Course Title: Sustainable Building Technologies

Part A: Course Overview

Course Title: Sustainable Building Technologies

Credit Points: 12.00

Terms

Course Code

Campus

Career

School

Learning Mode

Teaching Period(s)

BUSM4467

City Campus

Postgraduate

325H Property, Construction & Project Management

Face-to-Face

Sem 2 2015,
Sem 2 2016,
Sem 2 2017,
Sem 2 2018,
Sem 1 2019,
Sem 2 2019,
Sem 1 2020,
Sem 2 2020,
Sem 1 2021,
Sem 2 2021,
Sem 1 2022,
Sem 2 2022,
Sem 2 2023

Course Coordinator: Andrew Carre

Course Coordinator Phone: +61 3 9925 3903

Course Coordinator Email: andrew.carre@rmit.edu.au

Course Coordinator Location: 8.8.24


Pre-requisite Courses and Assumed Knowledge and Capabilities

None


Course Description

The development of sustainable buildings involves the use of a wide range of technologies, including innovative and advanced materials and building services equipment. A critical understanding of these technologies is required for the successful design and performance of sustainable buildings. This course will develop your knowledge of how these technologies ’work’ and their performance characteristics. You will gain skills in evaluating the sustainability performance of building technologies. You will also gain skills in determining and selecting appropriate design strategies and technology ’packages’ for different building types, locations and performance goals, and develop your capacity to recognise trade-offs that occur across the building system. This course includes your industry engagement with sustainable building industry experts.


 


Objectives/Learning Outcomes/Capability Development

Program Learning Outcomes (PLOs)

In this course you will develop the following program learning outcomes:

  • Analyse, synthesise and apply sustainable building theory and principles to address industry issues, and implement new directions in sustainable building design
  • Professionally communicate your ideas and strategies, justifying decisions to diverse stakeholders, including government and industry stakeholders
  • Employ your knowledge of sustainable building and performance theory, and leading technologies, to develop solutions that respond to the diverse needs of sustainable building project stakeholders
  • Critically examine and reflect on your work, and sustainable building theory, to question accepted building solutions, design strategies, design practices and decision making approaches
  • Apply appropriate research methods, tools and technical skills to plan and evaluate projects that contribute to the profession and the field of knowledge in the discipline
     


Course Learning Outcomes (CLOs)

Upon successful completion of this course, you will be able to:

  1. Develop design strategies that respond to sustainable building objectives for energy use, water use, carbon emissions, wastes, drainage, flooding, ecology, health and wellbeing
  2. Analyse sustainable technologies and strategies to formulate design solutions which address resilience and adaptability requirements for sustainable buildings
  3. Determine and implement appropriate sustainability performance metrics for building projects
  4. Critique published research and data on building performance to develop and justify a design strategy that addresses key sustainability performance indicators
  5. Evaluate and communicate the performance characteristics of passive and active technologies for sustainable buildings
  6. Apply analytical methods to support the selection of technology packages for sustainable buildings and to propose design solutions 


Overview of Learning Activities

This course is based on principles of experiential and active learning. You will engage in a range of learning activities delivered online and face-to-face. The course consists of a series of lectures, seminars and workshops. In the seminar sessions, you will be engaged in hands-on interactive class activities, scenario-based learning and group discussions.
 


Overview of Learning Resources

RMIT will provide you with resources and tools for learning in this course through our online systems.

As part of the learning in this course you will be directed to lecture notes and other related information through links in MyRMIT. Resources you will utlise in this course include lecture notes, case studies, software packages and library resources.


Overview of Assessment

You will be assessed on how well you meet the course’s learning outcomes and on your development against the program learning outcomes.  Assessment consists of:

AT1: Discussion, 20%, CLOs 1, 2 & 4 (individual).  Identify and assess a sustainable building you find interesting. Discuss it in an online forum and use outcomes from the discussion to refine your sustainability assessment. 

AT2: Sustainable building upgrade, 40%, CLOs 1, 2, 3, 4 & 5 (individual).  Develop a business case for the implementation of sustainable building technologies in a building upgrade. 

AT3: Sustainable apartment building, 40%, CLOs 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 & 6 (group).  Working as a team, improve the sustainability of a building design as it is proposed in a new context. Employ the most appropriate technologies and ideas covered in the course.

  • Up to a group of 3
  • You can do as group of 2 or individual if you want to

Feedback will be given on all assessment tasks. 

Equitable Learning Services 

Equitable Learning Services (ELS) provide support and equal opportunities for students with a disability, long-term illness and/or mental health condition and primary carers of individuals with a disability. You can contact the ELS if you would like to find out more: https://www.rmit.edu.au/students/support-and-facilities/student-support/equitable-learning-services. You can also contact the course coordinator or the program coordinator if you would like to find out more. 

An assessment charter (http://mams.rmit.edu.au/kh6a3ly2wi2h1.pdf) summarises your responsibilities as an RMIT student as well as those of your teaching staff. 

Your course assessment conforms to RMIT assessment principles, regulations, policies and procedures which are described and referenced in a single document: http://www.rmit.edu.au/browse;ID=ln1kd66y87rc.