Evaluation and evolution of the course ecology in architectural design

Ecology in Architecture Design (EAD) is a project with the main aim of developing a blended (face to face lecturesplus online activities) learning course about how to integrate ecology in the architectural design, both at the level of a single building and of territory. EAD started in July 2004 as a project founded by the Swiss University Conference within the Swiss Virtual Campus(SVC), the national program studying the introductionof information and communication technologies in universities and universities of applied sciences. EAD partners are Swiss universities, laboratories and technicalschools with expertise in architecture, energy, ecology, technology, design and communication and its main target are students in architecture. After two years of development, due to the positive results achieved, EAD has been selected also to enter the maintenance phase ending in December 2007. EAD has been tested during academic year (a.y.) 2004-05 in Accademia di Architettura of Mendrisio, the project leader, and since then EAD has been used in Switzerland, Italy and Brazil.Results of the applications are very positive and encourage partners to improve contents and tools and to explore new uses and targets.