Do you want to know how architecture schools in Australia and New Zealand are responding to the climate crisis through research, teaching, and learning? The report released today for the Climate Literacy and Action in Architecture Education project gives plenty of cause for optimism.
When it comes to climate action in Australasian architecture schools, students and staff are ready for change. This report provides insight into staff and students’ knowledge, values, and beliefs about climate change at a critical junction for architecture schools, just as the entire built environment sector is called to respond to the climate crisis.
The research team surveyed staff, students, sessional academics, PhD scholars, and postdoctoral researchers across 26 schools:
- 95% were "concerned" or "very concerned" about climate change
- 95% "agree" or "strongly agree" that architects can be part of the solution for climate change
- 95% "agree" or "strongly agree" that they want to see more teaching about climate change and sustainability in their degree.
The survey responses indicate that architecture schools are a latent source of potential climate action, and are places where rich expertise sits adjacent to students who are highly motivated to learn. The report’s key recommendations show that addressing climate change in architecture education is not necessarily about radical curriculum overhaul. Rather, climate literacy in architecture can be developed using a wide range of lenses, by drawing on schools’ existing research strengths that are connected at a program level.
This research was possible thanks to generous support from the Association of Architecture Schools of Australasia (AASA) and Australian Institute of Architects. As well as the dedicated efforts of an authorship team across six universities: Liz Brogden, Naima Iftikhar, PhD, Philip Oldfield, Naomi Stead, charlotte kessler, Chris Knapp, and dagmar reinhardt.
Read the report here.
