Evaluating the Teaching of Sustainability Concepts in Detailed Design: A Case Study

Environmental and economic sustainability, which is very basically rational use of natural resources and energy, is one of the most crucial matters of our time. Knowledge and skills on energy efficient building design regarding the whole life cycle of building are required qualifications of today's architectural designing practice. Building envelope is comprised of outer elements of building which shape its overall energy and environmental performance. Therefore, elements, components and materials of building envelopes, their junctions and interrelations, and their interactions with exposure environment, should be carefully studied when considering long-term performances and service lives. To meet the global challenges for sustainability in the construction industry, a growing trend is observed in recent years for educating and training architecture students as competent design professionals which turn out to be the main objective of architecture schools through their revised strategies and programs towards a more environmentally conscious building design. An attempt is made to structure and develop a new approach for sustainable building envelope design studies within the context of the undergraduate course ”Building Element Design” in the Faculty of Architecture, Istanbul Technical University (ITU). The study model is based on a workshop involving brainstorming exercises, panel discussions and assignments, as well as student performance appraisals. The appraisals are primarily based on the analysis of given detailed building envelope drawings which are generated considering different climatic regions of Turkey. It was found that the attempt is useful in ITU conditions in some aspects as most of the students explained how they integrate sustainability concepts into their designs on a section drawing of their individual designs successfully. In this paper, the details and the outputs of this practical application are presented and discussed.