Architecture and Environmental Design MEng

This studio-based module introduces you to basic design, drafting, model making and drawing skills.

There are two dedicated days of studio tutorials per week. 

The semester finishes with the design of a small building that will test your understanding and application of the knowledge gained on this module.

This module introduces you to the principle of a holistic and integrated approach to building design.

Firstly, you’ll learn about the notion of thinking architecture, the fundamental principles of design and drawing skills and typologies as key areas of study.

Then you’ll focus on methodology and approaches relevant to the studio comprehensive design project with a more intensified examination of topics such as light, narrative and sustainability.

For this module you’ll have one, one-hour lecture per week.

This module introduces you to the technology, materials and techniques used in constructing buildings and the importance of considering it as an integral part of the design process. Through two hour weekly lectures you’ll conduct practical structural modelling exercises and develop a basic understanding of the qualitative behaviour of structures and the interaction between structural form and the loads that they have to carry.

This module offers you an introduction to the history of architecture from ancient times to the present day. A two-hour weekly lecture aims to familiarise you with major architectural typologies and the social and technological changes that brought them into being.

This module introduces you to the algebra of complex numbers. It provides a key mathematical tool for analysis of linear mathematical and engineering problems.

You will study the complexity of solving general systems of equations using matrix techniques and review the calculus of a single variable.

You will have a three hour lecture and workshops each week.

This studio-based module develops your basic design, drafting, model making and drawing skills. Through the two dedicated days of studio tutorials per week, you will be introduced to historical precedents and computer-aided drawing programmes. These exercises will feed into a small comprehensive design project of a public building.

Following on from the key principles introduced in the year one module, Integrated Design in Architecture, you’ll further develop your communication and research skills which will underpin your work in both the theorisation and practise of architecture. Through one-hour weekly lectures you’ll explore the research methodologies and skills needed to identify and synthesise relevant and accurate information as well visual communication skills focusing on CAD programs, where skills will be developed through workshops and self-directed exercises.

Dealing with small to medium-scale buildings, you’ll build on knowledge acquired in Tectonics 1, focusing on structural systems, building elements, material, components, connections, construction methods and detailing. During a two-hour lecture each week, you’ll learn how constituent parts come together to construct building entities through investigation and analysis of structural principles, detail, material composition and performance of primary building elements.

Building on Level 1 design modules, you’ll be introduced to engineering concepts that inform and enrich the environmental performance of buildings. You’ll cover the fundamentals of fluid mechanics (fluid properties, hydrostatics, fluid dynamics) and then explore some of these through the analysis of flow through piped water systems and the design of hot and cold water services. You’ll spend around three to four hours in lectures and workshops studying for this module.

This module gives you an introduction to the environmental services systems common to many simple buildings. Developing awareness of the systems, through eight hours per week of practical workshops and lectures, you’ll be introduced to the techniques used to select and size systems, explores issues associated with the integration of these systems and be given an opportunity to practise the fundamental skills used by system installers.

This course provides a historical, cultural and philosophical context to the major contemporary debates in architecture today. You’ll gain understanding of architecture's potential as a practically useful and culturally meaningful activity. Key issues from the history of philosophy will be examined alongside a range of building case-studies. This will enable you to develop a series of alternative interpretive frameworks through which buildings may be analysed, criticised, debated and understood. For this module you’ll have a two-hour lecture each week.

This module focuses on developing your practical architectural design skills and exploring the relevance of related subjects, such as structure and construction. The emphasis is given to the ‘craftsmanship of architecture’, improving the spatial, aesthetic and sensual, as well as practical, structural and dimensional qualities of your design. You’ll learn how to translate an abstract idea into a form with a positive physical presence. The units are organised into five thematic blocks:

• Urban Settings
• Making Processes
• Context
• Poetic Narratives
• Sustainable Communities

Phase 1 addresses site and context and is intended as a short and flexible project, introducing you to the unit theme, approach and work process. Phase 2 is a key design project with the generic brief “Learning to Dwell”. You will be tasked with designing places for activities rather than rooms; places for eating, sleeping, talking, cooking, thinking and washing. For this module you’ll have two six-hour practical workshops per week.

You will be given an understanding of the role that electricity plays in controlling the environment within buildings and the wider built environment through two hours of lectures each week.

