After successful completion of the course, students are able to
- understand global sustainability trends and international agreements and how they relate to local planning and urban sustainability
- use approaches and aspects from environmental psychology in their work, integrating the user perspective to minimize the disconnect between plan and reality
- use different sets of indicators to evaluate the sustainability of urban developments, plans, and projects
Part I: Sustainable Cities and Urban Sustainability Trends across the Globe
- Introduction to urban sustainability and international developments (green cities, eco-cities, sustainable cities, resilient cities, smart cities, etc.)
- Urban policies and action agendas towards sustainability (global, national, and local levels), Paris Agreement, New Urban Agenda, UN-Habitat, city collaboration, etc.
- Sustainable and green buildings and infrastructure (current trends and technologies, rating systems)
- Presentation of best practice and other real-world examples from cities around the world
Part II: The Human Factor of Sustainability and Planning-related Aspects of Environmental Psychology
- The human factor of sustainability: examples from urban planning, architecture and related fields; why sustainability projects don’t always work out the way they were planned … (post-occupancy evaluations – POE, sustainability strategies, etc.)
- Introduction to environmental psychology (history and background, tragedy of the commons, etc.) (G. Hardin, E. Ostrom et al.)
- Applied behavioral analysis and sustainable behavior, behavior change, missing correlation between environmental knowledge and environmental action, etc. (E.S. Geller, B.F. Skinner et al.)
- Evidence Based Design, effects of environment and nature on people, biophilia / biophilic design / biophilic cities (E.O. Wilson, T. Beatley, R. Ulrich et al.)
- Affordance-based design (J.J. Gibson, et al.)
- Presentation of real-world examples and projects from around the world
