We spend around 80% of our lives in buildings, but how do we make sure that the internal environments we create are healthy, comfortable and have a positive...

Building Physics and Environment (BARC0002)

We spend around 80% of our lives in buildings, but how do we make sure that the internal environments we create are healthy, comfortable and have a positive impact upon occupants? Taught through lectures, tutorials and practical sessions, this course will introduce key building physics principles of light, sound, heat and ventilation, exploring how these relate to key aspects of building design and influence the environmental performance of a space.

The aim of the module is develop students understanding of key building physics principals and the role they play in achieving satisfactory indoor environmental conditions. The module will equip students with detailed knowledge of, and the ability to apply, the main scientific principles of heat & mass transfer, light and sound in the building engineering context. Students will consider what is meant by indoor environmental quality and explore how the design of the building envelope and building systems can influence the internal environment and building energy use.

Aims and objectives:

On successful completion of the course, each student will have:

• Gained an understanding of the key features of indoor environmental quality (thermal comfort, light, acoustics and air quality), their measurement and assessment.

• Applied basic principles of light, sound, heat & mass transfer to estimate key metrics of environmental performance.

• Explored the influence of different building characteristics upon the internal environment and understand how these features can be used within a creative design context.

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