The Architects’ Journal Architecture News & Buildings
In this episode of the AJ Climate Champions podcast, Pelsmakers argues that teaching values must be at the heart of architectural education. She believes students are bombarded with too much technical information on sustainability and that a strong grounding in architectural ethics is essential in order to apply technical knowledge for the best possible built environment and social equity outcomes. This approach, she argues, requires not only new curriculum content, but a shift from master-apprentice to more democratic and inclusive peer-to-peer learning.
Pelsmakers has teamed with three colleagues to write a step-by-step guide to climate literate design for students which she shares with us in this episode. Equally useful for tutors and practitioners, the book is structured around 10 themes, ranging from global responsibility to energy, materials and ‘delight’. The book cites more than 200 case studies to accompany the themes, but deliberately does not include images to avoid a prescriptive aesthetic. Pelsmakers describes sustainable architecture as ‘very contextual and very situated.’
To put your name in the prize draw to win a copy of Designing for the Climate Emergency, send your name, postal address (UK addresses only) and affiliation to hattie.hartman@emap.com.
Sharing insights from having taught recently in seven different schools of architecture, structural engineer and educator Cíaran Malik notes that curriculum reform has not kept pace with students’ demands for change and that retrofit remains a minority topic. Malik argues that once students develop an intuitive understanding, grounded in evidence, they can begin to experiment with results that are both ‘beautiful and exciting’.
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About Sophie Pelsmakers
Sofie Pelsmakers is associate professor in sustainable architecture and sustainable housing design at Tampere University in Finland, where she has been based since 2019, and a visiting professor at Sheffield School of Architecture. She trained as an architect in Belgium before coming to the UK in 1997, where she completed her Masters in sustainable design at the University of East London and a PhD at the Bartlett, alongside stints in practice at ECD Architects and Levitt Bernstein.
The third edition of her Environmental Design Pocketbook (2nd ed. RIBA Publishing 2015) is forthcoming.
About Cíaran Malik
Structural engineer Cíaran Malik has co-ordinated technical studies at Central St Martins and the Architectural Association since 2016 and at Kingston School of Art for the last three years. After six years of professional practice, he returned to academia to hone his own climate literacy.
Malik is active in ACAN, LETI and the Whole Life Carbon Network. As part of his research, he has developed a series of diagrams to illustrate various aspects of sustainability.
Show notes: Projects and resources mentioned in this episode
Designing for the Climate Emergency: A Guide for Architecture Students, Pelsmakers, Donovan, Hoggard and Kozminsko (RIBA Publishing, 2022)
Dr Heba Elsharkaway, Head of Department, Kingston School of Art
101 Rules of Thumb for Low Energy Architecture, Huw Heywood (RIBA Publishing, 2021)
101 Rules of Thumb for Sustainable Buildings and Cities, Huw Heywood (Routledge ,2019)
Regenerative Development and Design: a Framework for Evolving Sustainability
Pamela Mang and Ben Haggard, Regenesis Group (Wiley, 2016)
In association with
Climate Champions is produced in association with ACAN, the Architects’ Climate Action Network
Podcast produced and edited by Simon Aldous
Music: Edmilson do Pífano, Forró de dois Amigos. Interpretation: Felipe Tanaka e banda Balaio de Baião