Develop from user requirements an introduction to the design of environmental systems for large buildings. Give insight and background for the selection of appropriate equipment and materials, and their integration into building fabric and structural systems. Develop background needed to enter into technical discussions in design teams.

(LO1) Students will develop from user requirements an overview in design of environmental systems for large buildings, selection of appropriate equipment and materials, and their integration into building fabric and structural systems. NB This module has been mapped against RIBA validation criteria GC9.

(LO2) Students will demonstrate technical knowledge in the three topic areas: Artificial Lighting, Acoustics, and Thermal Environment.

(LO3) Students will be able to engage in technical discussions and show awareness of the various technical requirements on buildings.

(S1) Critical thinking and problem solving - Problem identification.

(S2) Information skills - Evaluation.

1. ARTIFICIAL LIGHTING Topic 1: Introduction This topic introduces and recaps the basic concepts of lighting, including luminous flux, luminous intensity, illuminance and luminance, together with other major qualities of lamp selection.   Topic 2: Lamps and Luminaires: Characteristics and Applications This topic looks at the procedures for selecting suitable lamps and luminaires for various different applications, based on their characteristics, and how to obtain these characteristics from catalogues and graphs.   Topic 3: Energy Management and Control for Lighting This topic looks at how the use of energy for lighting can be maximized through suitable choice of control and maintenance.   Topic 4: Overall Lighting Design This topic looks at how lighting design combines both the use of artificial lighting with natural daylighting through various exemplar case studies of buildings world-wide.       2. ACOUSTICS Learning outcomes: For students to unde rstand basic acoustical principles relating to the behaviour of sound in the built environment and to be able to apply this knowledge to design work.   Information: The notes for the course are in the form of powerpoint slides available on VITAL.   Assessment: Examination   Topic 1: Acoustics – The fundamentals (Parts 1 & 2) This topic introduces the concepts of sound pressure, frequency, wavelength, sound power, sound intensity, spherical spreading, the use of decibels, frequency ranges of interest and subjective perception of changes in sound pressure level.   Topic 2: External noise in the built environment (Parts 1 & 2) This topic looks at environmental noise and how it impacts upon building design. Part 1 focuses on noise control measures and the factors that attenuate sound propagation across a site. Part 2 covers the subjective aspects of external noise and soundscape approach to design outdoor spaces.   Topic 3: Sound insulation This topi c looks at the effect of the building construction on the airborne and impact sound insulation, and flanking transmission paths.   Topic 4: Sound absorption This topic gives an overview of absorption in terms of absorption coefficients and absorption areas for different types of absorbers (including porous materials, panel absorbers, Helmholtz resonators, space absorbers, variable absorbers).   Topic 5: Behaviour of sound in rooms This topic covers how sound builds up and decays in a space due to direct and reflected sound and introduces important concepts needed in acoustic design (early/late reflections, specular reflection, reverberation times, perception of sound in rooms).   Topic 6: Acoustic design of rooms for music and speech (Parts 1 & 2) This topic is split into two parts. Part 1 covers the design of rooms for early reflections and how room shape can be designed to give suitable early reflections to the listener from the room surfaces and the acoustics of r ooms used for speech. Part 2 focuses on the acoustics of rooms used for music performance.   Background: Your studio design work at Liverpool sometimes involves acoustics on specific types of building that are not covered in ARCH311. For this reason an additional powerpoint file is available with the lecture notes. See ARCH 311 - Acoustics - Design considerations for specific building types.ppt   in the ARCH311 folder.     3. THERMAL ENVIRONMENT Learning outcomes: For students to understand the principles of selection, design and environmental impact of service requirements for indoor climate and to be able to apply this knowledge to design work.   Information:  The notes for the course are in the form of powerpoint slides available on VITAL.   Assessment: Examination   Topic 1: Heating systems basics This topic introduces the basic concepts of the common heating systems used in buildings, as well as some of its basic design and application. 0; Topic 2: Natural ventilation in buildings This topic looks at how natural ventilation could be utilized, particularly for cooling, in buildings. Basic techniques such as single-sided ventilation, cross-ventilation and stack-ventilation will be covered, as well as some of the more sophisticated methods.   Topic 3: Mechanical ventilation systems This topic looks at the use of mechanical ventilation systems in detail, from why these may be required to how they are designed. Components of systems will be covered together with cost implications.   Topic 4: Principles of air conditioning This topic introduces the basic principles of air-conditioning, in particular for mechanical cooling. This will include theory of heat pump and refrigeration.   Topic 5: Applications of air conditioning (Distribution systems) This topic looks at the application of air-conditioning systems in buildings, with a focus on different systems and their suitability for different types of buildings.   Topic 6: Case studies of environmentally conscious buildings This topic looks at various case studies of buildings around the world which are considered “environmentally conscious”. Detailed analyses of their plus points as well as areas that did not work as well as planned will be covered.

Teaching Method 1 - Lecture
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