Studying The Built Environment

This unique book introduces students to the themes and aspects of studying the built environment. Contemporary issues such as sustainability and urbanization preface the explanation of the core subject disciplines of architecture, construction management, planning, real estate management and surveying. The distinctive student experience of learning about the built environment is explored with a focus upon learning and teaching methods, learning skills and assessment. The final chapter of the book looks at the links between academic study and professional practice.

This unique book introduces students to the themes and aspects of studying the built environment. Contemporary issues such as sustainability and urbanization preface the explanation of the core subject disciplines of architecture, construction management, planning, real estate management and surveying. The distinctive student experience of learning about the built environment is explored with a focus upon learning and teaching methods, learning skills and assessment. The final chapter of the book looks at the links between academic study and professional practice.

Built environment students are not always familiar with the range of different research approaches they could be using for their projects. Whether you are undertaking a postgraduate doctoral programme or facing an undergraduate or masters dissertation, this book provides general advice, as well as 13 detailed case studies from 16 universities in 7 countries, to help you get to grips with quantitative and qualitative methods, mixed methods of data collection, action research, and more.

Regreening the Built Environment examines the relationship between the built environment and nature and demonstrates how rethinking the role and design of infrastructure can environmentally, economically, and socially sustain the earth. In the past, infrastructure and green or park spaces have been regarded as two opposing factors and placed in conflict with one another through irresponsible patterns of development. This book attempts to change this paradigm and create a new notion that greenspace, parks, and infrastructure can indeed be one in the same. The case studies will demonstrate how existing "gray" infrastructure can be retrofitted with green infrastructure and low impact development techniques. It is quite plausible that a building can be designed that actually creates greenspace or generates energy; likewise, a roadway can be a park, an alley can be a wildlife corridor, and a parking surface can be a garden. In addition to examining sustainability in the near future, the book also explores such alternatives in the distant and very distant future, questioning the notion of sustainability in the event of an earth-altering, cataclysmic disaster. The strategies presented in this book aim to stimulate discussions within the design profession and will be of great interest to students and practitioners of environmental studies, architecture, and urban design.

Each day new articles, books, and reports present new methods, standards, and technologies for achieving sustainability in architecture. Additionally, new materials, technological gadgets, and data are increasingly considered the staples of architecture’s future. As we increasingly embrace this techno-advancement, we must be equally aware that we may be pushing architecture into a managerial science and away from its core concerns such as expression, contextuality, functionality and aesthetics. Sustainable architecture that is focused on the abstract measurements of consumption, energy, and emissions loses sight of the vital role that architecture holds in our world: it is the field that creates our public spaces and our places of dwelling, of business, of production, of leisure, and creation. Additionally, it fails to comprehend the human dimension of buildings, as elements that are deeply connected to their sites’ historic contexts and that play a key role in defining our social relations and our connection to the spaces we occupy and utilize. “Sustainable Architecture – Between Measurement and Meaning” takes a step back to reflect on how sustainability in the built environment can be theorized and practiced critically. This book exposes that architecture remains a human and social science that lies at the intersection of measurements and meanings. It reveals that sustainable architecture can still operate in a dialectic space of expression, rather than serving as a manifesto for either the technical or socio-cultural extremes. It purports that the human intuition, senses, and skills still holds the key to unravelling alternative futures of sustainable built spaces. And that most importantly, humans still have a place in sustainable architecture. This book will be of interest to students, early career scholars, established researchers and practitioners studying sustainability in the built environment. It can be used as a referencee to those in the fields of design, architecture, landscape and urban design, urban studies, geography, social sciences, and engineering.

This is an introduction to the secrets of Urban Design Management (UDM). The book examines the roles of the players involved in land-use projects and describes good collaborative methods of practice in project-based urban design and planning, putting emphasis on the creative co-operative skills and the wide knowledge of the participants in a working group. The role of the architect is examined in relation to design, planning and project management with particular emphasis on collaboration and negotiation skills. Specific issues considered include: The make-up of a good project team Ways to make the project team function together Objectives and benefits of project-orientated planning The need to take local characteristics into account in project-orientated planning The preparation required for a co-operative planning process and how initial information can be collected and used How to define project content, and outlining the project itself Partner-specific strategies Urban Design Management contains international examples and many diagrams and photographs, making it a useful and accessible guide for all built environment professionals working in the public realm and those studying architecture, urban design and planning at a graduate level.