Using vernacular for environmental education in a graduate program of architecture

Abstract

Raising the environmental awareness of architectural students becomes increasingly important given today's global environmental challenges. As a prominent player in urban development, an architect needs to be concerned with the alternative ways for achieving environmental sustainability. Subsequently, environmental issues constitute an important part of the curriculum in architectural education. The scope of this study covers an elective course in an architectural graduate program of Turkey with the main aim of making fresh architects aware of their vital role in environmental objectives. In this course, the students are asked to visit and examine the vernacular architecture at a rural Turkey settlement. In this assignment, the students use a series of architectural as well as social science research methods. They present their findings visually and offer their proposals as a conclusion. Their proposals involve ways, not only, to achieve sustainability for this rural settlement but, also, to adapt the traditional design methods and materials examined within the course into contemporary design techniques. Given the acquisitions of the graduate students, this paper concludes with a recommendation for improving architectural course content by integrating applied learning.