Examination of Architectural Education Programs in Terms of Courses on Ecology and Sustainability Concepts

The consumption of energy sources in the world led to the necessity of developing new sources and using the existing energy in an efficient way. The energy policies that were adopted stand out as the fact that triggered the wars. As a result of the encountered energy crisis a new trend to produce and use energy based on principles sustainability and ecology was followed. Further ecoprojects were produced in developed countries in every area of life including science, industry, etc. In this view, architecture is one of the most important areas for both construction facilities and recycling and sustainability and efficient usage of energy sources. These concepts come forward in architectural education, applications and courses related to these take their place in architectural education programs in the world. Thus investigating how these concepts found their reflections in Turkish architecture and how the concepts of ecology and sustainability were placed in architecture programs in Turkey become important issues. This study evaluates and compares the sustainability and ecology related courses in the curricula of private and public universities in both Turkey and Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus for the years 2010 and 2015. As a result of the research it was observed that while courses related to ecology and sustainability did not exist in 2010 curricula the number of such courses increased in 2015 curricula.