The wsa offers taught programmes in advanced practice that are open to candidates from non-architectural backgrounds and lie outside the route prescribed for a professional career in architecture. Among these is the suite of three MSc degree programmes described here, which draw on established and widely recognised research strengths possessed by the School. These are programmes run solely by the School. In addition, you could follow these links to other pages on the MA in Urban Design and the MSc in Sustainable Energy and Environment, which are courses we share with other Schools.

Subject Matter

These three programmes, in their different ways, all address the impact that the built environment has on the sustainability of our planet and its inhabitants, and are addressing practitioners who have some involvement in the production or management of the built environment. The current trend in practice is towards "green" approaches to design, and this trend is encouraged by legislation which demands a higher level of regard for sustainability. To respond sympathetically, practitioners must develop their awareness of the ways buildings can affect their environment. These three MSc programmes give practitioners a range of perspectives to choose from. Click on the heading below to bring up the appropriate programme description in full in the column alongside:

Theory and Practice of Sustainable Design This programme prepares professionals for finding opportunities to initiate and facilitate sustainable change in the built environment. It provides an array of practical tools for implementation and guides students in applying their knowledge to a live project.

Environmental Design of Buildings This programme provides the skills and knowledge required by building design teams to create comfortable physical environments in and around buildings that are healthy, sustainable and energy-conscious.

Building Energy and Environmental Performance ModellingUsing the School's expertise in developing computer software, this course focuses on its use for studying such diverse aspects of building and urban design as lighting, thermal simulation, air flow, carbon-dioxide emission, and life-cycle analysis.

The broadest perspective is given by the Theory and Practice of Sustainable Design course, which offers a comprehensive view of the issues involved in the design and construction of sustainable built environments, from product selection to planetary impacts. Although the design of building environments is considered in this course, this aspect of sustainable design is amplified in the next course in the range, Environmental Design of Buildings. This course takes the physical environment in and around buildings as its subject. The guiding principle is still sustainability, in that it aims to achieve comfortable and healthy environments in buildings without compromising the environment at large. The environmental performance of the outcome has to be assessed, and part of this course introduces students to the use of models for this purpose. However, modelling is becoming an increasingly specialist activity, and this aspect is, in turn, amplified as the subject of the next course, Building Energy and Environmental Performance Modelling. This course gives students practical training at greater length in the safe use of the major types of performance modelling tools.

msc

The three courses are described more fully under separate headings alongside.

Programme Format

The original Environmental Design of Buildings programme was established over 15 years ago, and the other two programmes were added to the suite about 5 years ago. Continual revision has ensured that these three programmes have sharpened their standards and evolved to meet the needs of their students and the changing demands of the profession. The relationship between them has also advanced, and now takes advantage of the synergy between the three degree programmes whilst also clarifying the distinction between them. This format fosters contact between students on the three courses, and between local and distance students, which takes advantage of the variety of background from which our student cohorts always come.

The taught content is delivered in a set of separately-assessed modules. Teaching uses a variety of media, including lectures, set texts, case studies, seminars, workshops, course work, computer modelling, physical modelling, group tutorials, and student presentations. Taught material in core modules has been developed for computer-aided learning, providing particularly valuable support to students whose first language is not English.

Project work is pursued in separate modules which give students opportunities to apply what they have learned in a specialist professional context. The projects are generally sufficiently flexible to allow students to follow their own interests and strengths. Study visits are arranged to buildings of interest and relevance to the programmes.

The final module is a research dissertation, and is a period of more independent study, in which students report on an investigation that they have conducted under supervision into a research question that interests them.

Before the taught programme begins there is an induction course to introduce new students to the school, the university, and its facilities and to give them some experience in the basic skills that they will need. This is particularly helpful for students without recent experience of full-time education, but it also is designed to define the common standards anticipated from students from varying academic backgrounds.
More generally, post-graduate students enjoy a high level of staff support in both academic and personal matters.

Click here for more information on the Programme Structure.

Study Options

There is a full-time and a part-time route through all programmes for students taking the course locally in Cardiff. Full-time students complete the programme in one year (twelve months). For part-time students, there are options which allow them to complete in two years or three years.

For the Environmental Design of Buildings programme, there is also a distance learning route over three years.

Click here for more information on Programme Pathways.

