The Framework of Sustainability in Environmental Design from the Viewpoint of Architects and Landscape Architects

Sustainable development with emphasis on environmental sustainability addresses the interaction between humans and the environment. In this study, it has been attempted to investigate and realize a clear understanding of the principles that affect the issue of sustainability in environmental design. The collected data were analyzed through the content analysis. Following the identification of the criteria, the Delphi study was set up to identify which of them were most important and to derive the priority weightings for each. This study comprised two questionnaire rounds that were sent to two different sets of panel members. 45 invitations were sent out. The experts were selected from the people with substantial knowledge in the field of planning and design. They were from the pool of academics and practitioners involved in environmental design, landscape architecture and urban design. 31 experts agreed to participate and completed the first and second rounds, while 16 architects and 15 landscape architects participated in both rounds, meeting the target. “Importance” indicates whether such attributes were deemed important by the expert; “suitability” indicates whether such attributes, while important, were suitable tools to evaluate the sustainability in environmental design. This study represents the results of the ranking and weighting of the factors by the experts according to a set of factors. The results of ANOVA showed statistically significant differences among the architects and landscape architects and their opinions about several factors.