Hello,

I'm a student taking a diploma in architecture, and I will be going on to university to further my studies.

At this moment of time, I've decided that I want to be an envirinmentally friendly architect, no, not the kind who slaps photovoltaic cells onto greenhouse-forming curtain walls. I want to take a further step into being environmentally friendly. If I had to set out my priorities, it would be

1. sustainability
2. design

Now, I need some advice on this, because when picking an architecture school, the first thing that comes to some peoples' minds are schools like the Architectural Association. I'm not sure about their objectives, but design and theory sounds like the stuff you're going to get out of there, which may not be that suitable(?).

Anyway, because of the scope of things, it gets quite difficult to find a proper school, the only one that I could find which comes quite close is the University of Nottingham's MEng/BSc Architecture & Environmental Design, and I'm not even sure if that's an accredited program on its own.

Any comments?

Hi Cliff

I would suggest to you that you focus on completing your architecture degree first (in the country where you eventually wish to practise), and then specialise with the following masters' course. I am a Building Physicist... did an undergraduate degree (BSc Hons) in Physics and now doing a Masters in Environmental Design and Engineering (MSc EDE) at UCL. It is a course designed to teach architectural (design) and engineering techniques to improve energy efficiency and sustainability in buildings.

Areas that we cover are techniques in naturally ventilating buildings (a design project I am currently working on for the model is a redevelopment of the CentrePoint tower in London), interior illumination to reduce heat gains, solar shielding of buildings to again reduce internal heat gains as well as designing to control noise and acoustics. We use thermal analysis software to model the thermal properties of a building and next semester we will use computational fluid dynamics to do more detailed modelling. Sustainability isn't taught officially, but because of the work we do, it's always a consideration when designing the environmental systems of buildings. Environmental Design and Engineering isn't just about energy efficiency and green buildings and other hippy things - it's also to do with providing comfort and safe buildings for occupancy, so there is a considerable component of the course which deals with comfort levels in buildings and tolerances of the human body.

The taught element is quite good... we only have lectures on Tuesday and Wednesday so sometimes you might not get as much classroom help as you would like. The workload isn't as stressful as other Masters' courses. Most of the work is coursework assessed and there are only 3 exams which each count for 50% of three out of the 8 modules that you will take. Also, the MSc EDE course I am doing is very international - there are 36 students. Nearly half are from Greece (for some reason!), there are a few from China, India, US, Colombia, Portugal. I am one of only 2 UK-born students, but we all get on great.

The course, being designed for both architects and engineers attracts graduates from most disciplines and most have already been practising as architects and engineers before. They are taking the course as environmental sustinability in buildings is growing in popularity in the big construction, engineernig and architectural firms. My course is accredited by the Chartered Institute of Building Services Engineers (UK) so that upon completion of the MSc, even after you've done a non-engineering undergraduate degree, you can become a Chartered Engineer.

I don't know about the AA, but I know that the AA in London offers a similar course to ours, but their's is not accredited by a professional body.

Hope you found this helpful.



Links you may find useful:
UCL (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ucl)- (my university for undergrad and Masters) on wikipedia
MSc Environmental Design and Engineering official webpage (http://www.bartlett.ucl.ac.uk/graduate/programmes/msc_be/ede_overview.htm)
MSc Environmental Design and Engineering unofficial webpage (http://www.bartlett.ucl.ac.uk/web/ben/ede/) - (this is not really supposed to be public, it's mainly for use by the 35 students on the course, but here you'll find out what it is like)
Chartered Institute of Building Services Engineers (UK) (http://www.cibse.org/) - professional body that accredits our course

Just curious, you did an undergraduate degree (BSc Hons) in Physics, would your Masters in Environmental Design and Engineering (MSc EDE) at UCL give you accreditation with the Architect's Registration Board, or is it only with the CIBSE?

The course that you described sounds really interesting and relevant, in its case, I would be doing a 4 years bachelor + 2 years masters rather than the 5 years continuous masters? (this is so amarican, lol)

And yes, I found your advice really helpful:)