Sustainable Design Practices Research Articles

An examination of the factors influencing a cohort of post-graduate architecture students in the adoption of sustainable design practices that support health and well-being

Presented in this paper are the results of an interactive workshop undertaken with a cohort of international architecture students, which aimed to explore their approaches to sustainable decision-making and design, including biophilic and restorative environmental design. The intention of the research was to establish current barriers to the adoption of design strategies that support occupant health and well-being. An essential constituent of sustainable design, occupant health and well-being feeds into the overarching aim of UN’s Sustainable Development Goal 3, to ensure healthy lives and promote well-being for all at all ages. A total of 68 international post-graduate architecture students took part in the study. The results of the research highlight a significant knowledge gap, with few students demonstrating an understanding of both the direct and indirect benefits of implementing holistic sustainable design strategies, and very few reporting a knowledge or well-developed understanding of biophilic or restorative environmental design. However, the research did highlight students’ propensity towards environmentally responsible behaviour. Indeed, environmental attitudes appear to be in place, but what is currently lacking in these early career practitioners are the knowledge and skills to implement holistic sustainable decision-making.

Towards sustainable design: Integrating data from operation of buildings in design practices

In recent years, the Danish Architecture, Engineering and Construction industry has shown increased interest in sustainability in contributing to the achievement of the UN 17 sustainable development goals. Sustainable design is, however, hampered by lack of information and weak data integration especially in the early design stages of building projects. In order to overcome these challenges, research has proposed transferring information from operation to the design of new buildings. By conducting a case study analysis in a Danish architecture firm, this research aims to explore the form of collaboration between architects and building client, and how this collaboration can support or inhibit the calculations of life cycle costing as an essential part of sustainable design practices. The data, for this exploratory research, are gathered through direct observations, surveys and semi-structured interviews. Structured analysis is used as the theoretical methodology to map the flow of data in a paradigmatic building project of the case company and recognize existing forms of knowledge transfer and areas of improvement. The results indicate that there are significant potentials of collaboration, however, several actions should be taken from both sides in order to enable information and data exchange. By improving the collaboration with building clients, architects will gain access to information from operation of buildings, which can be effectively used in architecture design improving the sustainability of buildings and contributing to SDG-9: Industry, Innovation and Infrastructure.

A Research Roadmap for Sustainable Design Methods and Tools

Sustainable design methods and tools abound, but their implementation in practice remains marginal. This article brings together results from previous literature reviews and analyses of sustainable design methods and tools, as well as input from design researchers and professional practitioners to identify the needs and gaps in the area. It results in a shared vision of how sustainable design methods and tools can be more tightly integrated into mainstream product design and development, as well as the current state of practice and research in relation to four central questions: What are the needs and values of industry regarding sustainable design? What improvements in sustainable design methods and tools would most drive industry forward? How should researchers move forward with developing more useful sustainable design methods and tools? How can sustainable design be more effectively integrated into industry? A roadmap for the international sustainable design research community is proposed with descriptions of short-, medium-, and long-term tasks for addressing each question. The purpose is to support collective progress and discussions on method and tool development and adoption, and to enable more tangible success in mainstreaming sustainable design practices in industry.

Leveraging sustainable design practices through supplier involvement in new product development: The role of the suppliers' environmental management capability

Firms often aim to develop new products in an environmentally sustainable fashion, while at the same time ensuring profitability. While firms may aim to do so themselves through internal sustainable design practices, what has increasingly become prevalent is to leverage the expertise of suppliers in such endeavors. With this framing and by relying on the resource-based view and its extensions reflected in the natural resource-based view of the firm, this study develops a conceptual model theorizing how internal resources in the form of sustainable design practices enable a firm to improve the environmental and economic performance associated with new product development initiatives. Further, we propose that (external) supplier involvement in new product development complements a firm's internal efforts to reap benefits from sustainable design practices, with this complementary effect however being contingent on the suppliers' environmental management capability. The results from testing this model with empirical survey data provide important academic and managerial insights regarding how firms should best manage their efforts to develop environmentally friendly new products through the leveraging of both internal (firm) and external (supplier) resources.

