Sufficiency-oriented building energy design practice and pedagogy: Development of a collaborative design studio framework

Peer-reviewed paper 7-148-26

Acknowledging the significant potential contributions to sustainability and well-being goals, sufficiency approaches have increasingly gained attention in policy and research fields. These approaches aim for simultaneous consideration of ecological boundaries, human dimensions of well-being, consumption and production, and the corresponding provisioning systems. This perspective raises systemic questions that complement and reframe the technological and efficiency conventional efforts.

Based on a critical and narrative review, we discuss the framing of the concept and its translation into building-sector criteria and measures. We build on key references, which most of the time address the residential context, and contribute with a focus on public facilities programmes. Focusing then on the design studio (DS) pedagogical device, we build on these discussions to underpin the critical evaluation of an experimental framework applied to three exercises for architectural engineering students, in which we used participant observation and feedback surveys.

These (non-residential building, retrofit project) DS case studies have explored a role-playing team framework that addresses integrative approaches, with team members endorsing the role of energy consultants, although predominantly efficiency oriented. The discussion then leads to the development of a proposal for a DS framework, where the integrative ambitions strategically embrace the priority and potential of sufficiency, exploring low-tech solutions, adaptability, flexibility, and climate-responsive design principles through scenarisation tasks that foreground human dimensions, adaptive comfort, experience, and user-centred design.