Greening the Architectural Curriculum in Egyptian Institutions of Higher Education

Abstract

Egypt is taking serious steps towards sustainability and energy efficiency. The Ministry of Housing, Utilities and Urban Development (MHUUD) has an interest in promoting green buildings as part of its overall sustainable development policies. The Housing and Building National Research Center (HBNRC) took the initiative to establish the Egyptian Green Building Council (GBC-Egypt). In response to the need for an Egyptian green building assessment system, the HBNRC has produced the Green Pyramid Rating System (GPRS). It is important to raise awareness among the practicing and academic architects to the seriousness of having green buildings as the next future direction for Egyptian buildings. In the Egyptian architectural education, inclusions of sustainability aspects are fragmented relying mainly upon individual efforts of lecturers that are familiar and inclined towards the subject matter. The present paper attempts to integrate the concept of sustainability into the thinking and teaching of architecture in Egypt. This will be achieved by modifying present educational approach and practice. There is a need to review the existing curriculum of schools of architecture to include the important aspects of sustainability in the courses content. Two Egyptian universities are selected: Cairo University (CU) and October University of Modern Sciences and Arts (MSA), and compared with the College of Architecture in Arizona, USA. Introducing sustainability design studios and sustainability related courses to the architectural education are essential. Change in architectural curriculum in Egyptian universities is discussed.