CLIMATE ACTION RESOURCES
FOR SCHOOLS OF ARCHITECTURE
Education Toolkit
This Toolkit is intended for everyone - tutors, students, course leaders, heads of schools and others - who wants to take immediate, ongoing and meaningful action towards a new climate education for architecture.
We are in a climate emergency and the sixth mass extinction, and we all need to work with as much urgency as we can. We recognise the quality of climate and ecology-related teaching that is already present in many schools of architecture. We know a lot of good work is already being done, and this needs to be amplified and shared. However, we also know that many tutors and students are looking for ways to take action, and may feel relatively new to this journey of change.
Over the summer we held two workshops, attended by hundreds of architecture tutors from all levels of teaching, experience and areas of expertise. These remarkable gatherings showed us the appetite for change from across the sector. The Toolkit was informed by these workshops and feedback from students and tutors. The Toolkit comprises two elements: Principles and Actions, and Resources.
These workshops and resources are part of our ongoing Climate Curriculum Campaign to increase climate literacy in schools of architecture.
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Principles and Actions
A concise set of actions and themes based on outcomes from the 2020 summer workshops.
Please use this Toolkit to support your strategy and actions for change, and share it with anyone who may find it useful.
We hope to add more elements in the future, supporting the mass cross-pollination of ideas and approaches, openly and across institutions.
Please leave your email if you would like to be notified of future updates.
We welcome any feedback and suggestions you may have - please email us.
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Educators Workshops
More information and downloads from the workshops are available below.
Workshop 3 - SCHOSA-RIBA-ACAN - 20.08.2020
We also held a workshop together with SCHOSA for Heads of Schools and senior representatives from 30 architecture schools. Through this collaborative meeting, we were keen to directly engage with Heads of Schools to discuss obstacles and opportunities at the institutional level. This included ways SCHOSA and individual schools can enable an increasingly ambitious response to the climate emergency.
We heard four presentations to introduce current initiatives, and to provide insight and context to the discussions:
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Students - experiences and reflections from various UK architecture schools
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Mina Hasman, RIBA Sustainable Futures
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Jennifer Boyer, TU Dublin, ARCH4CHANGE project.
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ACAN Education - key outcomes from educators workshops
Download workshop summary here
Future workshops
We plan to hold more educators workshops around specific areas such as History & Theory and Technology. We would like to hear your suggestions for other ways in which we can provide support. Please get in touch with us at education@architectscan.org
Workshop 1 - Educators Climate Crisis - 29.07.2020
On the 29th July 2020, more than 160 architecture educators from across the country (and further) met for the first Educators Climate Crisis Workshop held by the Architects Climate Action Network (ACAN). This group comprised tutors from across: Part 1 and 2 and non-accredited courses; design, history and theory, technical and professional studies; heads of schools to 1-day a week sessionals.
This incredible level of participation was a reflection of the appetite for change, and the realisation of the importance of the upcoming task we all share.
Presentations were given by:
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Students from various UK architecture schools
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Prof Fionn Stevenson, Professor of Sustainable Design at Sheffield School of Architecture
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David Knight, RCA Design Tutor ADS.2
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Mina Hasman, Expert Advisory Group of the RIBA Sustainable Futures
In breakout rooms, tutors discussed obstacles and actions to progress climate literacy in education. This session generated 10,000 words of notes, from which we have collated key outcomes.
Download workshop presentations, summary and outcomes here
Workshop 2 - Educators Climate Crisis - Brief Writing - 26.08.2020
More than 80 architecture educators from across the country (and further) met for the second Educators Climate Crisis Workshop, focusing on brief writing.
We heard from three guest speakers who tabled ideas on bettering our integration of professional practice and technology, strategic frameworks, as well as weather and ecology as design partners:
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Duncan Baker-Brown, Senior Lecturer University of Brighton, RIBA Council, Director at BBM Sustainable Design
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Ciaran Malik, Technology and Environment tutor, Architectural Association and Central St Martins
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Prof. Lindsay Bremner, Principal Investigator of Monsoon Assemblages research project, Univ. of Westminster
Watch the workshop on the ACAN youtube channel.
Download workshop presentations and summary here
ACAN!
ACAN is a network of individuals within architecture and related built environment professions taking action to address the twin crises of climate and ecological breakdown.