Greenhouse affect : the relationship between the sustainable design of schools and children’s environmental attitudes

This study aims to determine if primary school children’s environmental attitudes can be predicted by whether their school had been designed or adapted for sustainability. A New Ecological Paradigm (NEP) scale for children was adopted to measure attitudes, with supplementary questions added to align this scale to the Australian context of the study. In addition, the original adult NEP scale was used to determine relationships between children’s environmental attitudes, their School Design and their Parents’ and Teachers’ Environmental Attitudes. Data collected from grade 4, 5 and 6 primary school children, their parents and teachers were analysed via three multiple regressions. The results indicate that sustainable design in schools improves the environmental attitudes of children towards perceptibly green building features, such as solar panels, the use of recycled water, natural daylighting and outdoor classrooms including food-producing gardens.

The ethics of sustainable housing design : the dilemma for practising architects

Globally wc arc grappling with the concept of sustainability. What does it mean and how should we respond to ensure that the planet's current ecosystems survive? Architects are in the 'front line' because of the impact of buildings on resource use and waste generation. Most definitions of sustainability are unhelpful because of their wordiness, lack of detail or ambiguity. Others distort the concept of sustainability to allow business-as-usual (i.e., unsustainable) activity to continue. Using one particular model of sustainability, this paper explores the ethical dilemma faced by architects in the residential sector when confronted by a client who wants a house that is clearly unsustainable. The paper begins with definitions of sustainability and ethics; then the literature examining sustainable architecture is reviewed for possible solutions to the dilemma. Two indicators are suggested to make a broad-brush assessment of sustainability. Finally, some practical options for the practising architect are suggested.

Contributions of school design to adolescent identity formation : case studies of four Australian secondary schools

The paper presents a summary of the study that examined the relationship between school design and adolescent identity formation. Reviewing theories and empirical studies of identity development, three major processes involved in adolescent identity formation were identified: (1) separation or individuation process, (2) social integration or relational connectedness, and (3) developmental exploration. Two key characteristics of schools that support these identity formation processes were proposed: (1) having a supportive environment addressing needs for individuation and social integration, and (2) providing opportunities for developmental exploration. Implications of these characteristics for school design were studied through a review of research and practices of learning space design. Four secondary schools in Australia which represented an innovative approach to learning space design were then examined to provide insights into these design-related implications and better understand issues and challenges associated with them. The paper concludes with proposing five design principles which supports adolescent identity development through contributing to processes involved in identity formation.

GEB (Children@School): a scale for measuring the impact of school design on children's general environmental behaviours

While there are many environmental education programs for children, few studies have used an appropriately developed scale for evaluating children’s environmental behaviours, informed by the school- design.The research presented in this paper used an adapted GEB (General Ecological Behaviour) scale to develop a scale for measuring children’s environmental behaviours in Australian schools; GEB (Children@School). This scale has been informed by the evidenced impact on children’s behaviour of their environment.A review of the literature reveals that assessing environmentalbehaviours across different domains is a complex issue. In the absence of a reliable ecological behaviours scale, the GEB scale was developed by Kaiser in 1998 as a scientifically grounded measure. The GEB is assumed to be the most generalizable and allencompassing environmental behaviour measure compared to the other environmental behavioural measures.In order to develop the GEB (Children@School), 624 children, aged 10-12 years old completed a survey. Factor analysis indicated that this scale has two dimensions: Children’s Pro-active Ecobehaviours, and Children’s Environmental Behaviours towards Resource and Energy Conservation. The estimate reliability omega value was calculated for each of the identified factors and the results indicated that the scale has a reasonable internal consistency. This suggests that GEB (Children@School) is an appropriate scale to meaningfully measure children’s environmental behaviours when associated with school-design.

Green and not heard: the relationship between sustainably designed primary schools and children’s environmental attitudes and behaviours

 This study addressed the possibility that the physical learning spaces of sustainably designed schools can act as pedagogic tools that influence children’s environmental attitudes and behaviours. The results suggest that sustainable school design informs a meaningful understanding in children of the symbiotic relationship between the built environment and the wider ecological context.

