Sustainable architecture through an environmental educational program Eleni Antonara 1 , Julia Georgi 2 , Nikolaos Lianos 3 1 Environmental Educational Center of Filippi, Kavala, Greece antonaraeleni@hotmail.com 2 Neapolis University of Pafos, Dept of Architecture, Land and Environment, Pafos, Cyprus, j.georgi@nup.ac.cy 3 Democritus Universities of Thrace, Department of Architecture, Xanthi, Greece nlianos@arch.duth.gr KEYWORDS: Environmental program1, traditional house2, passive solar house3, bioclimatic design4, teaching methods and techniques5. ABSTRACT The following paper is a presentation of an environmental program titled “Considering the house of the past, I plan the house of today”. The program examines the basic environmental principles of the traditional Greek house which can be applied to new houses -bioclimatic- , covering the needs of modern lifestyle. Is a proposal to raise the student community in the spirit of sustainable development, through an experiential education that uses alternative methods and techniques to make the learning process more efficient and attractive at the same time. This program is consistent with the general philosophy of the new curriculum of the teaching learning field for environmental education and sustainable development. Resulted from the need to create a different educational framework with innovative aspects and answers to everyday problems. It covers the needs of today's society, emphasizes in student-centered teaching and team cooperation, in active construction of knowledge through selected information sources and specific teaching strategies. Students learn how to learn, learn how to act, learn how to live and interact with others. The main goals as specified in the Expected Learning Outcomes are cognitive, based value and interactive and focused on information, awareness, decision-making and participation in solving the environmental issue / problem. Regarding the evaluation, the data assessed is the composition and presentation of the students work and the achieving of the goals through observation, discussion and questionnaire. 1. INTRODUCTION Is true that the energy crisis has created serious concern about the lack of energy resources and their impact on the global economy as well as it has become awareness that a very high proportion of primary energy consumption caused by the operation of systems related to heating, cooling and lighting of buildings so as to contribute to environmental pollution and energy problem. Therefore, it is imperative requirement, saving energy and exploitation of alternative sources of energy to become key objectives in buildings design. [1] The contemporary bioclimatic architecture comes as a response to the above findings and raises again the goal of human life in harmony with the natural environment. [2] 4th International Conference on Renewable Energy Sources and Energy Efficiency - New Challenges Nicosia Cyprus 6 - 7 June 2013 (Paper No. 1328) 