Announcing: Buildings & Cities Special Issue
Guest editors: Alison Kwok (University of Oregon) and Fionn Stevenson (University of Sheffield)
Deadline for abstract submission: 07 November 2019
Built environment education is at a critical juncture to ensure that the workforce has the capacities and capabilities to rapidly decarbonise built environments and reduce environmental degradation, for both new construction and the existing building stock. A rapid transition is needed in universities and training colleges in order to address the Climate Emergency by equipping students and existing professionals / workers with new knowledge and skills. Currently, a workforce without the appropriate low-carbon skills at national and global levels is delivering immediate and long-term negative consequences due to the longevity of buildings, infrastructures and cities. The decisions and designs made now and over the next few years will continue to impact for 60+ years.
The present systems of professional and vocational knowledge creation and transfer (which varies considerably from country to country and program to program) need to be challenged to produce very different forms of interdisciplinary and disciplinary knowledge and skills. Opportunities for synchronicity and rapid propulsion need developing – both within disciplinary boundaries and between disciplines.
To address this sense of extreme urgency, this special issue will examine key questions and offer solutions for educational and training pedagogies, curricula and other practices for the many different built environment disciplines / trades. How can education and training be rapidly changed to ensure the creation of zero-carbon built environments? How can this transition be implemented successfully? What positive examples and models can be drawn upon or adapted? Key topics are: mainstreaming, policy and leadership, transitioning, teaching, upskilling and certification.