Co-learning for sustainable design: The case of a circular design collaborative project in Ireland

Incorporating concerns of sustainability and circularity into design practice is undoubtedly important for both design research and education. There is a need to equip novice designers with the skills to facilitate a sustainability-focused future, whilst also collaborating with industry to implement these concerns into contemporary design practices. On the one hand, SMMEs and small teams in other sectors (i.e. public) lack the resources and time to improve their knowledge, to explore alternative ways of conducting business and to transform their design practices. Contrarily, novice designers (i.e. design students) can access state-of-the-art knowledge on sustainability and experiment with sustainable design practices throughout their education, yet they lack insights into market realities around implementation. Similarly, design researchers and educators are on the fore-front of developing sustainability-focused design methodology through research, but they often lack exposure to the industry. If the parties were all to work together, however, the sharing of resources, knowledge and experiences become valuable commodities in creating more sustainable design practices.This paper outlines an on-campus Design for Circular Economy and Sustainability training programme where industry worked with interns and academics to address real-world challenges. The project forms a part of a larger EU collaboration. The programme aimed to create a co-learning environment for novice designers, industry partners and design researcher/educators. Here all stakeholders could exchange their knowledge and insights and learn from each other to explore and experiment with practically implementing sustainability in real-world contexts. This paper briefly introduces the development of the programme and explores how and what co-learning occurred for the different stakeholders. Finally, the paper discusses how the outcomes of this programme subsequently affected the practices of industry partners. The programme offered a unique environment to prepare novice designers for the real world and provided researcher/educators with valuable insights on how to facilitate such a transition. The industry partners utilised this experience and outcomes to review their practices and kick-start the transition towards sustainable businesses.

Repurposing apparel: A guided process for sustainable design education

ABSTRACT The goal of this study was to explore educational strategies to teach repurposing, in the apparel design classroom guided by the gold standard project-based learning (GSPBL) model. The researchers collected and analysed project reflections from participants over four semesters, utilising a qualitative research approach. Results of the data analysis impacted the evolution of the project (four iterations) and suggested five instructional practices to build upon the project structure to teach repurposing in the apparel design classroom. Educational strategies made throughout the study influenced students’ approach to their design process, conscientious of textile waste, and perception toward repurposing. Successful outcomes of the study included the development of transferrable skills, such as creative and critical design thinking, problem-solving, and time management, as well as learning satisfaction. Additionally, findings of this study contributed to the body of knowledge of sustainable design: repurposing. Overall, this research guides teaching sustainable design practices.

A Mixed-Method Study of Design Practices and Designers’ Roles in Sustainable-Minded Clothing Companies

The way in which the current fashion industry operates needs to fundamentally change. In this endeavour, designers are considered central figures throughout the sustainable fashion literature. However, too little is known about clothing designers’ practical contributions to sustainability. Therefore, this study investigates how sustainability is integrated into design practices in sustainable-minded clothing companies and determines the role of clothing designers in this respect. A mixed-method study was conducted based on a sequential exploratory strategy. The data were collected in two stages: a preliminary phase based on five expert interviews and a survey phase, which involved 31 clothing designers from around Europe. The data analysis was also divided into two phases: thematic analysis of the interviews and content analysis of the survey. The findings indicate that the sustainable design practices within these companies predominantly focus on material choices and aspects that support product longevity. Yet, there is little empirical evidence to support claims regarding garments’ true longevity. Knowledge regarding materials, recycling and best practices is also lacking among clothing designers. Lack of knowledge and company strategies frequently dictate and restrict the design work. This further highlights the fact that designers’ opportunities to influence environmental and social change are more limited than earlier literature suggests.

The green adaptation-regeneration nexus: innovation or business-as-usual?

ABSTRACT There are divergent visions and practices of sustainable urban design in the context of contemporary processes of climate adaptation and infrastructural change. However, the key influences on what trajectory is adopted in different instances have yet to be explored in depth. This article highlights and explores an emerging connection between climate adaptation, sustainable urban design and regeneration or what is termed the ‘green adaptation-regeneration nexus’. This is identified as an ambiguous phenomenon which could instantiate more integrated and collaborative models of planning or, alternatively, denote an intensified economic focus. The implications of the green adaptation-urban regeneration nexus are explored through two case studies of combined climate adaptation and regeneration projects in Sheffield and Copenhagen. The key finding is that both projects’ institutional setting within pre-existing regeneration planning frameworks has been a key influence in both enabling and constraining community participation. The article's key contribution is to highlight the inadequacy of inherited and often flawed planning frameworks from the perspective of realizing innovative, socially and ecologically sustainable approaches to design in an increasingly important sector of urban planning and design practice.

