About EDUCATE
What is EDUCATE?What has been the mission of EDUCATE?
Which partners have been involved in the EDUCATE Consortium?
What objectives have been achieved by EDUCATE?
Who has supported EDUCATE in Europe?
Which have been the target groups of EDUCATE?
How have members of target groups got involved in EDUCATE?
Where have EDUCATE events been held?
EDUCATE (Environmental Design in University Curricula and Architectural Training in Europe) is an Action funded by the European Commission - Energy Agency for Competitiveness and Innovation (EACI) under the “Intelligent Energy Europe” 2008 Programme (Contract n. IEE/08/635/SI2.528419). The Action started in June 2009 and finished in May 2012.
A comprehensive presentation of the EDUCATE Action (available in six languages) can be found here
What has been the mission of EDUCATE?
The promotion of sustainability in the design of the built environment is a key-factor for addressing the challenges mankind faces in response to finite resource availability, energy consumption and climate change. Awareness of the role that buildings play in the current environmental crisis - together with the requirements arising from recent regulations - is triggering professional demands for architectural graduates with advanced skills in sustainable environmental design, presenting new challenges for students, educators and practitioners.
To address these challenges, the mission of EDUCATE has been to deconstruct the pedagogical barriers to the integration of sustainability and energy efficiency in university curricula and in the practice of architecture, disseminate know-how and exempla of best practice on sustainable environmental design, and propose the harmonisation of qualification prescriptions across Europe.
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Which partners have been involved in the EDUCATE Consortium?
EDUCATE has been built on a Consortium of seven European academic partners:
- University of Nottingham (Coordinator) - Department of Architecture and Built Environment / School of Computer Science (UK)
- Architectural Association School of Architecture (UK)
- Catholic University of Louvain - Architecture et Climat, Faculté des Sciences Appliquées (Belgium)
- Technical University of Munich - Facultat fur Architektur (Germany)
- University of Rome La Sapienza - Dipartimento ITACA, Facoltà di Architettura (Italy)
- Seminar of Architecture and Environment, SAMA Sociedad Civil (Spain)
- Budapest University of Technology and Economics - Faculty of Architecture (Hungary)
What objectives have been achieved by EDUCATE?
The main objectives achieved by EDUCATE have been:
- Consolidate and build on the existing state of play of environmental awareness, knowledge and ability-base in architectural education and practice in Europe, sharing experiences and transferring know-how from countries that have sustainable environmental design and energy efficiency embedded in their curriculum to countries that have not
- Define and test a framework for curriculum development enabling the adoption and incorporation of sustainable environmental design at different levels and stages of architectural education to meet current professional demands and expectations
- Develop an intelligent Portal on sustainable environmental design and energy efficiency in architecture featuring an extensive online Knowledge Base that facilitates such integration in higher education and supports continuing professional development for building practitioners
- In concert with Chambers of Architects, propose the harmonisation of architectural curricula and qualification requirements in Europe, enhancing the establishment of a comparable, compatible and coherent European Higher Education Area - one of the objectives of the Bologna process -and clarifying the level of knowledge, skills and competence of sustainable environmental design and energy efficiency expected of graduates qualifying as architects in Europe
- Promote and disseminate environmental know-how and exempla of best practice amongst students, educators, building professionals and the public at large, fostering change of behaviour and expectations towards the integration of sustainable design and energy efficiency in building practices
Who has supported EDUCATE in Europe?
The EDUCATE Action has been supported in Europe by Chambers of Architects in participating countries (United Kingdom, Belgium, Germany, Italy, Spain, Hungary), networks and associations of educators and practitioners, international architectural firms and energy agencies.
Specifically, EDUCATE has received so far the formal support of the following market players:
Chambers of Architects (Subcontractors)
- RIBA - Royal Institute of British Architects (United Kingdom);
- CNOA - Conseil National de l’Ordre des Architectes de Belgique (Belgium);
- Bayerische Architektenkammer (Germany);
- Ordine degli Architetti, Pianificatori, Paesaggisti e Conservatori di Roma e Provincia (Italy);
- Consejo Superior de Colegios de Arquitectos de España (Spain);
- Magyar Építész Kamara (Hungary).
Architects / Building Professionals
- Peter Clegg - Feilden Clegg Bradley Studios (London, UK);
- Edward Cullinan - Edward Cullinan Architects (London, UK);
- Alistair Guthrie - ARUP (London, UK);
- Bill Gething - Sustainability + Architecture (London, UK);
- Richard Hawkes - Hawkes Architecture (London, UK);
- Ken Shuttleworth - MAKE Architects (London, UK);
- Mario Cucinella - MCA Architects (Bologna, Italy);
- MEDIOMUNDO Arquitectos (Sevilla, Spain).
Academic Institutions / Association of Educators
- Architectural Association (United Kingdom);
- The Higher Education Academy - CEBE Centre for Education in the Built Environment (UK);
- SCHOSA Standing Conference of Heads of Schools of Architecture (United Kingdom);
- Prima Facoltà di Architettura “L. Quaroni” - Università di Roma La Sapienza (Italy);
- Conferenza Nazionale dei Presidi delle Facoltà di Architettura (National Association of Heads of Schools of Architecture, Italy);
- Escuela Técnica Superior de Arquitectura - Universidad de Sevilla (Spain).
Professional Associations
- BDA Bund Deutscher Architekten - Association of German Architects (Germany);
- Agencia Andalusa de la Energía - Consejería de Innovación, Ciencia y Empresa (Spain);
- Magyar Èpitomuvèszek Svovetsège - Association of Hungarian Architects (Hungary);
- ÈMI - Non-profit Company for Quality Control and Innovation in Building (Hungary).
Which have been the target groups of EDUCATE?
The target groups of the EDUCATE Action have been:
- Students of Architecture
- Academics
- Professional Bodies
- Architects
- General public
How have members of target groups got involved in EDUCATE?
- Students of architecture across Europe have been engaged in EDUCATE through the development of an integrated curriculum and have gained access to a vast body of technical knowledge via the EDUCATE Portal and its Knowledge Base
- Academics across Europe have been involved through participation at events (workshops and symposia) and targeted communication. They have been invited to put in practice the developed framework for curriculum development
- Professional bodies have been directly involved in EDUCATE through dissemination of environmental knowledge towards continuing professional development (CPD) activities and through the proposition of homogeneous criteria for architectural qualification in Europe
- Architects have been engaged through events (workshops and symposia), targeted communication, dissemination of knowledge and best practice, and continuing professional development via the EDUCATE Portal
- The general public has been engaged via events (workshops and symposia) and via the EDUCATE web page, which has represented an open source for best practice in sustainable design
Where have EDUCATE events been held?
Throughout the duration of the Action (2009–2012), the EDUCATE Consortium has held an Action event in each of the cities where the consortium partners were based.
The schedule for the EDUCATE events has been as follows:
- Educational Workshop: July 2009, Nottingham (UK)
- Symposium: January 2010, Budapest (HU)
- Technical Workshop: July 2010, London (UK)
- Technical Workshop: January 2011, Seville (Spain)
- Educational Workshop: June 2011, Munich (Germany)
- Symposium: February 2011, Rome (Italy)
- Symposium: May 2012, Brussels (Belgium)
