Introductory interior design texts adopted by design educators present information relevant to both historical and contemporary issues in interior design. According to one author, they provide a "survey of the field of interior design as it now exists" (Pile, 2007). A comparison of the content of contemporary texts with those of more…

This paper presents a virtual lab for the contents of an Engineering project, for designing an agro-industrial building, which is also useful for a range of different transversal courses in Engineering sciences. The aims of this tool are to analyse the most important contents of a project-document (calculation, regulations, drawings and budgets),…

Capital expenditure at United Kingdom (UK) universities is rapidly rising, with new buildings erected on the premise that national and international competitiveness must be maintained. We examine students' engagement with and conceptualisation of university estate, and explore broader questions about the extent to which building design can…

There are opportunities for green building technology in office buildings to produce energy savings and cost efficiencies that can produce a positive economic and environmental impact. In order for these opportunities to be realized, however, decision makers must appreciate the value of green building technology. The objective of this research is…

Recent studies suggest that the number of students pursuing science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) degrees has been generally decreasing. An extensive body of research cites the lack of motivation and engagement in the learning process as a major underlying reason of this decline. It has been discussed that if properly…

This paper is about the experience of teaching Assembly for Disassembly to fourth year architect students within the module of sustainable design. When designing a sustainable building one should take into consideration the fact that the building is going to be demolished in some years; thus the materials should be assembled in such a way so that…

The United States has about $2 trillion tied up in aging school facilities. School districts throughout the country spend about $12 billion every year keeping this infrastructure going. Yet almost all of the new money we pour into school facilities reinforces an existing--and obsolete--model of schooling. In "Blueprint for Tomorrow,"…

Recent theoretical and technological developments redefine the discipline of architecture substantially. Current day approaches in design pedagogy focus on personal and bodily experiences of the "subject" and the need for investigating new ways and methods to enhance awareness of spatial experiences is inevitable. In order to establish a heuristic…

Students worked with low-income Jaffa residents on a 3-year building renewal project as part of a multidisciplinary clinic operated through the collaboration of the Faculty of Law, the Department of Geography at the Faculty of Humanities, and the Faculty of Management at Tel-Aviv University. Alternative models in the legal and planning literature…

The authors seek to establish the need for better education to develop procedures useful to evaluate the sustainability of a building. The analysis emphasises the need for education in the social dimension of sustainability assessment in the context of the life cycle of a building and how such education of building agents could increase…

This article stresses the importance of building design above technology as a relatively inexpensive way to reduce energy costs for a library. Emphasis is placed on passive solar design for heat and daylighting, but also examines passive ventilation and cooling, green roofs, and building materials. Passive design is weighed against technologies…

This article reports on a study of the effects of an action research project that aimed to improve the practice of teaching art in elementary schools in Slovenia. The specific focus was on the planning and execution of art tasks relating to architectural design. The planned improvements were based on the process of architectural design from…

Widely acknowledged as an archetypal design activity, sketching is typically carried out using little more than pen and paper. Today's designed artifacts however, are often given qualities that are hard to capture with traditional means of sketching. While pen and paper sketching catches the character of a building, it may not equally well capture…

Bringing a newborn home from the hospital can come with stress for any parent. Coming home with twins can be double the stress. This article shares the story of a couple faced with this situation 12 years ago with the birth of twins, one was born with complications. They lived in a Colonial until the twins were almost five years old, at which time…

Drawing on empirical research done in the early 1980s, Donald Schon developed the theory of "reflective practice", putting forward the idea that the design studio teacher is a "coach" who helps students align with disciplinary norms and start to "think like an architect". Drawing on actor-network theory as a tool of…