Climate activist group Architects Climate Action Network has launched a student-focused arm in response to its recent survey, which revealed that UK architecture students feel unprepared to tackle the climate crisis.
The new branch, named Students Climate Action Network (StuCAN), calls on architecture schools to place sustainability at the forefront of their curriculums to reflect the urgency of the climate crisis.
Architects Climate Action Network (ACAN) argues that students will be less able to tackle climate change in future work if carbon literacy continues to be seen as a specialist subject.
"Architects are implicit in the climate emergency"
"Fundamentally, students feel they are currently being let down by their architectural education," explained Megan Coe, education coordinator at ACAN. "We require a change in the curriculum which embraces climate literacy teaching and assessment," she told Dezeen.
"Nearly 40 per cent of the UK's carbon emissions are attributed to the built environment and construction industries. As such, architects are implicit in the climate emergency."
Above: a snapshot of ACAN's survey results. Top: an activist at a climate change protest
"StuCAN seeks to increase student agency, unite student voices and lead a cultural transformation whereby ACAN's core aims are embedded into the curriculum," added Coe.
"We have a responsibility to understand our changing climate and its related injustice...