Purpose: Following the positive call for a special issue on Architectural Pedagogies and Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), the purpose of this overview article is to contextualise reflections on nine selected articles, within recent efforts made by professional organisations, which aspire to blend sustainable development into the collective psyche of both academics and future professionals.Design/methodology/approach: This article adopts four lines of inquiry by capturing key insights on the place of sustainable design knowledge in architectural education validation and accreditation at both national and global scales; presenting analytical narratives on the recent global efforts that embrace excellence in architectural pedagogy through addressing SDGs; elucidating the two knowledge spaces, centred on pedagogy and sustainability, which are strengthened and supported by Archnet-IJAR, and offering reflections on the nine articles published in this special issue that aims at integration of the two knowledge spaces.Findings: Contextualisation and reflective narratives offer insights into current efforts and demonstrate a clear commitment of professional organisations to embed values relevant to SDGs. Efforts of the Education Commission of the International Union of Architects and the UNESCO-UIA Validation Council of Architectural Education appear to have advanced significantly over recent years with a clear prospect for a sustainable future. The nine articles published in this special issue respond clearly to the goal of Quality Education (SDG4), but not all of them have addressed the goals related to Good Health and Well-being (SDG3) and Sustainable Cities and Communities (SDG11), and their place in architectural pedagogy. However, they take a step further to address aspects of climate change, globalisation, sustainable architecture and urbanism, social sustainability, global north/global south dialectics and decolonisation.Practical implications: The findings offer opportunities to recognise efforts by professional organisations, map key pedagogical experiments into these efforts, while providing lessons learned from best practices aiming to effectively integrate SDGs into architectural pedagogy.Originality/value: No serious effort has been made to articulate the integration of SDGs into architectural education at the level of research or design studio pedagogical practice. Addressing architectural pedagogies and sustainable development is predicated on the fact that there is very little written or known on integrating SDGs into architectural education and design pedagogy. Understanding, appreciating, and sharing various efforts and approaches to incorporate SDGs into architectural pedagogy is a key step towards a sustainable future.

The coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19) condition has prompted serious questions about the challenges faced by the established two-century-old canons of education in architecture and urbanism. This paper establishes an evolutionary account on how design education in architecture and urbanism has arrived at the pre-Covid-19 condition, explores current challenges and, in the process of encountering the Covid-19 condition, asks the question of what the scope of opportunities is to meet these challenges. A chronological analysis of design pedagogy is undertaken to instigate a debate on its future in a post-pandemic environment. This paper captures the salient characteristics of the legacy model that is inherited from historical schools, demonstrates the influence of and resistance to this model (1960s); identifies the qualities of various alternatives including ten ground-breaking alternative pedagogies (1970s–1990s); highlights strengths of further alternative approaches including critical inquiry, the process-based and learning-by-making pedagogies (2000s) and the social construction-based pedagogies (2010s). Scrutinising the consequences of the Covid-19 condition and the associated ‘transitional emergency model’, the analysis articulates the persisting challenges and examines current adaptations while outlining the scope of future opportunities for a responsive design pedagogy in architecture and urbanism for a post-pandemic world.

This scoping review advocates for integrated approaches to the architectural design of education and health environments for children and young people, driven by diverse stakeholder perspectives.Li...

This paper calls for changes in the way we plan, design and build aged care facilities, proposing a new approach grounded in biophilic design. After reviewing current trends in design practice, including emerging new technologies and best practice initiatives – the Eden Alternative, the Green House model, and De Hogeweyk – we argue that biophilic design, which amplifies the connection that humans have with nature and provides a framework for designing for, with, and from nature, should be at the heart of aged care design. Drawing on an architectural case study analysis of three award-winning residential aged care facilities, we illustrate how biophilic design practice, although not explicitly conceptualised in such terms, is guiding contemporary best practice. Given the well-established public health benefits of contact with nature, and rapid population ageing, this paper challenges aged care stakeholders – from policymakers to planners, architects and designers – to rethink conventional practice and advocate for a biophilic approach.

Purpose: This research argues that architecture knowledge is fragmented between the profession and academia as evidenced by long-standing conflicting opinions regarding desirable graduate attributes. Work-integrated learning (WIL) is one mode of education where these fragments should come together. This research seeks to address a missing part of that WIL model and understand the profession's view of what constitutes quality education as a United Nations (UN) Sustainability Development Goal (SDG).Design/methodology/approach: Utilising a three round Delphi survey of the architecture profession engaged in WIL programs, this study reports on their perspectives of the key benefits and attributes of WIL and the value of WIL experiences as part of a quality higher education system.Findings: The architecture profession confirmed the value of WIL programs as contributing to students developing an understanding of workplace culture and contexts. There was strong agreement that WIL experiences can be a valuable part of a quality education and enhance graduate employability. Challenges for practice included semester-based program timing, the length of engagement with practice and the lack of WIL program guidance by universities to prepare the profession for WIL experiences.Originality/value: While WIL has been extensively researched over the last decade, it is limited in the architecture discipline. Survey findings address the research gap in understanding the architecture profession's views as a key WIL stakeholder which is important given the rapidly changing practice environments, globalisation and the increasingly transdisciplinary context.

An understanding of the theoretical basis of the design learning process, and the resulting partnership between students and teachers in contemporary design studios, is required to optimise learning. Students’ learning in the architecture design studio has been widely studied, however the specific activities of students and teachers, and the interpersonal interactions between them, have not been investigated in great depth. This research identifies a complex, nuanced situation, one with three consecutive phases of different learning activities and relationships. An undergraduate architecture program at a large Australian university is analysed using a modified Delphi method to investigate the perceptions of staff and students and achieve convergence upon a shared understanding of how the design learning process unfolds through three distinct phases to support learning.