The European Architects Association recently issued a notice calling on the European Parliament to support enhanced retraining of architectural designers in building energy-saving technologies and related fields, so as to promote greater attention to environmental factors in architectural design.

In its initiative, the association pointed out that EU member states will elect a new European Parliament within the next two weeks. The European Architects Association chose this moment to issue the initiative in order to make the incoming members of the European Parliament aware that responsible architectural design is very important, and it hopes that parliamentarians will work together with architectural designers to advance environmental protection in the construction industry.

The association stated in the initiative that architectural design is related to everyone's health and safety, and that good architectural design is a guarantee of sustainable social development. To this end, it hopes to vigorously advocate the concept of responsible architectural design, including emphasizing reduced energy consumption in new building designs and promptly carrying out design renovations aimed at improving energy efficiency in old buildings.

Regarding professional retraining, the association particularly noted that energy-efficiency technologies are advancing rapidly. Only by ensuring that architectural designers promptly master these new technologies can the building sector fully benefit. Such training should run throughout the entire career of architectural designers, because designers at all levels need to update their knowledge.

The association even suggested adding architectural design courses to secondary school curricula. This is not only to attract more young people to choose careers in architectural design, but also to enable them to acquire more design concepts and knowledge that are responsible toward the environment and society.

The European Architects Association is composed of 47 professional organizations from 33 European countries, with as many as 550,000 members.