Ecology & Design: Ecological Literacy in Architecture Education

An American Institute of Architects (AIA) report by Kira Gould, Assoc. AIA and Lance Hosey, AIA. Available free on AIA's website. September 2006, 169 pages.

 

Ecology and Design: Ecological Literacy in Architecture Education provides an unprecedented collection of information on curricula within architecture programs across the country. It assesses the state of ecological literacy training in architecture programs and describes many supportive initiatives and programs from both academia and the private sector.

Also featured in the report are the results from a competition aimed at identifying leading curriculum models—the winners of that competition were announced in EBN Vol. 14, No. 7. Setting the philosophical stage for this work in Chapter 1 is a thought-provoking interview with Professor David Orr, Ph.D., of Oberlin College. The report concludes with an ambitious plan to create, as a project of AIA’s Committee on the Environment, a Center for Ecological Design that would undertake a broad range of initiatives to promote ecological literacy. The appendix includes several useful lists, including textbooks of choice from many programs and influential figures in the academic world.

The report was produced with support from the Tides Foundation Kendeda Sustainability Fund and was first presented at the 2005 AIA Convention in Las Vegas. Everyone involved with developing curricula and teaching sustainable design should be poring through this report for ideas and leads.

 

– Nadav Malin