional demand for architectural graduates with advanced skills in environmentally sustainable design, presenting new challenges for students, educators and practitioners.
To address these challenges, the mission of EDUCATE is to deconstruct the pedagogical barriers to the integration of sustainability and energy efficiency in university curricula and in the practice of architecture, disseminate know-how and exempla of best practice on environmental design, and propose the harmonisation of qualification prescriptions across Europe. The project’s title EDUCATE is the abbreviation of Environmental Design in University Curricula and Architectural Training in Europe.
The objectives of EDUCATE are to:
- Define and test a curriculum which bridges current divides between sustainability-related technical information and the design studio in architectural education.
- Develop an intelligent Portal on sustainable environmental design and energy efficiency in architecture that facilitates such integration in higher education and supports continuing professional development for building practitioners.
- In concert with Chambers of Architects, harmonise architectural curricula and standardise qualification requirements in Europe, enhancing the establishment of a comparable, compatible and coherent European Higher Education Area - one of the objectives of the Bologna process -and clarifying the level of awareness, knowledge, understanding and skill in sustainable environmental design and energy efficiency expected of graduates qualifying as architects in Europe.
- Promote and disseminate environmental know-how and exempla of best practice amongst students, educators, building professionals and the public at large, fostering change of behaviour and expectations towards the integration of sustainable design and energy efficiency in building practices.
EDUCATE is an Action funded by the European Commission - Energy Agency for Competitiveness and Innovation (EACI) under the “Intelligent Energy Europe” 2008 Programme. The Action started in June 2009 and will have a duration of three years.
The expected outcomes of EDUCATE are to:
- Consolidate and build on the existing state of play of environmental awareness, knowledge and ability-base in architectural education and practice in Europe, sharing experiences and transferring know-how from countries that have energy efficiency embedded in their curriculum to countries that have not.
- Provide a pedagogical framework enabling the adoption and incorporation of sustainable environmental design at different levels and stages of architectural education to meet current professional demands and expectations.
- Harmonise differences in the requirements for the accreditation of architectural curricula and the registration as architect in Europe.
- Disseminate know-how, expertise and exempla of best practice on environmentally sustainable design and energy efficiency in buildings.
EDUCATE is built on a Consortium of seven European academic partners:
- University of Nottingham (Coordinator) - Department of Architecture and Built Environment / School of Computer Science (UK)
- Architectural Association School of Architecture (UK)
- Catholic University of Louvain - Architecture et Climat, Faculté des Sciences Appliquées (Belgium)
- Technische Universität München - Fakultät fur Architektur (Germany)
- University of Rome La Sapienza - Dipartimento ITACA, Facoltà di Architettura (Italy)
- Seminar of Architecture and Environment, SAMA Sociedad Civil (Spain)
- Budapest University of Technology and Economics - Faculty of Architecture (Hungary)
Throughout the duration the EDUCATE consortium run an event in each of the cities where the consortium partners are based:
- Educational Workshop: July 2009, Nottingham (UK)
- Symposium: December 2009, Budapest (HU)
- Technical Workshop: July 2010, London (UK)
- Technical Workshop: January 2011, Seville (Spain)
- Educational Workshop: June 2011, Munich (Germany)
- Symposium: January 2012, Rome (Italy)
The last one in this series is a symposium in July 2012 in Brussels (Belgium).
Supporters, subcontractors, architects, building professionals, and other participants of the project are listed on the EDUCATE website.
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