IN-PERSON Prague Research & Teaching Conference

Abstract

Architecture is a highly influential field that can either contribute to creating a sustainable future for our planet or make it worse. The courses students take during their architectural education and the methods they are taught are important in shaping their understanding of sustainability and how they can apply it in their daily lives, both as citizens as well as future architects. In Iran, the architecture curriculum for bachelor’s degrees in all universities is approved by the Ministry of Science Research and Technology and is standardized to a single format. As a result, sustainable architecture design education is not emphasized. The approved curriculum focuses primarily on architectural design, limiting professors’ ability to introduce students to the concept of sustainability. The closest option for a professor, among courses, appears to be the Man Nature Architecture course, which offers one theory credit and one practice credit. One should bear in mind that “practice” in architectural education mainly involves drawing or making architectural models. Through the use of creative methods, including experiential learning, one can bridge the gaps in between. In this course, students explore sustainability through storytelling, watching movies, visiting significant sites, reviewing related articles, and participating in discussion sessions on a variety of subjects related to the human population, endangered plants, and animals, architecture, recycling experiences in different countries, or urban and architectural solutions to reduce energy consumption, renewable energy sources. Meanwhile, students are encouraged to repurpose ordinary objects and materials to create new needed items. We called it Creative Recycling.