About

Project summary

This university network between Europe and Asia has a goal of reinforcement of the integration of the sustainability issues in the Architecture and Urban Planning Education. It is directed to the present and future teaching staff of the universities/faculties of architecture and urban planning. The main activities of the project are the following actions (all of them undertaken in the area of the education on sustainable architecture and urban planning):
- exchange of the PhD and Master degree students,
- organization of the seminars and workshops about this area,
- establishing of the virtual research centre,
- organizing of the distant learning courses,
- investigation about the state of the art and
- forming the good practice database.

The network consists of the following universities:
1. Universitat Politecnica de Catalunya (UPC) (Spain) as the project coordinator
2. Politecnico di Milano (POLIMI) (Italy) as European partner
3. Hanoi Architectural University (HAU) (Vietnam) as Asian partner

The 75% of this 3-year project is financed by the Asia-link Programme of the European Commission.

Project newsletters:
Third Newsletter, December 2006
Second Newsletter, November 2006
First Newsletter, November 2005

Objectives

The overall objective of the project is to contribute to the search for sustainable solutions in the sector of building activities (architecture) and urban development through the cooperation between Asian and European universities. The first step in problem solving of the problems of unsustainable development of the cities has to be embedded in the very core/origin of the architecture and urban planning practice - its education. Through the arising of the awareness and capacitating the teaching staff, the aspects of sustainable architecture and urban planning would be integrated in the education received by the future professionals and thus in their future practice, creating healthy and nature-friendly city environment.

The purpose of this project is to upgrade and enhance the skills and mobility of the present and future teaching staff in the area of sustainable architecture and urban planning, consequently promoting the newly obtained knowledge to the students and raising the quality of the education. One of goals of the proposal is to connect education and practice, filling in the gap between "discipline" of architecture and a "profession" of architecture.

One of the basic issues in the process of problem solving has to be embedded in the very core of the architecture and urban planning practice - its education, which is often deprived of this aspect especially in Asian countries. In order to be able to produce sustainable architectural and planning projects future young professionals need to be educated in that fashion, and be provided by all the relevant knowledge. Therefore the project is based on the identified need for the exchange of the ideas and knowledge between the universities that would help to capacitate the teaching staff, and disseminate the new achievements in this area.

Beneficiaries

Sustainable development requires a broad public and professional awareness and understanding of the natural resources and economic challenges.

This trend of integrating sustainability aspect in education is already present in Europe, providing discipline based support for learning and teaching in the built environment through the subject communities of Architecture, Landscape, Urban Planning, Housing and Transport, Construction and Real Estate.

The sustainable practice in the area (which is to beneficiate the whole society) is introduced through the education. Therefore the beneficiary group is composed of those who are to achieve and disseminate the knowledge in the area: teaching staff, and future teaching staff. Secondarily it is addressed to the professionals (who are to act activelly as architects or urban planners) through the participation in the open seminars, conferences or distant learning courses, thus linking the education not only through the graduate / postgraduate courses but reaching to the already formed professionals reinforcing the impact of the project.

On the long run sustainable projects are more competitive then the unsustainable ones - this way both the professional and the society are beneficiaries in the wider sense. It is to be expected that each society politics make a strong turn toward the sustainable development. This has been stated at the conferences in Rio de Janeiro and Johannesburg. Therefore the individuals and groups that are educated in this fashion will be more likely to participate as active members of the society. On the other hand through their knowledge the society will also benefit through the environmentally correct practices the subjects will perform.