On Your Course: Master of Science (MSc) Environmental Design of Buildings

Context of Environmental Building Design (CEBD) provides students with the fundamental theories associated with site, climatic and microclimatic analysis and design for outdoor comfort; as well as appropriate strategies to address daylighting of internal spaces.

Skills Developed:

• Analyse the impact of climate and microclimate on comfort in an outdoor space.
• Propose a self-brief which clearly sets out the requirements of the users and the limitations of the outdoor space.
• Propose appropriate interventions to improve comfort in an outdoor space which are suitable to the context.
• Provide sufficient evidence to defend choices.
• Choose materials considering environmental impact and resource availability.
• Critique the success of the interventions in relation to the objectives for comfort in an outdoor space and propose developments to improve their capability.
• Analyse trends from data to inform a solution.
• Relate site conditions to daylighting of an internal space.
• Plan and manage learning independently and work to deadlines.

Enclosures in Environmental Building Design (EEBD) deals with the importance of building enclosure in facilitating passive strategies to improve occupant comfort while minimising energy use and pollution emissions (e.g. to mitigate climate change).  The module provides students with the principles of passive design for ventilating, heating and cooling buildings.  The project work offers students the opportunity to put into practice and develop in greater depth some of the strategies taught, resulting in the development of specialist knowledge and performance evaluation skills.

Skills Developed:

• Analyse the impact of climate and microclimate on comfort within a free-running building.
• Propose strategies to improve comfort within a free-running building which are suitable to the context/microclimate.  Provide sufficient evidence to defend your choices.
• Critique the success of the strategies in providing comfort (daylighting, heating, cooling, ventilation) in the free-running building and propose developments to improve their capability.
• Investigate the relationship between passive strategies and the properties of the materials proposed for the building enclosure.
• Explain at least one passive strategy in detail – consider the current state of the art relating to passive energy collection, storage, distribution and utilisation.

Specifying Environmental Buildings (SEB) builds on the previous “Enclosures in Environmental Building Design” module.  It explains the options for improving occupant comfort through the introduction of appropriate mechanical services while minimising carbon emissions, with reference to net zero carbon targets and climate change issues.  This includes the potential of hybrid (passive and mechanical) services as well as renewable energy generation.  The student will choose one other environmental topic for an in-depth investigation (such as energy storage, sustainable materials, sustainable water, indoor air quality, whole life carbon, circular economy, whole life costing, biodiversity, urban food provision, climate change adaptation and resilience).

Skills Developed:

• Analyse the mechanical service requirements of a building with reference to its use, form, fabric and setting.
• Propose strategies to achieve comfort (with reference to lighting, ventilation, cooling and/or heating) within the building while minimising the power demand, energy consumption and carbon emissions.
• Assess the success of the strategies in relation to the objectives for comfort, the power load, the energy consumption and carbon emissions.
• Investigate the implications of environmental building design on holistic sustainability and climate change issues.

This module introduces the concepts of sustainability. It considers the historic development of the 'green' movement and Climate Change as an important context for sustainable development.

It identifies different sustainability positions adopted today, both at a theoretical and practical level, and encourages students to question these as well as their own views. The module demands students to develop their own sustainability position in relation to a specific development scale (from individual buildings through communities to urban scale); while including the social and environmental considerations that underpin sustainability in the built environment (i.e. health and wellbeing, social justice, professional responsibility and ethics).

The module provides a structure for students to develop, discuss and formulate their personal sustainability standpoint and reflect on the role of their chosen future profession in delivering holistic sustainability.

Skills Developed:

• Explain the complexities and interdependencies of sustainable development and the constraints involved in applying sustainability principles into practice at a chosen development scale.
• Formulate a justified position to illustrate what their chosen professional role can do to enhance holistic sustainability with relation to the built environment.
• Write a clear and accessible report to analyse the concept and the context of sustainability.

A crucial concern in the design of the built environment is the need to minimise energy use whilst ensuring comfort and satisfaction of the users or occupants.

An overarching theme of the module is comfort; the built environment is created to provide acceptable thermal, visual and acoustic comfort for the occupants.  Often this can lead to high energy requirements, and the role of the environmental designer is to optimise, producing the best environment for the least energy.

