MAPD4210 Design and Culture Course description

Design is widely acknowledged as an increasingly interdisciplinary and complex field; designers take solving complex social and cultural issues as their domain. Issues concerning strategic planning, collaborative, participatory and human centred design require designers to adapt a broad, humanistic point of view. The aim of the course is to make design students aware of the relevance of knowledge of cultural values and meanings, and their impact on design. The course introduces strategies for integrating social responsibility, critical thinking and the use of ethnographic, generative and other design research methods for fostering awareness, reflexivity, criticality and empathy.

The course gives students an introduction to how consulting engineers in the fields of building technology, structural engineering, transport infrastructure engineering, geotechnical engineering and smart water process and infrastructure engineering can actively contribute to the development of sustainable solutions in the construction industry of the future. Sustainable design and construction requires more information, calculations and assessment and a greater degree of interdisciplinary cooperation.

No formal requirements over and above the admission requirements.

After completing the course, the student is expected to have achieved the following learning outcomes defined in terms of knowledge, skills and general competence:

Knowledge:

The student:

· has knowledge of the sustainability concept and is able to identify common environmental impacts from buildings, structures and infrastructures

· has knowledge of the drivers behind the development and implementation of sustainability assessments

· has in-depth knowledge of life-cycle methodology, with the focus on system limits, service life and functional units

· is capable of recommending relevant standards, guidelines and commercial methods for sustainability assessments and life-cycle analyses.

Skills:

The student is capable of:

· comparing methods for assessing the environmental performance of civil engineering solutions

· applying regulations, relevant standards, guidelines and commercial methods in the performance of sustainability assessments and life-cycle analyses of buildings, structures and infrastructures

· performing calculations and documentation of greenhouse gas emissions in a life-cycle perspective for buildings, structures and infrastructures

· using spreadsheet tools and BIM-based software for the collection, processing, sharing and presentation of relevant information in interdisciplinary assessments

· choosing appropriate civil engineering solutions based on sustainability and life-cycle assessments

General competence:

The student is capable of

· analyzing complexity and assessing the scope of possibility for design and construction to achieve sustainable solutions

· cooperating in groups on a real, interdisciplinary task

· presenting academic results and evaluations in a scholarly manner.

The teaching will consist of a combination of lectures, discussions, and inspection of building projects. Lectures provide the necessary knowledge for understanding climate and environmental issues, as well as life cycle approaches and systems thinking. Practical use of tools and software is taught to enable students to collect information, for calculations and assessments, and to present solutions in written reports.

The students work on a project in teams of 2-4 and are tasked with developing sustainable solutions.

One knowledge test must be completed and approved in order for the students to submit their project.

If the knowledge test has not been approved, the student will be given the opportunity to submit a new one by a given deadline.

Exam Format: Project Report

Project report prepared in groups of 2-4 students, approx. 20-30 pages.

The exam can be appealed.

All aids are permitted.

Grade scale A-F.