Greening Architecture Design Education: A Proposed Framework for Saudi Arabia

Abstract

Today, concerns for environmental quality affect nearly all walks of life. In response to demands for resource conservation, architecture has become more complicated because the design process now depends on a large number of different disciplines. Now more than ever, building owners and users have many requirements—informed by developments in knowledge, technology, and science. These stakeholders are asking architects to design for lower operational cost, good daylighting and views, and higher indoor environmental quality (IEQ). Integrating all of these issues in building design is a dynamic process, which looks holistically at all of the dimensions of architectural. Present barriers of integrating green and sustainable strategies in the design process are mostly associated with architect's education and the understanding of the fundamental knowledge of the dynamics between the building and the local environmental conditions. For example, Saudi Arabia faces many challenges related to creating more environmentally responsive buildings, and peoples' behavior may not be easily changed with regard to resource conservation. To achieve such changes, a new educational framework for architecture is needed. This study captures and structures knowledge that informed the examination and development of the new knowledge-based educational framework for green building design in Saudi Arabia. Through literature review, a series of case studies, and interviews with professors from United States architecture schools and interviews with graduates from Saudi Arabian architecture schools, the study revealed how knowledge related to green building can be structured and strategically implemented into architectural design education in Saudi Arabia. This framework presents green knowledge in a logical, sequential structure representing a learning path/knowledge map. The knowledge map was not intended to present a sequential structure over the course of several years, but is more general so that it can be applied across all architecture schools in Saudi Arabia. In other words, the knowledge map may be applied as-is within the current architectural educational knowledge in Saudi Arabia schools, or it can be used as a guideline and assistance tool for educators and school administrators. Overall, this framework presents a workable model for green design education in the context of the existing Saudi Arabia educational practices. Thus, the goal of the final knowledge framework is to transform the architectural educational system in Saudi Arabia.