A Review and Insights for Eleven Years of Urban Microclimate Research Towards a New Egyptian ERA of Low Carbon, Comfortable and Energy-Efficient Housing Typologies

Since the mid-1970s, urban development in Egypt has sprawled far from the distinguished compact arid built environment, as the court-yarded housing typologies that completed the vernacular picture of desert architecture have been discarded in the early 20th century. This has motivated urban microclimate research in Egypt. The main objective was initially to improve outdoor thermal comfort. Therefore, Egyptian research started with assessing different existing patterns for the sake of climate responsive and sustainable urban design practice characterized with low carbon, thermal comfort and energy efficiency in such a hot arid conditions. That is why the review workflow of this article has followed a design progress workflow that led to solving design complexities with regard to generating housing urban forms on a microclimate basis rather than an article regular review workflow in order to extract the research gaps and conclude insights. After discussing a general framework for generating housing sustainable design identified from the concluded gaps, the main conclusion is a vision and a call to integrate the Urban microclimate-Building passiveness-Renewables design dimensions, UBR, towards the evolution of a new era of energy efficient housing typologies and a 5th generation of Egyptian sustainable cities where the 1st generation of new Egyptian cities started 1970s.

Sustainability coursework: student perspectives and reflections on design thinking

PurposeThe purpose of this study was to assess particular student outcomes when design thinking was integrated into an environmental engineering course. The literature is increasingly promoting design thinking for addressing societal and environmental sustainability engineering challenges. Design thinking is a human-centered approach that identifies needs upfront.Design/methodology/approachIn an undergraduate engineering course, Design for the Environment, students have begun to obtain hands-on experience in applying design thinking to sustainability challenges. This case study investigates the association between the use of design thinking and student creativity with sustainability design solutions. Student perspectives on their own creativity and future sustainable design practices as a result of the course were also investigated.FindingsThe findings were favorable for design thinking, being associated with a significant difference and medium-to-large effect with regards to solution novelty. A qualitative analysis showed a positive association between design thinking and students’ perceptions of their creativity and future anticipated sustainability practices. Using a content analysis of reflective writings, students’ application of design thinking was assessed for comprehensiveness and correctness. A two-week introductory design-thinking module and significant use of in-class active learning were the course elements that most notably impacted students’ use of design thinking.Practical implicationsThis case study preliminarily demonstrates that application of design thinking within an environmental engineering course may be associated with beneficial outcomes related to creativity and sustainability.Originality/valueA review of the literature did not uncover studies of the use of design thinking for undergraduate socio-environmental challenges to promote creativity and sustainable-practices outcomes, although the literature has been calling for the marrying of these two areas.

Leveraging Sustainable Design Practices through Supplier Involvement in New Product Development: The Role of Suppliers’ Environmental Management Capability

Firms often aim to develop new products in an environmentally sustainable fashion, while at the same time ensuring profitability. While firms may aim to do so themselves through internal sustainable design practices, what has increasingly become prevalent is to leverage the expertise of suppliers in such endeavors. With this framing and by relying on the resource-based view and its extensions reflected in the natural resource-based view of the firm, this study develops a conceptual model theorizing how internal resources in the form of sustainable design practices enable a firm to improve the environmental and economic performance associated with new product development initiatives. Further, we propose that (external) supplier involvement in new product development complements a firm’s internal efforts to reap benefits from sustainable design practices, with this complementary effect however being contingent on the suppliers’ environmental management capability. The results from testing this model with empirical survey data provide important academic and managerial insights regarding how firms should best manage their efforts to develop environmentally friendly new products through the leveraging of both internal (firm) and external (supplier) resources.

Ya'an Grit Utensils Welfare Brand Business Model Innovation and Sustainable Design Practice

Ya'an Grit Utensils Welfare Brand Business Model Innovation and Sustainable Design Practice

Design of healthcare structures by green standards

Global warming is real, and the healthcare industry is both a contributor and a victim. Also, physical setting and, in particular, sustainable design practices can support patient recovery during hospitalization. In the context of this paper, focus areas for design of green healthcare structures have been explored in detail. Herein, we are laying focus on understanding architecturally justified approaches of interior lighting in a healthcare setting. This paper also discusses design strategies to improve indoor air quality in hospitals and the current international research to improve indoor air quality are reported. Other focus areas like greenhouse keeping, use of green interior materials and landscaping are discussed. Data for the review was extracted from published books and diverse online sources with the help of the Google search engine. It was found that healthcare structures, being resource intensive establishments, consume vast amounts of energy, water, and construction materials to provide high quality care. It was also found that healthcare institutions, by adopting sustainable measures are capable of reducing their environmental footprint to a bigger extent, boost the wellbeing of healthcare staff and aid patient recovery.

