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Semester 1

Sustainable Architecture, Structural Form and Embodied Energy (ARCH10048)

Subject

Architecture and Landscape Architecture

College

CAHSS

Credits

20

Normal Year Taken

4

Delivery Session Year

2023/2024

Pre-requisites

**Please see Additional Restrictions below**

Course Summary

This optional course is concerned with the relationship between architectural form and the embodied energy of buildings. It provides a visual guide to structure that allows the relationship between built form and embodied energy to be understood and interpreted in a purely qualitative way. The course explains the different ways in which the amount of material that must be incorporated into a building are affected by all aspects of their shape, from overall form to detailed aspects of form, such as the shapes of components in longitudinal profile and cross-section. The course describes a basic methodology for the design of low-carbon buildings.

Course Description

The course explains the relationship between the form of a building and its embodied energy and carbon footprint. It is principally concerned with the structural components of buildings, which normally account for between 40% and 90% of their total embodied energy. The course explores the relationship between all aspects of structural form and the efficiency with which material is used. The treatment is purely visual. No use is made of formulae or calculations. The course provides a visual guide to structure that is intended for use as a design tool and that can also be applied to the critical appraisal of the technical performance of buildings. The course begins with an explanation of the basic principles of structural behaviour and presents case studies to illustrate how the efficiency and carbon footprints of existing buildings, or proposed designs, can be assessed. Related topics, such as the evaluation of the embodied energy in materials, are introduced at relevant stages in the course and the course demonstrates the use of its principal themes as aids to design. Students are encouraged to develop the practice of using the knowledge and skills developed in the course during their ongoing involvement with buildings whether this be as a design practitioner, architectural historian or critic of architecture. The course develops the ability of students to assess visually the likely carbon footprints of buildings by making it a key theme of tutorial discussions and through the structures of essay and exam questions. Students attend one lecture and one seminar per week. One-to-one tutorials are available on request.

Assessment Information

Written Exam 50%, Coursework 50%, Practical Exam 0%

Additional Restrictions

Unless you are nominated on an Architecture / Landscape Architecture exchange agreement, visiting students are only permitted to enrol in one Architecture or Landscape Architecture course each, per semester, before the start of the relevant semester’s welcome period – and spaces on each course are limited so cannot be guaranteed for any student. Enrolment in a second course from this group will depend on whether there are still spaces available in the September Welcome Period, and cannot be guaranteed. It is NOT appropriate for students to contact staff within this subject area to ask for an exception to be made; all enquiries to enrol in these courses must be made through the CAHSS Visiting Student Office. This is due to the extremely limited number of spaces available in this very popular subject area.

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