Students’ Approach to Recycling and Sustainability: A Design Study on Affordable Container Houses

Abstract

The world has been suffering from serious environmental problems in the last decades. However, there are also ongoing attempts to reduce harmful human impact on nature. All those attempts require interdisciplinary work by various professions, one of them being architecture regarding its role and responsibility in environmental issues. Architecture discipline is required to formulate new methods and strategies to maintain harmony between natural and built environments. Furthermore, the academy in the field of architecture has the mission of training future architects with the notion to meet the expectations of contemporary societies. Accordingly, sustainable design and energy efficiency in buildings have become important fields in architectural education. This paper presents container housing as an educational theme in the design studio for first-year architecture students as a reliable method for environmentally responsive design. The findings of the case study point out that using a design topic that promotes sustainability and energy efficiency has a significant effect on the students’ awareness about the issues. © 2020 Elsevier B.V., All rights reserved.