Sustainable schools as pedagogical tools for environmental education

There has been extensive research about the association between school physical environment and children’s educational performance. However, the relationship between the sustainability of school physical environments and children’s environmental awareness via education has been rarely addressed in the literature. This paper evaluates the possible differences between the environmental attitudes and behaviours of children in schools designed for sustainability and conventional schools in Victoria, Australia. The New Environmental Paradigm (NEP) and General Ecological Behaviours (GEB) scales were employed to measure the environmental awareness of 275 grade 4-6 children in seven primary schools. Quantitative analysis was conducted to look for significant differences between the environmental attitudes and behaviours of two groups: children attending conventional schools and children attending schools assessed as being designed or refurbished with sustainability in mind. The results of the analysis indicated that there was a statistically significant difference between the two groups. Factor analysis revealed the NEP and GEB to be multidimensional scales. Considering the relationship between school design and the identified behaviour and attitude factors showed the presence of sustainability features had the greatest impact on the factor Children’s Attitudes via ESD (Environmentally Sustainable Design) at School. This result invites professionals in the built environment design disciplines to re-think the pedagogic importance of environmentally sustainable design in schools.

The effect of planning design on thermal comfort in outdoor spaces

Urban outdoor spaces are considered essential elements of cities, where the greatest amount of human contact and interaction takes place. That is the reason why there is increasing public interest in the quality of open urban spaces as they can contribute to the quality of life within cities, or contrarily increase isolation and social exclusion. There are a lot of factors influencing the success of the outdoor spaces; one of the principal factors is the microclimatic comfort. In the hot areas, the outdoor thermal comfort conditions during the daytime are often far above acceptable comfort standards due to intense solar radiation and high solar elevations. The variation of the urban spaces' configuration can generate significant modifications of the microclimatic parameters. Design decisions such as street and sidewalk widths, shading structures, materials, landscaping, building heights, and inducing air flow have a significant impact on the pedestrian thermal comfort and subsequently on the use of the urban environment. Although it has been established that the vegetation elements should be considered as one of the main tools that can be used in improving the thermal comfort in outdoor spaces, the integration of the climate dimension in the planting design process in urban spaces is lacking because of insufficient interdisciplinary work between urban climatology, urban design and landscape architecture. The primary aim of this research is to study the influence of some of the design decision for the plantation elements in outdoor spaces on the thermal comfort of its users. This will provide landscape designers and decision makers with the appropriate tools for effectively assessing the development of urban environment while considering the microclimate of outdoor spaces. A special emphasis is put on summertime conditions in Egypt. Findings of this research will contribute to sustainable urban design of outdoor spaces.

Kids in design : designing creative schools with children

There is a consensus that children should be involved in the planning and design process of their schools, and attempts have been made throughout the world. This paper introduces a ‘Kids in Design’ project, through which primary school children worked with university architecture students to design a school playground. The aim of the project was to encourage the full potential of children’s creativity and generate creative school design outcomes. From October to December 2011, the ‘Kids in Design’ project was conducted in Roslyn Road Primary School (Geelong, Australia). Through eight weeks of workshops, children in Year 5 & 6 worked with architecture students from Deakin University (Geelong, Australia) to design a school playground. Assessing the design outcomes of this project, assertions are made that creative design outcomes have been achieved. Deakin University is currently working with another primary school to replicate the ‘Kids in Design’ project in 2012.

Opportunistic destinations : transforming railway stations into sustainable urban centres

All over the world stations are changing to become new urban centres and destinations. Some flagship projects, like Atocha in Madrid or Grand Central in Manhattan, make great destinations with shops, restaurants, museums and exhibition spaces. The urban spaces around them have been redesigned to provide excellent public areas and rationalise functional needs. Suburban stations also have the potential to follow the same trend. After all, stations are places of high symbolic value, they are central to the life of many people and include all sections of society, while generating high footfall and stimulating the economy. For this reason, Station Master Planning must focus on 'place' as well as 'product' to respond to the multiple opportunities. Considering the need that designs of stations need to be sustainable and preserve and value the public spaces, this paper reflects on the case study of the station master plan of the Tottenham Hale Station in London where SKM Colin Buchanan applied opportunistic urban design principles and created a new, significant urban square for north London and a local destination for leisure and investment. The design methodology are transferred to the local context of Melbourne where the unique spatial circumstances of suburban stations along the New Regional Rail Link line are reviewed, highlighting how these stations possesses specific opportunistic and sustainable urban design answers.

