VIRTUAL MADRID FOCUS ON PEDAGOGY
Abstract
Environmental urgency has positioned sustainability as a key pillar within design education. In interior design programmes, sustainability content is often fragmented, with inconsistent integration and marginalisation in studio briefs, meaning graduates perceive it as an add-on rather than a core design competence. In Cyprus, this integration remains limited. As a practising educator at one of the institutions, the author brings privileged access to teaching materials, curriculum documentation and stakeholders, revealing that while sustainability features in curriculum discourse, its pedagogical translation remains uneven, underdeveloped and dependent on individual teaching approaches rather than systematically embedded strategies. This raises a critical question: what constitutes sufficient sustainability content to produce industry-ready interior designers? Designing for future cities, amid climate change, conflict and catastrophe, positions resilience and sustainability as essential. This paper operates in two parts. First, it establishes the fundamentals of sustainability-driven pedagogies through secondary datasets, building a sustainability dictionary as the study’s conceptual basis. Second, it focuses on Cyprus’ two main interior design programmes, engaging learners, educators and graduates as primary stakeholders to interrogate sustainability content directly. A Sustainability Assessment Matrix (SAM) is designed, validated and deployed as a diagnostic tool to map and assess sustainability content across programmes, complemented by questionnaires that embed stakeholders in the evaluation process and inform the development of a pedagogical framework for sustainability integration. By positioning sustainability as a pedagogical and design imperative, this research contributes to debates on studio-based learning, curriculum development and future design education, offering a transferable model for ecologically responsive and critically engaged design practices.
Mr. Drousiotis is a Lecturer and PhD researcher at the University of Portsmouth, and affiliated with Alexander College, Cyprus (in partnership with Canterbury Christ Church University, UK). He holds a BA in Interior Design, a MA in Interior Architecture and Design, and an MRes in the Creative and Cultural Industries. His research examines sustainability in interior design education, focusing on ecological thinking, curriculum development, and digital technologies. His work contributes to the advancement of sustainable design pedagogy in higher education and practice.
Dr. Elbanhawy is Senior Lecturer in Architecture and Technology and School Technology Lead at the University of Portsmouth. Her research spans urban resilience, mobility justice, coastal heritage and smart cities, with a sustained focus on Global South contexts and community-centred methodologies. She is active in grant capture, leading internationally collaborative research bids across the UK, Netherlands and Egypt, and developing partnerships with universities and non-academic organisations across the Global South. Her work bridges spatial diagnostics, participatory design and policy translation. She holds Senior Fellowship of the Higher Education Academy and publishes across architecture, urbanism and environmental design.
1:00 pm - 2:30 pm
Friday 26th June, 2026