The implementation of the Building Integrated Photovoltaics (BIPV) has the great potential to reduce the emissions of carbon dioxide (CO2) that considerably contributes to global warming, when building comes into operation. Moreover, buildings, where PV cells are well integrated, also provide non-economic benefits including the visual value of green architecture that helps gain the market acceptance. The needs for PV education at the schools of architecture, which generally train and generate future architects, are on the rise and the know-how to implement BIPV should be taught sufficiently at the design schools in response to societal needs for the 21st century architecture. Over the past ten years, the Mackintosh School of Architecture (Mac), which belongs to the Glasgow School of Art, has noted the embracing of ‘environmental sustainability’ in architecture as a core precept in the profession, as well as the education. In fact, in line with green building materials and systems that improve the energy-efficiency in building envelope, BIPV is well introduced to the undergraduate design studio course, as well as the postgraduate studies of energy and environment. In addition to the traditional lecture inputs, the architecture students are also invited to participate in the learning activities outside lecture theatres, such as a BIPV construction site excursion and design charrette, in order to guide the non-technical architecture students to thorough understanding of BIPV through experience.
The ‘excursion’ involves a new setting, where students can actually experience subjects in question. As well, this provides an opportunity for reflective dialogue between teacher and learners and among learners. On 3rd-5th September, 2007, the Mac organised the PV Zero-carbon Mass Custom Home Mission to Japan, where 18 delegates from the government, industry and academia from the UK, France and China joined and 2 architecture students at the Mac are also among them. The participants visited not only the state-of-the-art production and sales facilities of 5 leading PV solar housing manufacturers in Japan—Sekisui Chemical Co., Misawa Homes Co., PanaHome Corp., SANYO Homes Co., and Sekisui House Ltd. <http://www.cbe.org.uk/news/index.html>. As well, the mission was also extended to the visit to a new solar housing community that is composed of total 120 homes equipped with PV systems—i.e. PV solar mass customised housing community.
The design charrette was held at the former YMCA lodge in Wiston in March 2007, and provided the students with an interdisciplinary learning experience, where the environmental engineering and architecture students work as a team to actually design the lodge’s new bunkhouse that needs to be energy-efficient in response to the owners’ demands. Five design teams were organised and assigned to produce their own solar solutions. This design exercises took on a new sense of reality. Because of this transition, or simply chance, a scheme manifested itself over the weekend and it was not only practical to build, but also serene in terms of design and contextuality. All the multi-disciplinary teams have identical briefs, but each team is allowed to select their own site within the vicinity of the lodge. In the charrette, students are also given opportunities to experience user-friendly simulation tools that help identify PV performance in relation to the solar panel orientation and tilt under specified climatic conditions. The charrette creates a stimulative learning environment, where architecture students together with the engineering experience the implementation of BIPV.
This paper aims to identify architecture students’ learning activities of BIPV that is rarely taught at design schools in the UK today. The analysis of the learning processes and outcomes of the BIPV educational initiative at the Mac may help other schools to develop new courses that aim to enhance the future architects’ readiness to apply BIPV to the 21st century architecture that is expected to be zero-energy, or perhaps carbon-neutral.