Environment

Designing buildings and communities which are environmentally friendly is a very exciting topic and could make for a captivating dissertation! Take a look at some of our examples below:

Example environment dissertation topic 1:

Constructing the green campus – different approaches to environmentalism within the HE sector.

Using the campuses of Newcastle, York, and Durham as examples, this study surveys the different architectural and landscaping techniques deployed by the three universities to embrace the concepts of sustainable and carbon-neutral developments within the UK’s higher education sector. Recently, the City of York criticised York University (not participants in the EcoCampus scheme) for failing to meet its green targets ; in contrast, the University of Durham and Newcastle University received silver and platinum awards from EcoCampus in 2012 for their contributions to sustainable campuses. These three universities have, therefore, adopted different stances with regards to embracing environmentally positive developments that embrace sustainable architecture goals, and this dissertation evaluates their individual successes and suggests areas where further improvements could be made.

Suggested initial topic reading:

• Campo, P. (2008). Sustainable education campus in Spain: Nature and architecture for training. Paris: OECD.
• Coulson, J., Roberts, P. and Taylor, I. (2010). University planning and architecture: The search for perfection. New York: Routledge.
• Godschalk, D.R. and Howes, J.B. (2012). The dynamic decade: Creating the sustainable campus the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, 2001-2012. Chapel Hill, NC: University of North Carolina.