Computer laboratory sessions are used to introduce the tools and acquire basic competence in their use. Their use in project work provides an opportunity for you to develop an enhanced ability to apply these tools to understanding environmental strategies in existing buildings and to confirm strategies in new designs. You’ll spend around two hours a week in computer classes studying for this module.

This module introduces the principles of thermodynamics and the thermodynamics concepts relevant to applications in building environment engineering. Some of the topics covered include thermal properties, thermodynamic systems, work and heat transfer processes, perfect (ideal) gases, 1st Law and 2nd Law of thermodynamics, steam table and the Ranking cycle. You’ll spend around four hours per week in lectures and workshops studying for this module.

Introducing you to large scale building services, principally natural ventilation, air conditioning and other environmental control systems, you’ll discuss the reasons for resorting to and avoiding A/C and the consequent design issues. You’ll also cover some of the following topics including: Assessments of heat gains and losses, thermal comfort and relevant climatic data system types and associated secondary plant introduced; plant selection, location, sizing and design alternatives discussed. For this module you’ll have a one two-hour lecture per week.

This module develops and advances the principles of thermodynamics and how these are applied in the expression and solution of simple engineering problems as well as thermofluids and its application within building environment engineering. You’ll spend around two hours per week in lectures and two hours per week in practicals studying for this module.

This is an individual project module which seeks to develop the ability to plan, execute and report on a piece of work at a professional level. The detailed content of the project is a matter for discussion between you and your supervisor. However, the project will normally involve a mixture of experimental, theoretical and computational work together with a relevant literature review. You will see your supervisor each week for one hour. 

You will learn techniques for solving selected classes of ordinary differential equations (ODEs) relevant to the analysis of engineering topics. This module also provides the basic calculus to help analyse engineering problems in two or three dimensions and special solutions of partial differential equations relevant to engineering applications. You will spend around three hours per week in lectures and workshops.

This module focuses on developing your practical architectural design skills and exploring the relevance of related subjects, such as structure and construction. The emphasis is given to the ‘craftsmanship of architecture’, improving spatial, aesthetic, sensual as well as practical, structural and dimensional qualities of your design. You will learn how to translate an abstract idea into a form with a positive physical presence. The units are organised into five thematic blocks:

• Urban Settings
• Making Processes
• Context
• Poetic Narratives
• Sustainable Communities

Teaching is delivered through two six-hour practical sessions per week. 

This module aims to develop an awareness of fluid mechanics and its application within building environment engineering and to teach you the fundamental principles of fluid mechanics and their application to practical problems in building environment design. You’ll spend around four hours per week in lectures and workshops studying for this module.

This module aims to increase knowledge of building technology by focusing on components, connections, structural systems and construction techniques related to medium-scale and large buildings and their sustainable development. Study of the theory of structures reinforced by practical studio based design projects will enable students to quantify forces and actions in structural systems. The module will also increase structural understanding by the examination of some advanced structural forms. You’ll spend around two hours per week in lectures studying for this module.

This course explores contemporary architecture in relation to major social, economic, political, ecological, and technological transformations after the Second World War. A wide range of topics including consumerism, globalization, mass media, cultural identities and changing economic structures are discussed in terms of their role in shaping architectural theory, practice, and built environment. Two hours of lectures each week employ building case studies, film excerpts, and assigned readings to analyse key concepts.

This studio-based module aims to develop your skills and approaches to architectural design to a more advanced level through six hours per week of study. You are expected to produce a well-crafted comprehensive design project of some complexity based on a thorough investigation and developmental process. At a more advanced level you’ll be expected to show a comprehensive understanding of the project's technical performance. This module aims to achieve the following General Attributes of the ARB/RIBA Criteria.

You’ll explore the steps involved in the identification of appropriate environmental strategies for integration within the context of an overall building design and practice the development of these ideas from scheme design to detailed design stage. Emphasis will be placed on developing strategies to a level appropriate to the relevant design stage and the effective communication of the strategy to both technical and non-technical audiences at each stage. You’ll have a one-hour tutorial each week to support your learning during this module.

Introducing you to the context of professional practice, this module prepares you for your year in placement by discussing the year out, how to go about getting the right job and the skills involved in achieving this. Through two hours of lectures each week you’ll look at the important regulatory requirements and processes and the principles and priorities of running a traditional contract on site together with standard documents used in this process.