Ecological Issues In Architecture (ARCH213)
The core course promises to be an important component in paving the path towards environmentally sensitive architecture education with the purpose of providing architecture students with a sensitivity and understanding of the natural processes that shape our s ocial, cultural and natural environment. The course focuses on basic ecological design principles and concepts at two scales - the small scale site/building and the larger scale comprising the development of an urban quarter or cluster, and exposes the students to both conventional and the latest technological knowledge available. Key issues/concepts to be explored within the course include: the primary reasons and arguments for the rapidly expanding ecological design movement (with references to population, community, ecosystem, natural environment, densi ty and context), sustainable architecture and its various dimensions (design with climate, nature, material, community, new technology, etc.), traditional architecture and urbanism, regional architecture, design with ecology and technology, case studies in contemporary regional/ecological design.