'Kids in design': designing creative schools with children

There is a consensus that children should be involved in the planning and design process of their schools, and attempts have been made throughout the world. This paper introduces a 'Kids in Design' project, through which primary school children worked with university architecture students to design a school playground. The aim of the project was to encourage the full potential of children's creativity and generate creative school design outcomes. From October to December 2011, the 'Kids in Design' project was conducted in Roslyn Road Primary School (Geelong, Australia). Through eight weeks of workshops, children in Year 5 & 6 worked with architecture students from Deakin University (Geelong, Australia) to design a school playground. Assessing the design outcomes of this project, assertions are made that creative design outcomes have been achieved. Deakin University is currently working with another primary school to replicate the 'Kids in Design' project in 2012.

Truth is God harm minimization through the practice of ecologically sustainable design and buddhism

The emergence of the global ecological crisis is presenting unique opportunities for the coordination of ethical thinking across cultural boundaries. Harm minimization as an ethical imperative operates as the ‘modus operandi’ behind both Ecologically Sustainable Design (ESD) and Buddhist practice. The architectural response to ESD is founded upon the ‘Declaration of Interdependence for a Sustainable Future’ adopted in 1993 by the International Union of Architects, of which the RAIA is a member.

Buddhism is a response to existential concerns universal to humanity. It developed as a set of principles for personal transformation known as the Four Noble Truths elucidated two and a half thousand years ago. Buddhist meditation practise ‘interrupts automatic patterns of conditioned behaviour’ recognised as the major obstacle to be overcome in any programme for change. Unsustainable egocentric behaviour is considered fundamental to our global ecological crisis and calls for radical behavioural change are increasingly being heard at the professional as well as the personal level. Emerging synergies between the Western cognitive sciences and Buddhist study of the mind increasingly validate the Tibetan Buddhist mind development phenomenon. Buddhists argue that their programme for enhancing ethical behaviour through mind development is a step-by step process of observation and analysis built upon empirical observation – a fundamental pre-requisite of any ‘scientific’ enquiry. Collaborative research programmes currently underway are an attempt to re-interpret Buddhist meditation techniques within a framework acceptable to Western scientific understanding. A truly holistic approach to harm minimization requires its consideration.

Sustainable design education: teaching, learning and assessment in collaborative group design projects

Changes in the funding of tertiary education resulting in less one-to-one staff/student contact time mean that we cannot continue to teach as we have historically been taught. If design schools are unable to implement strategies that successfully overcome resource intensive studio teaching programs, then current architectural education may for many higher education providers be based on an unsustainable course structure. Rather than spreading their time thinly over a large number of individual projects, an increasing number of lecturers are setting group projects. This allows them to co-ordinate longer and more in-depth review sessions on a smaller number of assignments. However, while the group model may reflect the realities of the design process in practice, the approach is not without short comings as a teaching archetype for the assessment of individual skill competencies. Hence, what is clear is the need for a readily adoptable andragogy for the teaching and assessment of group design projects.
The following describes the background, methodology and early results of a Strategic Teaching and Learning Grant currently running at the School of Architecture and Building at Deakin University. The project is evaluating two design programs at Deakin and it is envisaged that the results of the
investigation may inform other project-based teaching disciplines experiencing a similar need for new knowledge and skill-based delivery due to increasing staff-student ratios.

Self-reflective practice in sustainable design

A range of personal self-transformation strategies that rest on empathy and certainty were identified as critical to sustainable design practice. The dynamic influences design as both praxis and a decision making process, yet praxis, as the intuitive dimension of design is overlooked for its strategic importance to this dynamic.