To teach the environmental culture in the schools of architecture: the mediterranean context

In today’s world respect for the environment means designing buildings that do not use an indiscriminate amount of energy, albeit produced by renewable sources. In the past hundred years the globalisation of the construction industry and the fact that technical systems now could control our indoor comfort has led to the increasingly pervasive construction of homologised buildings with little regard to their climatic, cultural and material context. In fact, the production of PV solar energy combining with the use of high efficiency systems (heat pumps,condensing boilers, cogeneration plants) are not enough to offset the waste produced during the entire lifespan of today’s buildings. The didactic philosophy in the faculty of Architecture of Rome TRE aims at teaching the design of buildings inspired by the local traditions, strictly related to the Mediterranean one, and its material culture, yet within the framework of modern-day dialectics.