Environmental Technologies in Buildings

The primary focus of this course will be the study of the thermal, luminous and acoustic behavior of buildings in an architectural context. The course will examine the basic scientific principles underlying these phenomena and introduce students to a range of technologies and analysis skills for designing comfortable indoor environments. Students will be challenged to apply these skills and explore the role light, energy and sound can play in shaping architecture. The first part of the class will be dedicated to a series of basic design principles of how groups of buildings can respond to prevailing solar gain, wind and daylighting patterns. We will then discuss the principles of heat storage and heat flow and cover basic manual and computer-based methods to predict the energy use of buildings. The second part of the course introduces the art and science lighting buildings and again introduces students to manual and computer-based methods for analyzing the daylight within and around buildings.Following a brief introduction to building acoustics, the last part of the course will touch upon a number of technologies and climatization concepts including natural ventilation, life cycle assessment as well as conventional and emerging HAVC systems. The course will end with two half-day field trips to existing buildings. The course format will consist of a series of lectures that are accompanied by software tutorials. A number of individual and group assignments, in class presentations and quizzes will help students to absorb the topics covered in class.The Tuesday and Thursday sessions from 11:30-1:30 are reviews. 1st year MArchs will have their review time from 12:30-1:30, and 2nd year MArchs will be 11:30-12:30.