Industrialised, Integrated, Intelligent sustainable Construction - I3con

SUSTAINABLE CONSTRUCTION HANDBOOK 2
the internet), holding presentations, writing professional reports, etc. Please note that very little of
these skills are learned in the mainstream science and engineering courses at the faculty. Because of
this range of general skills that are addressed in the first year design project, the technical elaboration
of the work is usually rather limited.
The Design Projects in the second and third year build upon the first year’s course, with increasing
complexity and difficulty. In the second year, the emphasis is on the different design stages and on
going through the design cycle several times, resulting in designs on system level, subsystem level
and component level. During these design stages, students also learn to apply cost estimation and risk
management methods and utilize the outcomes in the design decision process.
In the third year the complexity of the project increases mainly because the team size increases to
about 20 students, which means that the students must put more effort in organizing themselves. The
project teams are required to work in sub-teams that are responsible for different disciplines
(transport, building, hydraulic engineering and water management). Of course this project setup
means that integration of the work of the sub-teams is an essential part of the project, and interface
management becomes a natural issue.
The BSc Design Project courses are very important in our view, because in these courses students
must find a solution for a complex problem in a design process, in which the analytical methods they
know from engineering courses fall short. Furthermore, students must work together, need conference
skills, etc. Also the educational format of problem-driven project courses is an “activating” format: it
stimulates students to come into action rather than sit back, remain passive and listen to professors.
With respect to the vision and innovation themes discussed earlier, one can say that many themes are
introduced but not yet explored in depth. The first concept students must understand is the concept of
design, including its trial-and-error nature, and its unlimited solution space. Furthermore, students
must understand the complexity of construction design projects and the need for a systems approach
in order to cope with this complexity. This knowledge and the associated skills form the basis of the
design education of our students. In addition to that, students are introduced to themes such as valueoriented
thinking, dynamic control of projects, systems engineering, life cycle thinking and
sustainable building.
Only the theme of Building Information Modelling remains almost untouched. Students do use
information technology, but only conventional software such as Office, SketchUp and AutoCAD. And
most importantly, students regard this software merely as production tools, and they do not recognize
the information management aspect of design projects, or the potential of information integration that
could be achieved with BIM.
The MSc Track Design and Construction Processes
The MSc Track Design and Construction Processes (2 years) is a specialisation within the broader
track of Building Engineering. The track consists of the following parts:
• General Building Engineering courses, including structural engineering, building physics
building informatics and construction management (approximately 4 months)
• Specialized Design and Construction Process courses, see further below (8 months)
• Electives (4 months)
• Graduation work (8 months)
The sequence in which the courses are taken may differ, but the graduation work is normally the last
work.
The most distinctive part of the Design & Construction Processes track is the part of the specialized
design and construction process courses (2 nd bullet). This part consists of the following courses:
• Functional Design and Methodology
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