Research on the Dilemma of Sustainable Fashion Design

With a constant production increase, fibre is made into over 150 billion garments in a long and dispersive supply chain; as a result of the mutual stimulation of demand and output, garment production has repeatedly surged to new highs; while bringing economic benefits, the rapid growth of fashion industry has also had a profound negative impact on social culture and natural environment, and fashion industry has become one of the most polluted industries in the world after petroleum and gas; Fiber continues to increase production and is manufactured into more than 150 billion pieces of clothing in a long and scattered supply chain. The mutual stimulation of demand and output has made clothing output record high, high growth brings economic benefits and also allows the fashion industry social humanities and the natural environment had a profound negative impact on fashion but also became one of the world's oil and gas after the worst industrial pollution, consumerism-driven fashion culture among contemporary construction of ecological civilization and there is a fierce internal Contradiction, clothing as the main material embodiment of fashion culture, the sustainable correction of its design is the basic means to solve this contradiction. However, there are many difficulties in the process of sustainable correction of clothing design, such as ethical divergence, loss of design value, lack of design theory and methodology system, lack of educational resources, and constraints of the actual environment. It is a prerequisite for designers to develop sustainable fashion design practices and develop sustainable fashion culture to discover and confront these acute problems.

An Examination of the Upcycling Design Process of Used Clothes among Fashion Design Students : Towards an Approach for Sustainable Fashion Design Practice

An Examination of the Upcycling Design Process of Used Clothes among Fashion Design Students : Towards an Approach for Sustainable Fashion Design Practice

Assessment of Biophilic Design Patterns on Skill Development, In Minna, Niger State

As an interactive sustainable alternative to existing sustainable design practices, biophilic design struggles to promote the possibility of merging the built and natural environment. The study is aimed at assessing the extent to which biophilic design patterns influences skill development in order to suggest interactive sustainable alternatives. The study adopted a mixed method of research. Qualitative data were obtained via the review of relevant literature while quantitative data were obtained via the use of a structured questionnaire administered to 32 respondents in the study population. The respondents were selected from the users of purpose-built skill acquisition and development spaces in Minna, Niger state, to determine the level of satisfaction with the implementation of these patterns and considerations in skill acquisition and development space. The quantitative data was analysed with the use of statistical package for social sciences (SPSS) and the results presented descriptively with the use of tables. The findings suggest that most users were satisfied with patterns from nature in space patterns and natural analogue patterns relating to direct and indirect connection with natural systems.

Talking Textiles, Making Value: Catalyzing Fashion, Dress, and Textiles Heritage in the Midlands

There are hundreds of small museums, archives, and collections in the English Midlands, United Kingdom (UK), many of which are the legacy of the region’s rich industrial heritage. A surprising number of these include dress and textiles in various forms, from the costume collection of Charles Paget-Wade at Berrington Hall (Leominster) to intricately stitched smocks made by local needlewomen in Herefordshire, and the wealth of manufacturers’ samples that comprise the silk ribbon trade archive at the Herbert Museum, Coventry. These are challenging times for many such organizations as they face cutbacks in staff and local authority funding. Yet they offer a unique and largely unexploited resource for staff, students, and researchers in art and design higher education (HE), not only for primary research but also as a catalyst for design innovation.The discussion here, which takes the format of group research practitioner interview, builds on a Knowledge Exchange event that was held December 2017 at the Fashion Lab, University of Wolverhampton (UoW). The event brought together a diverse group of fashion and textiles professionals to talk, exchange ideas, take part in object handling sessions, mind-map, and brain-storm how to catalyze connections between heritage collections and HE and build value. With seed funding from the Museum-University Partnership Initiative (see National Coordinating Center for Public Engagement—NCCPE 2019), the day built on a series of scoping visits to collections in the region undertaken by Professor Fiona Hackney and Dr Emily Baines. The group involved staff, students and museum professionals including those from UoW, De Montfort University, Hereford College of Arts, Nottingham Trent University, artist Ruth Singer who leads the Arts Council-funded Criminal Quilts project in association with Staffordshire Record Office (Singer 2019), and representatives from Herefordshire Museum Service, the Herbert Gallery (Coventry), Walsall Museums Service, the Lace Guild Stourbridge, and Ironbridge Gorge Museum Trust. The following conversation reflects themes that emerged in the project including: the need to embed archival work and primary research in fashion and textiles curricula at all levels, the development of hubs to connect university research with museum practice, the added value of artist-led projects, and the significance of place-based textiles heritage as a catalyst for new business and sustainable design practice.

