Increasing Social Awareness and Professional Collaboration in Architectural Education Towards a Sustainable and Disaster-Free Future

The aim of this study is to explore ways of increasing the social and professional awareness of students of architecture to educate a new generation of architects who are familiar with the concepts of social responsibility, professional collaboration, sustainable development and disaster mitigation. Turkey experiences a rapid social change due to the urban regeneration, population movements, environmental changes, new technologies and professional diversification. These phenomenon affect all aspects of life. This study explores the possibilities for applying new methods of teaching in schools of architecture to train a generation of architects who will be in tune with this new, ever-changing socio-cultural environment in Turkey. A study lasting one educational term of 14 weeks was conducted on a group of 15 second year students of architecture. A structural design course which previously had a purely theoretical and mathematical approcah to the subject matter was altered to contain background information regarding social context such as the photos, videos and narratives of earthquake affected areas of Turkey. This was done to introduce the students with the reality of the built environment and professional life in Turkey. Additionally small-scale applied projects were given as semester tasks to the students where they can experience a scaled but realistic application of the theoretical knowledge into reality. These two approaches were supplemented with theoretical knowledge to prepare the students for professional life in a realistic manner. A sudden increase in student attention and participation to the course was observed both in matters concrening the professional application and social context of their architectural projects. These findings were consistent with a previous study conducted by the author. The findings of this experimental application have resulted in a revision of the educational curriculum concerning the structural design courses to permanently include information regarding the social context and practical application of theoretical projetcs.