Design That Matters: 5 Theories That Redefine Space
GreenCE’s mission is to support the necessary transition to a sustainable built environment by empowering design professionals to address the environmental, economic, and social impacts of buildings. GreenCE’s course catalog includes LEED exam preparation, continuing education to maintain your AIA or LEED credential, as well as specialty education focused on topics such as ADA/Barrier-Free requirements. We are committed to designing the highest quality continuing education programs in the construction industry.
What if the smallest intervention could transform an entire neighborhood? What if the spaces we design carry hidden psychological and cultural messages that either empower or exclude? This course takes you beyond traditional sustainability metrics to explore five theories that are reshaping how we think about responsible design. This course exposes uncomfortable truths—how seemingly innocent design choices may perpetuate inequality, exclude entire communities, and maintain systems of oppression that most design professionals may not recognize. Through real-world examples from housing estates to border cities, you'll gain powerful new lenses for creating built environments that are not just environmentally sustainable, but socially just and culturally responsive.
- Synthesize micro-intervention strategies by applying urban acupuncture principles to identify and design small-scale sustainable interventions that catalyze broader neighborhood transformation and community resilience.
- Evaluate spatial narratives using architectural uncanny and feminist spatial theory to recognize and address hidden power dynamics, gender inequities, and psychological impacts in built environments while designing more inclusive spaces.
- Integrate decolonizing design approaches by combining postcolonial theory with borderland concepts to challenge Western-centric design assumptions and create culturally responsive, sustainable solutions that honor indigenous and marginalized perspectives.
- Develop holistic design frameworks that weave together all five theories to propose sustainable design strategies that are simultaneously environmentally responsible and socially just.
