Striving for Sustainability; A staff and student approach

As educators, we are acutely aware of the need for the future generations to be interested in and design for sustainability. With changing climate and increased consumer awareness, the role of architectural design is becoming increasingly essential to reduce carbon and our footprint on the planet. We design into the Architectural Technology curriculum a variety of methods for learning about low energy design including activity led learning at year 1 and BREEAM accreditation at year 2, however how successful and inspirational has this been from the student perspective? This paper will look at and analyse the impact of both activity led learning and traditional lecture methods to investigate the impact on students thinking on their overall awareness and incorporation of sustainability into their design projects, together with learning points from both sides.