A Comprehensive Model of Teaching Digital Design in Architecture that Incorporates Sustainability

Digital technology and its use in architecture support the construction industry in transitioning to more sustainable building development. Digital technology is widely taught in architecture programs in China, but there are few consistent strategies for combining digital architectural design with traditional architectural design in architectural education. Consequently, sustainable design concepts are not included in digital architectural design courses, and thus architectural education is not concerned with sustainable development. In this paper, we focus on the teaching of digital design in architecture and investigate how digital architectural design teaching can incorporate sustainability. Data from 15 universities were qualitatively analyzed, leading to the development of four models of teaching digital architectural design. Development of the models revealed that there are three increasing levels in digital architectural design teaching and that there is a close relationship between the teaching level and the transfer of architectural knowledge. This recognition led to the development of a single comprehensive model of digital architectural design teaching that is universally applicable. This research increases our understanding of digital architectural design teaching in architecture programs and strengthens the multi-level connections between digital architectural design teaching and designing and constructing sustainable built objects.