Rethinking architectural education in an era of low carbon economy

Resource constraints, ecological environment degradation and concerns about greenhouse gas emissions are going to seriously affect industries serving the built environment within the international community, which represents a forthcoming new era of low carbon economy. To deal with these issues, there's no doubt architectural education has now played an important role. Only by reforms from resultant forces can it promote the sustainable built environment in such a rapidly changing world. This paper discusses the architects' responsibilities in the process of the low carbon building development and outlines the necessity to further set up a versatile education system. It encourages an integrated low carbon technological structuring and also highlights the need to strengthen the sense of social responsibility, cooperation and communication skills and other non-intellectual factors training that genuinely respond to the challenges posed by the new era.