Industrialised, Integrated, Intelligent sustainable Construction - I3con

HANDBOOK 2 SUSTAINABLE CONSTRUCTION
Education for Sustainable Construction
Development of Knowledge and Skills for Industrialized, Integrated, Intelligent
Construction
Sander van Nederveen – Delft University of Technology (g.a.vannederveen@tudelft.nl)
Reza Beheshti – Delft University of Technology (m.r.beheshti@tudelft.nl)
Abstract
One of the most important prerequisites of sustainable construction is
the education of construction professionals who have knowledge of
innovative concepts for sustainable construction, and have the
capacity and creative attitude to initiate and lead innovations for
sustainable construction.
This chapter presents and discusses the way current civil
engineering students at Delft University of Technology are prepared
for their role as future leaders in construction innovation. First, a
vision and a number of themes are discussed that are used for the
development of the current curriculum. These themes are partially
related to the Living Building Concept and are dealing with such
themes as value-oriented building and Building Information
Modelling. Next, the current curriculum is described with an
emphasis on the courses that should contribute to the goal of
education for sustainable construction. Finally the curriculum is
evaluated against the vision and objectives on sustainable
construction.
Keywords: sustainable construction, integrated design, education, value orientation, building
information modelling
Introduction
Sustainable construction has become a key theme in recent years. Global warming, CO2 emissions
and expected shortage of energy and resources have become very important issues for the Building
and Construction (BC) industry. Construction companies and public bodies need to deal with these
issues, because of their societal responsibility, but also for making money.
Sustainable construction requires both technological and process-related innovations. An important
success factor for innovations, especially for process-related innovations, is that the construction
professionals can deal with innovations. Moreover, construction professionals need to be able to
initiate and lead process innovations. Construction skills and training needs have changed with the
introduction of new business processes, different forms of organizing production and technical
innovation. In most countries adapting to changes has failed when ignoring the needs of a
modernizing industry and the necessity for innovation and training. Formal training programmes
proved to be inappropriate in content and method of delivery. The BC industry needs to provide the
types of skill and training required to implement innovative approaches for improving the BC
performance. A new generic, individually based and life-long training programme is required for the
BC practitioners, trainers, researchers and policy makers, supported by the new media (Gann and
Senker, 1998).
This observation has important implications for the education of construction professionals. It means
that faculties and schools for construction professionals, such as faculties for architecture and civil
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