Educating the Sustainable Built Environment Professional – Facing the Challenge
Dr Sarath Mataraarachchi , Ms Sunanda Peri , Mr Liam Apter
The terms sustainability and sustainable development are used in conversations , writings , and government programmes more than ever . However , most cannot explain what it is if they were asked to do so . Sustainable development is all-encompassing and not limited to one discipline , location , or community . There are definitions , but they don ’ t provide a meaningful explanation of the concept — the difficulty of defining sustainability and making someone feel it is an issue for teachers of sustainability . Sustainability interconnects with everything we do and everything that happens around us . Interconnectivity essentially varies from place to place , activity to activity , and event to event . Classroom teaching and hypothetical projects are limited to known scenarios . Sustainability is related to some known and many unknown conditions and scenarios that are interdependent and interconnected . In educating the sustainable built environment professional , teachers face the challenge of creating conditions for the students to know , respond , and be innovative in responding to a myriad of situations that emerge in the built environment . To face this challenge , we have moved away from hypotheticals and created real-life opportunities for students to feel and experience sustainability rather than being taught through classroom exercises . We have created these opportunities by taking on the challenges faced by industry partners creating sustainable built environments . A significant part of the courses is devoted to real-life practical engagements to encourage spontaneity , insightful and critical thinking , and genuine reflection . Experience during the last few years demonstrated that real-life projects only offered opportunities to educate the professional . However , the quality of engagement between the industry and the course , students and class instructors , amongst students themselves , and the space for students to use their imagination determined the effectiveness of the knowledge creation and sharing to educate an effective professional .
22