In order to aid this optimisation, this module aims to provide knowledge and understanding of the physical mechanisms through which the built environment uses energy in order to attain human comfort.  It builds from concepts surrounding the flow of energy from the ambient environment, or climate, through the building envelope as passive filter, to active mechanical services.  Approaches available to the designer to control or influence comfort and energy flows will be considered.

Skills Developed:

• Explain advanced terminology and concepts related to building physics, passive and active energy systems and human comfort in the built environment.
• Use such concepts to propose solutions to complex problems in the design and performance of the built environment.
• Calculate the estimated energy requirement and thermal comfort of a simple building.
• Through analysis of those estimates propose and evaluate the efficacy of improvements to the design or specification of that building in order to improve its performance.
• Examine, using appropriate examples, the current best, or emerging, practice in an aspect of the design or specification of the built environment.

This module focuses on the introduction of methods and techniques by which building designers, owners and operators can determine whether their building performs as anticipated. It aims to introduce measurement, and post occupancy evaluation.

Sustainable development of the built environment requires that building perform as expected.  Experience has shown us that buildings that are uncomfortable, badly operated, or poorly maintained, will use far more resources than they were designed.

The module is based on the belief that evaluation, feedback and critique are vital components to the progress of design. Progress can only be achieved when this assessment is completed using credible and appropriate methods. The module aims to reinforce this message and introduce the student to a number of investigative and analytical methods and techniques, including simulation, measurement, and survey. It will consider both physical and human perspectives of the built environment and draw on methods appropriate to both academic and practice-based investigations.

Skills Developed:

• Identify factors that contribute positively towards sustainable performance of buildings in use.
• Identify appropriate monitoring and research techniques to evaluate building and development performance in use.
• Explain how monitoring and investigations can be undertaken to help improve building performance.

This module introduces research methodologies as a key preparation for the dissertation module. Good practice academic research will be explored. Different approaches to research, to methodologies used to undertake academic research, and to sources of information for research, will be introduced, explained and practised, all within a context of Architectural Science and design.

Skills Developed:

• Critically discuss the current state of the art in a field in relation to a stated research problem.
• Identify in detail a suitable potential data collection and data analysis method for the stated research problem, including consideration of the time available for the study to be done.
• Provide critical reasoning for applying these methods to the selected research problem using formal academic writing.

Low carbon design requires a holistic approach to the energy use of a building. The designer needs to understand in principle how buildings use energy and to supplement this understanding with evidence on energy use from the field. He or she needs to be able to work with goals for building design, such as zero carbon standards, and with ways of off-setting energy consumption with renewable technologies.

The aims of the module are therefore to introduce;

• the ways buildings use energy
• methods of matching building energy demands through renewables and low energy systems
• techniques for assessing the energy footprint and sustainable performance of the building using benchmarking

Skills Developed:

• Explain how buildings use energy, the demands and loads with buildings and the impact of occupancy on energy use.
• Explain use of renewable technologies and low energy cooling technologies within buildings.
• Show a basic knowledge of the concept of embodied energy.
• Show an understanding of assessment tools for sustainable design.
• Evaluate how well a building attains low carbon design.
• Assess the impact of the various building services options on a building design problem.

This final module is intended to give students an opportunity to focus on an aspect of the taught subject matter and investigate it in more detail.  In addition to strengthening their expertise, this module will help them to consolidate their capacity for independent study and to learn some of the techniques needed to conduct research and develop knowledge in the subject area of the scheme of study.

This module comprises a research project. The only piece of work to be submitted for examination is a dissertation, and this is to be a report on the research, written to a particular standard.

Skills Developed:

• Demonstrate systematic knowledge in a selected aspect of the subject area.
• Define objectives pertinent to the chosen research problem relevant to the subject area of the scheme of study.
• Propose an appropriate research design and/or research method to pursue the chosen research problem.
• Apply established research methods productively in pursuing the research objectives.
• Interpret cogently and convincingly the results of the research in relation to its objectives.
• Make a critical evaluation and analysis of a body of knowledge, or an original contribution to knowledge.
• Show a thorough, systematic, and rigorous approach to implementing, executing, and reporting the research.
• Communicate the aims, methods and results of the research with clarity and in a style appropriate to the expected audience.