ABSTRACT
In modern architecture education, the sustainability studio has become a contested space where students are expected to grapple with and navigate the complex and multi-layered challenges about our environment and society while addressing the technical requirements. Using examples of student outcomes, this chapter investigates the discourse that emerges from this expanded focus on sustainability in architecture education through a theoretical framework founded on the semiotics of C. S. Peirce. The ideas of Latour and others are also integrated into the analysis to help make sense of the reinterpretations of sustainability seen in the student projects. The study reveals that concepts such as biophilia, technology, vernacularism, and moral boundaries emerge as critical points of contention. The student projects present new reinterpretations that destabilize the agreed-upon denotative and connotative meanings of the design elements of these themes and create a valuable negotiation with the current sustainability crisis and climate change risks. The chapter’s analysis and theoretical framework suggest that these reinterpretations provide us with examples of how these students, and soon young architects, could address these challenges in their professional practice and animate imaginaries of the possible futures of our built environment in the face of climate risks.