Financial support

Each year until further notice, one bursary will be offered by the Leverhulme Trust to a suitable candidate with an offer to study for any of these three schemes . The bursary pays the academic fees and provides about £12,000 for living expenses (subject to final adjustment). Only UK residents applying for full-time study are eligible. The award will be made on the grounds of outstanding talent and financial need from applicants expressing a wish to be considered. Those interested should attach a letter to their application forms making a case for receiving this support. It is intended to make the selection by the end of the July preceding the session. The recipient cannot also be in receipt of another state or private academic award.

All three schemes meet the criteria for Panasonic Trust Fellowships. Every year the Trust awards a limited number of fellowships (worth £8,000 each for the 2009-10 academic year) to engineers attending full-time Masters’ courses in the UK on subjects related to the Environment and Sustainability. To be eligible, a candidate must be a UK citizen qualified to degree level in engineering or a related discipline, have membership at any grade of a professional engineering institution, and have some industrial experience. More details will be found on the Panasonic Trust web site at http://www.panasonictrust.net/fellowships/default.aspx. Applications should be made directly to the Trust using the form available on their web site.

Frequently Asked Questions

Follow this link for FAQs for this MSc Degree Suite.

Application Information

Applicants for any of the MSc courses should accompany their application with a supporting personal statement in which they give their reasons for wanting to study the subject taught in the specific degree course for which they are applying. This statement should make it clear why the subject is important to them, what experience or education they are bringing to the course, what they hope to get from the course, and what ultimate career plans they may have. This statement, which should not exceed 700 words, will be used by the admissions team in making a decision about whether to accept the application. There is no requirement for a portfolio, but if applicants choose to submit a printed portfolio of no more than 8 pages (not a digital one) it will be reviewed.

Applicants should follow the links to the more detailed pages on Programme Pathways to make sure that they understand the options available to them, particularly if they are applying for part-time attendance. However, applicants applying for part-time study will not be asked to decide which of the part-time pathway options they want to take until they enrol with the University after their application has been accepted.

Please note that there are specific technical requirements for entry to the distance learning version of the Environmental Design of Buildings programme.

For further details and application forms:

Admissions Administrator: Christine Heywood
Telephone: +(44) 029 208779332
Facsmile: +(44) 029 20874623
Email: architecture-pg@cardiff.ac.uk

Current students

The course material for current students is presented on the Blackboard virtual learning environment, access to which needs a University network username and password. A module in Blackboard called Scheme Announcements contains supporting information of a more general nature. Current students may also find some useful links available from the Schools Support Pages.

MSc in Environmental Design of Buildings

Scope of the Programme

We spend most of our lives in and around buildings, where we enjoy the comfort and utility they provide. These benefits, it is sobering to reflect, are created at a cost to the rest of the world. The materials of which buildings are made, the services they incorporate, their siting and configuration, and the way they are run have an effect on our economy, on the sustainability of our global resources, on the conservation of the natural environment, and on the wellbeing of society. This trade-off between immediate local advantage and longer term sustainability places a responsibility on building designers. They must learn to create an enhanced environment for buildings in a way that minimises their wider global impact.

At the wsa we offer a taught postgraduate programme that is intended to help those involved in the design of building environments to assume this responsibility. It introduces designers to the knowledge they will need and provides them with opportunities to practice the necessary skills. They are introduced to techniques for making more informed decisions, for evaluating their results, and for drawing lessons from the work of others.

Project work is an important component of the scheme, and is intended to emphasise practicalities and develop the necessary working skills. The scheme encourages an understanding of both the principles and application of its subject, giving attention to design in diverse climates, serving many needs, commercial and domestic.

Programme Suitability

We are pleased to accept both mature candidates with working experience and the newly qualified. This is not a scheme solely for architects. The responsibility for building environments is shared between many members of the design team. Architects, building services engineers, architectural engineers, surveyors and building technicians have all found the scheme valuable in the past. It is by bridging the gap between these disciplines that the adverse impacts of artificial environments can be minimised.

Students taking this programme over the last decade have come from all over the world, and the syllabus has evolved to adopt an international perspective of relevance to students from all countries.

There are both local and distance versions of this programme. The local version can be taken full-time and part time. See this link for more information about the distance version. See the MSc Degrees Suite column alongside for information on the options - Study Options.

Programme aims

The knowledge and skills that students gain are those needed to become specialists in environmental design. In most cases, they are likely to continue their careers in their original disciplines, but with the advantages the new specialism will bring.

The principal aims of the programme are:

to develop in students the knowledge and ability needed to design healthy, comfortable and secure environments in and around buildings that place a minimal strain on global resources;
to prepare students for adopting the role of an environmental designer in the building team, and adapting to changing demands on this role as sustainable policies are increasingly supported by the public and by governments;
to encourage in students an understanding of both the principles and application of the subject, using project work to emphasise practicalities and develop necessary working skills and a research dissertation to emphasise the ongoing development of knowledge.

