A holistic view for integrating sustainability education for the built environment professions in Indonesia

Emerging economies in Asia and Latin America face rapid urbanization and city building in the next few decades. The existing work force and the next generation of built environment graduates play a significant role in lowering carbon emissions as a result of rapid building and infrastructure now and in the future. A range of disciplines comprises the built environment professions, and these disciplines need to work collaboratively to optimize design, construction and operational impacts. Amongst a range of issues identified in the literature in the move towards low carbon economies for built environment professions include technical know how, appropriateness in applying climate sensitive design, demonstration examples and case studies, silo-mentality amongst the disciplines, lack of support within universities to make change, lack of up to date resources, lack of true “lessons learned” of building operation post occupancy, lack of professional development amongst educators, lack of industry input in the curriculum, and lack of opportunities to make changes to the existing curricula (Iyer-Raniga and Andamon 2012, 2014). In this context, this chapter reports on key challenges facing the architectural education and architecture profession in Indonesia. Using desktop reviews, and semi structured interviews with academics, industry, government and peak industry bodies in Indonesia, this chapter provides an analysis of the architecture profession and architectural education in Indonesia. This analysis was undertaken to understand what are the current barriers preventing the architecture profession in Indonesia towards adopting low carbon principles in its design, construction and operation. Technical know how, supported by resource and case studies alone are not sufficient to embark on a journey of change to meet the needs of a sustainable future. A deeper analysis of the issues facing the architecture profession in Indonesia showed that knowledge alone is not sufficient; engagement and commitment from a range of stakeholders is needed. The chapter demonstrates that to embed lasting and holistic changes to architectural education, there needs to be a critical understanding of not just professional development needs for educators and industry practitioners, but also an awareness and understanding of institutional frameworks and networks that shape the profession. It provides a critical insight in shaping the architecture profession so key drivers may be identified along multiple dimensions, not just on maximizing professional development opportunities for academics and industry practitioners. This chapter provides a pathway for other built environment disciplines in transitioning economies to consider in shaping their own needs, and charting their own directions towards a low carbon future