Teaching sustainable design in architecture education: Critical review of Easy Approach for Sustainable and Environmental Design (EASED)

In the current context of climate change and ecological awareness, designing sustainable environments is definitely understood as a shared responsibility. With the construction sector consuming half of the world׳s energy, the role of some key stakeholders such as architects becomes even more critical when providing responsible and relevant design for the built environment. Thus, improving the way our environments are being designed challenges some cultural systems that show evident limits, such as the training of future architects and engineers. In this research, the focus is on architecture students and aims to demonstrate how the use of a new sustainable performance simulation tool, called Easy Approach for Sustainable and Environmental Design (EASED) could contribute to educate them about innovatively sustainable design. This was assessed through the evaluation of student engagement, their use of the tool and its appropriation. Results show that individual work was not convincing, whereas success was met during group work. Limits and improvement possibilities were found in the interface of EASED as well as in the educational set up of the tool.