Over the past three months, within the module "Building Engineering", 39 master students worked in small groups on a building design. Structural design, façade engineering, climate design, architecture and a spatial structure were part of the assignment. All students started off with an identical clients brief, but were stimulated to come up with a diversity of solutions.
Parallel to a series of more than 50 lectures and workshops on the topics above, also delivered by eight guest speakers from industry, the participants collaborated in daily studio's to gradually develop their designs. Each week, tutor feedback sessions were held with experts in the various topics. In the images above some impressions of the workshops and results.
This was the first edition of a 15 ECTS module, part of the track Structural Engineering in the fully renewed MSc Civil Engineering programme of TU Delft. We had the luxury of having the full attention of the students, as the module filled 100% of their timetable during the Summer Term Q4. From the six modules available in the SE-track, Building Engineering proved to be the most attractive one in terms of number of participating students. The module consisted of a 7 ECTS of design studio, assessed in a design report and presentation, parallel to 8 ECTS of more theoretical work, assessed by three written exams.
After more than a year of preparation, and many discussions on the content by a team of no less than 19 involved lecturers from the faculty of Civil Engineering and the Faculty of Architecture, it was exciting to see how the design developed under the hands of the students. The students gradually got a real 3D understanding of the programme, and saw the complexity of the interaction between floor plans, façade, climate, structure and function. It was beautiful to see creative solutions for spatials challenges, and listening to questions of students that reflected they really grasped what the problems were.
It must be said that some inevitable teething problems (Dutch: "kinderziektes") occurred. Balancing the workload between design studio, lectures and exams and the level of expectation of the final products required some discussions and calibration. From a midterm survey, we received valuable (in some case critical) feedback from students, which we tried to address right away or will need to address in future editions. We are currently in the process of reviewing all design reports and conducting and marking the written exams and resit exams, which is a race against the clock of allowable grading days and summer holidays coming soon.
Overall, we are pleased with the performance of the students and the clearly visible learning curve they underwent during the module. We are confident that they have been able to achieve many of the learning objectives of the module, and we could definitely see the enthusiasm for the field of architectural and building engineering!
Parallel to a series of more than 50 lectures and workshops on the topics above, also delivered by eight guest speakers from industry, the participants collaborated in daily studio's to gradually develop their designs. Each week, tutor feedback sessions were held with experts in the various topics. In the images above some impressions of the workshops and results.
This was the first edition of a 15 ECTS module, part of the track Structural Engineering in the fully renewed MSc Civil Engineering programme of TU Delft. We had the luxury of having the full attention of the students, as the module filled 100% of their timetable during the Summer Term Q4. From the six modules available in the SE-track, Building Engineering proved to be the most attractive one in terms of number of participating students. The module consisted of a 7 ECTS of design studio, assessed in a design report and presentation, parallel to 8 ECTS of more theoretical work, assessed by three written exams.
After more than a year of preparation, and many discussions on the content by a team of no less than 19 involved lecturers from the faculty of Civil Engineering and the Faculty of Architecture, it was exciting to see how the design developed under the hands of the students. The students gradually got a real 3D understanding of the programme, and saw the complexity of the interaction between floor plans, façade, climate, structure and function. It was beautiful to see creative solutions for spatials challenges, and listening to questions of students that reflected they really grasped what the problems were.
It must be said that some inevitable teething problems (Dutch: "kinderziektes") occurred. Balancing the workload between design studio, lectures and exams and the level of expectation of the final products required some discussions and calibration. From a midterm survey, we received valuable (in some case critical) feedback from students, which we tried to address right away or will need to address in future editions. We are currently in the process of reviewing all design reports and conducting and marking the written exams and resit exams, which is a race against the clock of allowable grading days and summer holidays coming soon.
Overall, we are pleased with the performance of the students and the clearly visible learning curve they underwent during the module. We are confident that they have been able to achieve many of the learning objectives of the module, and we could definitely see the enthusiasm for the field of architectural and building engineering!