Course Number: ARC 421 Year: 4th Year Track: Technology Credit Hours: 3 Semester(s): Fall Prerequisites: ARC 322 or permission of instructor
Instructor(s): Beth WeinsteinPavel Getov
Course Description:
Two-module course: Module 1: The study of active and passive environmental control systems, building systems for circulation, fire safety, communication, water and waste, and principles and systems of electricity in medium and large size structures. Module 2: The study of building enclosure materials, connections, and systems, through principles, concepts, and their integration in architecture.
Objectives 1. Ability to work collaboratively in a team with other students. 2. Awareness of the principles and theories that deal with the environmental context and the architect's responsibility with respect to global environmental issues, including sustainability, conservation and intelligent use of natural resources, relevant codes, regulations and standards and their application to physical and environmental systems. 3. Understanding of the theories and methods that clarify the relationships between human behavior and physical environment including design of active and passive heating, cooling and lighting systems, water and waste. 4. Understanding of the life safety requirements in building design. 5. Understand to role of material, detail and assembly strategies in building enclosures for the making of sustainable/regenerative and healthful environments. 6. Understanding the integration into enclosure systems of environmental strategies, such as lighting, acoustics, climate modification. 7. Understanding basic principles, appropriate applications, and performance of building enclosure materials, details and assembly systems.
Course Structure & Topics Module 1: Environmental Controls Lectures will cover the principles of thermal comfort and control, psychrometry, air-conditioning systems in buildings, electric power and energy, the integration of incandescent and fluorescent lighting, and of photovoltaic systems into the design of buildings. The integration of waste, water, and vertical transportation systems will be studied. Issues of building communication and life safety are discussed. Laboratory sessions will study the integration of systems in real world scenarios and use calculations to size systems for hypothetical projects. Fieldtrip(s) will focus on air conditioning, water and waste systems in buildings, electrical distribution in large scale buildings, lighting design and fire safety. Module 2: Materials and Methods Lectures will cover a number of issues that inform design of the building envelope: materials and related forming and assembly methods, tolerances and failure, performance, and integration of structural and mechanical systems, and exemplary precedents. The quizzes cover key principles of enclosure design and these incorporated into exemplary projects. Through a team project, students design a building enclosure. Critical examples from a selected architects' office as well as an unfamiliar climate and context are researched to determine each team's design goals and strategy. The completed project includes general elevations and detailed resolution of critical junctures explored through digital models and drawings, physical models in addition to documented research of the precedents and climate context.
Course Requirements Students must complete all projects, homework assignments, quizzes and examinations as defined in this syllabus.
