Module overview
This module builds on the design modules within Parts 1 and 2 and places specific focus on the process of designing a significant piece of civil engineering infrastructure in which the solutions and elements are fully integrated. It extends the more conceptual design process in Part 2 into detailed design, in which students will demonstrate the technical feasibility of the designed infrastructure through application of established industry analysis and project and risk management methods. The module will emphasise the importance of solutions that meet national and global societal requirements through engagement with emergent best practice on issues such as asset management, sustainability, biodiversity, net zero carbon and climate change.
This module seeks to operate in similar manner to a professional design office, with rigorous and self-motivated working and communication practices. Regular studio sessions will allow students to progress their design work in teams with input from a project supervisor. A series of lectures and workshops will support understanding of project and risk management and the wider global and societal context, and consider the tools and techniques that might be applied to incorporate these into the design process. Interim and final reports and presentations to design tutors and fellow students, and possibly external critics from industry, will structure the project and act as milestones for students to demonstrate their design proposal throughout its development.
Aims and Objectives
Learning Outcomes
Subject Specific Intellectual and Research Skills
Having successfully completed this module you will be able to:
- Use appropriate processes to select the final conceptual design
- Be able to defend/justify design and project choices
- Create conceptual designs that satisfy the brief and constraints, and address wider global societal impacts
- Plan and manage the work required to complete the project
- Investigate the brief for the project, the requirements of the notional client and constraints on the design
- Critically analyse the cost, quality, engineering and risk elements of a project
- Resolve a project to a suitable level of clarity and technical understanding with clear synthesis between function, structure, materials, environment, project and wider societal impacts
Knowledge and Understanding
Having successfully completed this module, you will be able to demonstrate knowledge and understanding of:
- The importance of addressing a range of global societal factors such as sustainability and climate change within the design process
- The importance of cost, quality and project and risk management in the design, construction, operational and decommissioning phases of a project
- The stages and progression of a design project from brief, through options to final concept and detailed design output
- Methods and tools for progressing and communicating the detailed design phase
- The importance of understanding the design brief, the clients requirements and site and design constraints
- The need to generate options during the design process, and the decision-making methods used to identify and select project options
Subject Specific Practical Skills
Having successfully completed this module you will be able to:
- Use sketches, drawings and digital models to explore and communicate
- Use software and online tools to carry out engineering analysis and calculations
- Use observation and analysis to gather appropriate data, including site data
Transferable and Generic Skills
Having successfully completed this module you will be able to:
- Communicate effectively using written reports, drawings, formal presentations and one-to-one and group discussions
- Understand the importance of security, ethics and ED&I
- Organise into and work effectively as a team
- Adopt a successful engineering approach to the solution of problems
- Solve problems in a creative and innovative manner
- Apply critical analysis and decision making to engineering problems
- Mange your time, developing strategies for the on-time delivery of required outputs
Syllabus
A choice of three or four design projects will be offered, covering topics across Civil and Environmental Engineering. Details of the projects on offer will be circulated in mid-September with project allocations at the start of Semester 1.
Key project milestones are:
Submission of site analysis report – mid-semester 1
Conceptual design presentation – towards the end of semester 1
Project management and ethics and sustainability tasks – semester 1 and semester 2
Submission of final design outputs: group report (containing calculations and drawings), group presentation – end of semester 2
Learning and Teaching
Teaching and learning methods
You will work in a group of 5 students on a design project chosen from three or four available options. There will be regular design studio sessions throughout the year in which teams will meet with their project supervisor(s). These will run alongside a lecture series and other workshop sessions to support the development of knowledge, understanding, skills and behaviours in a range of topics that include: design process; aspects of cost, project, quality, risk and asset management; project decision making; health, safety security and ED&I; ethical considerations in design; sustainability and biodiversity; embodied carbon and low energy design; climate resilience; sustainable materials. Two or three seminars on creative and detailed design will be given by guest speakers from industry.
| Type | Hours |
|---|---|
| Preparation for scheduled sessions | 24 |
| Wider reading or practice | 90 |
| Practical classes and workshops | 6 |
| Follow-up work | 24 |
| Completion of assessment task | 90 |
| Tutorial | 36 |
| Lecture | 30 |
| Total study time | 300 |
Resources & Reading list
General Resources
Design resources. A wide range of design resources will be made available in electronic form on the course Blackboard. This includes information additional to the brief, design codes and guidance documents, information and design tables/charts for proprietary products, details of recommended texts and other library and online resources to support design work.
Assessment
Assessment strategy
Referral will be via an individual written set task, related to the design project carried out during the course of the semester.Formative
This is how we’ll give you feedback as you are learning. It is not a formal test or exam.
Tutorial
- Assessment Type: Formative
- Feedback: Feedback on group progress will be provided throughout the module. Verbal feedback on the design work will be given by supervisor(s) during supervision meetings. Project supervisor(s) will also provide verbal feedback for formative presentations and tasks.
- Final Assessment: No
- Group Work: Yes
Summative
This is how we’ll formally assess what you have learned in this module.
| Method | Percentage contribution |
|---|---|
| Continuous Assessment | 100% |
Referral
This is how we’ll assess you if you don’t meet the criteria to pass this module.
| Method | Percentage contribution |
|---|---|
| Set Task | 100% |
Repeat
An internal repeat is where you take all of your modules again, including any you passed. An external repeat is where you only re-take the modules you failed.
| Method | Percentage contribution |
|---|---|
| Continuous Assessment | 100% |
Repeat Information
Repeat type: Internal