FROM EDGE TO CORE : Realigning sustainability in architectural education

Abstract

Climate change and the built environment’s ecological impact necessitate that we embed sustainability in architectural education. However, this often takes the form of an addition (satellite) to the prevailing core programme. In 2018 and 2019 elective courses at the School of Architecture at Unitec, New Zealand, prompted students to focus on two distinct topics: the issue of waste in New Zealand’s building industry and building with low carbon materials. The experience of these ‘sustainability electives’ cemented the belief that the established architecture curriculum needs to evolve so that sustainability becomes the core of the programme. This paper discusses the reasons why this evolution is necessary and proposes strategies informed by a holistic view of sustainability. It suggests a reconsideration of what sustainable thinking is and challenges the dominance of quantitative and technological solutions to environmental problems. It opens up the discussion beyond the human realm and the western educational model and offers acupunctural interventions that have the potential to reimagine sustainability as the core of architectural education and thus equip students with a sense of agency to face the global ecological challenge ahead.