Engaging engineering students in socially responsible design using global projects

ABSTRACTEngineering education for sustainable design often focuses on technical solutions with little consideration of social impact. This paper presents a case study of a project-based learning (PBL) studio course engaging engineering students in social and sustainable design practices with external clients in developing economies. The case is a review of how concepts from Socially Responsible Design (SRD), Appropriate Technology (AT) and Human-Centred Design (HCD) integrated into a pedagogical model (Locale) focusing student effort on the socio-cultural, technical, economic and environmental aspects. Drawing on data from ten years of course operation the analysis identifies three distinct variants. Re-examining all 186 design projects using a new metric based on the pedagogical model (Locale) revealed an upward trend in the socio-cultural and economic appropriateness of the solutions without any diminution of technical suitability. Thus, the paper provides a new approach for designing and evaluating PBL courses specifically focused on social and sustainable design.

Grease the Green Wheels: A Framework for Expediting the Green Building Movement in the Arab World

It has been over three decades since the term “sustainable development” was coined in Brundtland’s report in 1987, and 28 years have passed since the world’s first sustainability assessment method for buildings was founded by the Building Research Establishment in UK in 1990. During these three decades, many sustainability standards, codes, and rating systems were created and used to help in designing, constructing, maintaining, rating, and labeling buildings with attaining the principles of sustainability. Yet by looking at the Arab world at the beginning of 2019, one can argue that, although the Arab countries have dedicated the effort and budget to save energy, water, and natural resources, the region as a whole is still struggling to shift the paradigm of the building industry from conventional to sustainable. This struggle raises some questions; are there any challenges that Arab countries must overcome to leap forward to a prosperous sustainable building design and construction practices? Why are existing green building rating systems such as Estidama in United Arab Emirates, global sustainability assessment system (GSAS) in Qatar, and ARZ in Lebanon lagging behind the trends of green building rating systems in the developed countries? What are the coordinated steps needed to expedite this movement across the region? The current study explores the limits and potentials of the green building industry in the Arab world through analysis of the green building initiatives, academic scholarship activities in architecture and engineering sectors, and feedback from green building professionals across the Arab world. This article introduces a theoretical framework to expedite the green building movement in the Arab region; the framework is shaped by the environmental, social, and economic factors that are crucial to the transformation of the building industry from conventional to sustainable. The study seeks to support a line of research that could help governments in the Arab world catch up with the global green building trends.

INDUSTRY PERCEPTIONS OF SUSTAINABLE DESIGN AND CONSTRUCTION PRACTICES IN KUWAIT

ABSTRACTTo better meet global sustainable development goals will require more focus on Arab countries like Kuwait, which contribute one and a half times more global greenhouse gas emissions per capita than the United States. Buildings contribute more than half of these emissions. Rating systems like LEED and BREEAM can help reduce energy emissions from buildings globally when used during construction, but these rating systems are not entirely applicable to Kuwait as they are not tailored for its geographic climate and social context, and there is currently no rating system tailored for energy efficient and environmentally sustainable buildings. The research presented in this paper measures the industry's perceptions about sustainable design and construction practices in Kuwait. A synthesized list of sustainable design and construction principles were developed from the six most common rating systems globally that are currently being used in the Arab region. Construction professionals (n = 131) from Kuwait were asked in a qualitative survey which sustainable design principles and construction practices are the most applicable but are not being implemented. The majority of professionals responded that sustainable practices related to water use reduction and renewable energy sources are most applicable but are not currently being implemented. They also responded that sustainable practices related to bicycle facilities, green roofs, and rainwater harvesting are not applicable but are currently being implemented. The lack of training and limited awareness of the benefits of sustainable design and construction may be contributing to the lack of sustainable practices. As a whole, professionals in Kuwait appear to undervalue sustainable design and construction practices that promote environmental sustainability. This study provides a benchmark, indicating a lack of shared viewpoints and illustrates the need for more common objectives and the need for training among design and construction professionals in the region.