University studies for the architecture degree in Spain give very little weight to considerations related to the design of a healthy interior environment. The low number of subjects related to interior comfort criteria may cause the student to underestimate the importance of environmental design of closed spaces in favor of aesthetic or merely functional aspects. However, there is a direct relationship between formal design decisions and environmental conditions in buildings, and future architects must understand those connections in order to make designs that combine efficiency and high aesthetic value. In this chapter, several pedagogical strategies are presented to get architecture students to learn and internalize the link between design and interior conditions, aiming at the acquisition of an adequate environmental awareness.
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Students of architecture in the 21st century face a colossal challenge. Whereas previous generations were required “only” to satisfy questions of habitability with artistic creations, future generations are asked to change the world. Function, Context, Construction, Economy and Beauty were the parameters required of architecture (Campo-Baeza, 1996) and now it is necessary to add the concept of Sustainability. Architecture must make human activity sustainable, from an energy consumer to a producer. It must change the environment, collaborate in reversing the planet's climate change. An ambitious and mandatory challenge for future architects, which is included among the sustainable development goals set by the United Nations for 2030 in its SDG 11: “Make cities and human settlements inclusive, safe, resilient and sustainable” and expected to be achieved by Spain (Boto-Álvarez & García-Fernández. 2020). Thus, during their education, architecture students must face an increasing variety of disciplines, which they will have to integrate appropriately in their future professional work.
Architecture students must learn to unify and interrelate the concepts of functional design, aesthetics, verification of regulations and urban planning together with the technological systems that allow buildings to function and be habitable: lighting, hydraulic, mechanical and environmental systems. In this document we focus particularly on technical studies, and specifically on those aimed at environmental comfort. During the student's training period, it is of utmost importance that all students acquire an environmental awareness, in order to understand that during the formal development of building projects, the variables of efficient design in terms of energy and air quality must be integrated. The aim of this chapter is to analyse the pedagogical strategies that encourage students to integrate environmental quality into building design. The aim is to highlight the strategies proposed by technical subjects to improve the environmental awareness of students, who will be responsible for the building designs that we will necessarily inhabit in the future. The strategies presented seek to involve students in one of the design variables that is rarely shown in architectural journals: the design of interior environments.