The main research object of the Master’s Programme in Sustainable Environmental Design is the relationship between architectural form, materiality and environmental performance, and how this relation should evolve in response to climate change and emerging technical capabilities. Sustainable environmental design is not a fixed ideal, but an evolving concept to be redefined and reassessed with each new project. Observation, measurement and computer modelling and simulation are fundamental techniques that underpin the design research undertaken within the programme. These are applied at various levels of detail and intensity extending the understanding of theoretical principles to inform the design process. The MSc option runs over 12 months (from October 2009 to September 2010 in this academic year) and is offered to both architects and engineers. It provides the conceptual, experiential and analytical skills needed for engaging in sustainable environmental design research and practice, making extensive use of advanced digital tools and seeking a creative synthesis between physics, engineering and architecture. The MArch option is addressed to architects and teachers of architectural design. Its 16-month duration (from October 2009 to January 2011) enables the exploration of detailed design agendas that can include the realisation of experimental structures.
The taught programme is in two parts. The first part (Phase I, October-April) is common to both the MSc and MArch candidates and is structured around a series of joint studio projects undertaken in teams combining the two groups. Projects are supported by weekly lectures, seminars and workshops. These review theories and practices of sustainable design, present case studies by leading researchers and designers, define performative criteria for different building types and climates and provide training in the use of environmental simulation tools and design analysis techniques. The second part of the course is organized around candidates' dissertation projects.
Phase I Studio: What Can Buildings Tell Us, What Can We Tell Back
Building studies around London combine occupant and designer interviews with on-site observations and environmental measurements. These provide a first glimpse of the dynamic interactions between building, occupant and outdoor environment. Measurements help calibrate digital models that are then applied to simulate environmental performance as a first stage of parametric analysis and design research. Studio projects are undertaken in teams, each focusing on different buildings of environmental interest. The theoretical knowledge, analytic tools and instrumentation required for project work are introduced by the taught programme in its weekly lectures and workshops.
The findings of the Autumn Term's fieldwork and environmental performance studies provide starting points for the following term's design research agendas. The objective of the Spring Term studio is to explore innovative as well as performative designs addressing climate change, maximizing use of natural resources and aiming at zero carbon buildings. Project teams can select urban sites in different climatic regions as the locations of individual design schemes.
Phase II Studio: Dissertations
MSc and MArch Dissertation topics are decided by the end of the Spring Term. MSc dissertation projects combine design research with analytic work and case-studies related to the programme's areas of research and candidates’ professional interests and backgrounds. MArch dissertation projects are in two stages. The first stage encompasses the technical research and analytic work including any field studies. The second stage follows after the summer break and is devoted to a design application that is then developed through the following Autumn Term.
Lectures, Seminars & Workshops
Myths & Theories of Sustainable Architecture
Many architects and students take sustainable environmental design for granted, as if it were now standard practice. Others see environmental performance as a mere genetic corollary of the digital revolution. For others still, energy and environment are technicalities best dealt with outside architecture. The course dispels such myths, which continue to obscure the development of an architectural discourse of sustainable design. Far from being an issue of engineering, the environmental performance of buildings is fundamentally a matter for architecture, being a direct outcome of programmatic, formal and operational choices made, or ignored, by design. Sustainable environmental design requires essential architectural knowledge that recent generations of architects simply did not receive. Its key concepts and performative criteria are introduced in this course, providing the cognitive grounding and critical framework needed for design research and applications.
Environmental Design Primer
The course deals with key topics in building science drawn from current thinking and research in sustainable environmental design as it applies to architecture and urbanism. Lectures will look at the relationship between climate and architectural evolution; people, buildings and sustainability; occupant environmental comfort and thermal performance of buildings; daylight in architecture; daylight, artificial light, and energy; natural and mechanical ventilation; health and energy expenditure in buildings and related topics.
Lessons from Practice
The course looks at both historical and contemporary approaches using built examples from the research and practices of the programme’s teaching staff as well as guest lecturers to discuss design concepts and environmental performance in practice. Visiting contributors have included Catherine Harrington and Ben Humphreys of Architype Architects, Bill Dunster of Zed Factory, Ian Taylor of Feilden Clegg Bradley Architects, David Lloyd Jones of Studio E, Mark Hemel of IBA, Rab and Denise Bennetts of Bennetts Associates, Richard Soundy of Corrigan Soundy Kilaiditi, Daniel Wright of Rogers Stirk Harbour & Partners, Stefan Behling and Irene Gallou of Foster & Partners, Jolyon Brewis of Grimshaw & Partners, Michael Pawlyn of Exploration, Andy Ford of Fulcrum Engineering, Peter Chlapowski of PCKO Architects, Mario Cucinella of MC Architects, Dean Hawkes, Alexandros Tombazis, Ken Yeang and other UK and international practitioners with a stated commitment to environmentally responsive architecture.
Environmental Analysis Tools
This is a technical course on methods and tools applied before and during design to test ideas and environmental targets, simulate and compare the likely performance of alternative designs, assess predictions of environmental conditions against measured data and benchmarks, fine-tune design proposals and inform final design decisions. Over two terms the course and weekly workshop (see below) engage with a selection of specialist digital tools and techniques that are now increasingly used by environmental design professionals. These include digital tools for climate and urban microclimate studies, daylighting, solar and airflow simulation tools, thermal comfort studies, prediction of energy requirements and carbon emissions, performance assessment and environmental impacts of buildings and cities.
Design Research Workshop
This is a hands-on workshop that provides training on the application of digital tools and procedures introduced by the Environmental Analysis Tools course. The workshop follows the weekly sessions of the Tools course helping to build the necessary knowledge and experience in stages under close supervision. The tools covered by the workshop include scientific instruments and survey techniques for use on fieldwork, as well as digital tools applied to the modelling and simulation of environmental processes and to form generation. The sequence in which different tools are introduced mirrors their application on the year’s projects.
Productive Research
The purpose of this seminar is to foster the development of the research skills required for studio projects and professional work in the areas of this masters programme. These include sifting through the vast amount of information and technical data now available in the field of sustainable environmental design, the selection of topics for research papers and dissertation projects, the writing of technical papers and reports for presentation and publication, and the development of a visual language for communicating the principles and outcomes of sustainable environmental design.
Other Events
The programme’s projects are regularly presented, published and exhibited in national and international events. Recent such events included the PLEA 2008 Conference “Towards Zero Energy Buildings” in Dublin in October 2008, the Jerusalem Seminar in Architecture in January 2009, the Ecobuild exhibition in London in March 2009 and the PLEA 2009 Conference “Architecture, Energy and the Occupant’s Perspective” in Quebec City in June 2009. Over the last year some twenty papers were presented in international conferences by members of the group and there were published contributions in several books and journals. Forthcoming events in 2009-10 include the PALENC 2010 Conference Cooling the Cities to be held on the island of Rhodes in late September, collaboration in a new international project on environmental design and architectural training in Europe, and continuing research collaborations with colleagues in the UK and abroad,.
