The “Sustainability” Paradigm in Architectural Education in UAE

Abstract

Sustainability has become among the major concerns of UAE policy in city planning and development since the adoption of Abu Dhabi master plan 2030, the inauguration of Masdar city and university and the launch of “Estidama” program and regulations. However, this subject (sustainability) is still looked at as a facultative matter to be included in the architectural curricula taught in the country. Testing this hypothesis required tracing this paradigm in all the architecture programs offered in UAE. An investigation of the eight curricula was conducted based on literature reviews and preliminary content analysis of the online and printed prospectuses. This exhaustive study revealed that the concern about sustainability is clearly expressed in the large majority of these institutions’ official literature. However, most programs courses addressing this paradigm have not reached mature level yet. On the other hand, the results of this research comfort the previous assertions expressed about architectural education in the Arab and Islamic regions and even in most countries of the world, that sustainability is not or rarely introduced in the several studio courses that are the spine of any architectural curriculum. This is due to this persistent discontinuity between the studio and the other “theory” or “engineering” based courses included in the program. It is also the result of the slow integration, by the studio teachers, of the paradigm of sustainability as central factor in the constitution of the architect of today and tomorrow. The paper concludes by a prologue for the future of the UAE architectural education, arguing for a real integration of “sustainability” in the curricula and in the studios teaching practices with its adaptation to the norms defined by the local context and culture.