Towards Integrated Design for Sustainable Building. Course based on interaction between energy efficient engineering and architectural design

Other conference contribution, 2006

Research findings about sustainable building stress that one key is the need for interaction in integrated design processes. However, if this is a prerequisite in “real life”, students are badly prepared for such collaboration. In Swedish universities, almost no co-operation is carried out between architects and engineers. This paper will extract experience from a course merging architects and engineers in a competition for energy efficient architecture, and point out recommendations. The course comprised several bridging aspects, which will be discussed: A) Between educational cultures in countries, the course involved two universities one from Norway and one from Sweden and many students came from European, non-Scandinavian countries. B) Between professional cultures, students and teachers from architecture and engineering. C) Between the competition (result), assessed by an external jury, and the course as a whole (learning) assessed by the teachers. D) Between vision and reality, the competition was based on a program from a real client. The students made an evaluation and, in general, they were positive, however, with exceptions. The main conclusion is that though details can be improved, both students and teachers will gain from crossing boundaries in order to establish meaningful learning about sustainable building.