Pod-Scape: Teaching and Learning Resources for Sustainable Design Education

In early 2006 the School of Architecture & Design of the University of Brighton was invited to participate in a European Union funded project on design education in sustainability, DEEDS. European partners of the project are: ICIS (International Centre for Creativity, Innovation and Sustainability, Denmark, lead partner), BEDA (Bureau of European Design Associations, Spain/Belgium), Academy of Fine Arts in Poznan (Poland), and SERI (Sustainable Europe Research Institute, Germany). The aim of the project, which started in November 2006, is to research, develop, and implement new educational models and tools for embedding sustainability within design curricula. In Brighton the project is run by Anne Boddington (project-leader), Karin Jaschke (project-coordinator), and Tom Ainsworth (research assistant).

After an initial research phase (including a series of consultations with staff from the School of Architecture and Design, research with students, interviews with members of senior management, and a staff workshop at Schumacher College in Devon) we are now addressing Deeds' main strategic aim, the provision of tools for sustainable design education to a Europe-wide design community. This resource is envisaged to be web- and wiki-based, open-source, interactive, and interdisciplinary. It is intended that tutors contribute material in various formats and that this can be sourced at different levels by educators, professional designers, and students. It is currently conceived as a pod-scape that will contain a variety of empty, partially-filled, and full pods (sets of information) with concepts, visual material, data, lecture drafts or pod-casts, and other teaching resources on subjects relating to sustainable design. Tutors would adopt and manage pods according to their expertise and experience and draw on others as required.

The architecture programme has taken a lead within the Brighton project: currently a Unit of Study entitled 'Sustainable Design Practices' is being developed for the undergraduate programme by André Viljoen (studio), Nick Hayhurst (practices), Jyri Kermik (technology), and Karin Jaschke (history and theory), in association with Andrew Miller and Kenneth Ip (School of Environment and Technology). This unit will provide core elements to the pod-scape and pilot the sharing of resources between different programmes, with the aim of creating a core-network of sustainable design education resources within the school and beyond. The pilot is scheduled to be online by September. It is intended that this approach be promulgated across programmes, Schools and Faculties, and beyond. To this effect, in November 2008, Deeds and the School of Architecture and Design will host an international symposium on sustainable design education in Brighton.

These efforts are part of a network of sustainability initiatives that are currently emerging within the University and we hope that these will reinforce each other and create synergies as they develop.
Deeds invites lecturers and other staff members to contribute to the pod-scape:

• by sharing experiences in sustainable design education in their programmes with Deeds
• by giving feedback on the Deeds intentions and initiatives as set out above
• by contributing to the pod-scape by adopting one or more pods and thus sharing their teaching and learning resources.