Climate Design of Buildings and Cities

Learning Outcomes

This module links the design of buildings and urban environments to the wider context of achieving sustainable communities and neighbourhoods. It will comprise the following: 1. Discussion of human comfort as a basis for the active shaping of the living environment with buildings and cities. Critical assessment of the changes in human requirements in relation to societal conditions. 2. Design principles to achieve contemporary climatic design looking at building design, urban organisation, material choice, structural design, thermal mass etc. 3. Design principles to achieve sustainable communities. 4. An introduction to energy systems in buildings and on community scale looking at principles, function and applications, advantages and disadvantages of individual systems. Discussion of how energy systems contribute to design and shaping of an urban environment. 5. Transportation in the urban environment. 6. Urban masterplanning and urban design policies. 7. Discussion of the impacts of population migration and the emergence of megacities. Critical evaluation of the potential of eco-cities. Examples include Masdar and Dongtan. 8. Urban microclimate and urban heat islands. 9. Issues of design philosophy, e.g. How green to go? What can people accept? 10. Discussion of how to establish design priorities and implementation phases to achieve sustainability targets.

The course will comprise of lectures and seminar units related to the topics given above. Seminar units will include impromptu design tasks on selected problems. This will be complemented by a 3 day workshop related to the [P1] assessment.