More specifically the programme aims:

to draw on the School’s long experience in research and consultancy in the United Kingdom and overseas;
to address the different requirements for environmental design raised by the globe’s diverse climates;
to meet the learning needs of students from diverse academic and professional backgrounds.

Programme content

Core modules (60 credits)

Site and Environment (10 credits): fundamental physical principles applied to environmental issues;
Earth and Society (10 credits): human and social issues affecting the sustainability of built environments;
Building Fabric (10 credits): using properties of the building fabric to design buildings with reduced energy consumption;
Performance Evaluation (10 credits): evaluating the physical environmental performance of buildings;
Low Carbon Footprint (10 credits): a holistic approach to how to account for the use of energy by buildings;
Efficient Services (10 credits): approaches to the design of building services for greater efficiency.

Specialist modules (60 credits)

Outside Inside (10 credits): designing with climatic elements and for comfortable internal environments;
Passive Design (10 credits): strategies for using building form and fabric to provide comfort and light;
Environmental Design Practice (30 credits): project module for students to apply in practice what they have learned in class;
Environmental Design Application (10 credits): project module for further application of principles learned in class.

Dissertation module (60 credits)

Dissertation: research into some topic chosen by the student as being of particular interest.

Modules

Site and Environment (Core teaching - 10 credits)

In this module, an analytical approach is taken to the physical environment experienced by users outside buildings. The theme is the ambient environment of the site. The module discusses basic physics needed to understand physical environments in general, climatic processes involved in creating the local environment of a site, procedures for analysing environmental data to provide designers with objectives, and the physical needs that users have for their environments. Successful environmental design must start with an understanding of the ambient environment, of how it arises, of its short and long term variation, of its affect on comfort, and of how it can be harnessed and moderated.

On completion of the module a typical student should be able to:

knowledge and understanding:

demonstrate an understanding of basic concepts in environmental physics;
discuss in principle the physics of building environmental performance;
explain the environmental and human factors affecting thermal comfort;
explain the relationship between types of sky and available thermal and visible radiation;
explain the factors influencing global and local climate;
show how these matters affect the objectives that environmental designers should pursue.

discipline specific skills:

solve problems in environmental physics using basic numerical and graphical procedures;
gauge relationships between local climate and landscape in specific circumstances;
conduct an environmental site analysis;
estimate the availability and nature of sun, light and wind at a site;
calculate the daylight factor and the changes in solar orientation at any location;
interpret design objectives from climatic and environmental data using graphic techniques;
operate satisfactorily the software for climatic analysis used in the module.

Earth and Society (Core teaching - 10 credits)

This module introduces the principal concepts of sustainability and the values, beliefs and assumptions that underpin them. It considers the historic development of the 'green' movement and how social frameworks, which influence people's behaviour and lifestyles, impact on sustainability as well as introducing Climate Change as an important context for sustainable development. It identifies different positions relating to sustainability adopted today, both at a theoretical and practical level and encourages students to question these as well as their own views. It also ensures an awareness of sustainability at a variety of development scale, from individual buildings through communities to the broader urban scale including health and comfort in the built environment. The module provides a structure for students to develop, discuss and formulate their personal sustainability standpoint. On completion of the module a typical student should be able to:

knowledge and understanding:

demonstrate familiarity with the theories, concepts and context of sustainability;
discuss the influence of different frameworks impacting on society and the built environment and their effects on sustainability;
illustrate the interrelation of the different frameworks on sustainability;
identify historic stages of the 'green' movement;
identity influences on and ambitions for a healthy and comfortable building environment
show awareness and understanding of leading examples and issues of sustainable design at a building, community and urban scale;
appreciate the complexities and interdependencies of sustainable design and the constraints involved in applying the theories of sustainability into practice at a variety of development scales;
identify potential and appropriate methods for enhancing the sustainability of personal lifestyles and local and global communities with relation to the built environment;
discipline specific skills:
clearly articulate their sustainability standpoint;
critically assess ideas, concepts and approaches relating to sustainability.

Building Fabric (Core teaching - 10 credits)

A building's fabric provides the means for forming an enclosure and separating it from the external environment. It can therefore act as a shelter from external environmental conditions, or a means for moderating and taking advantage of them, in order to improve comfort within buildings. Understanding the principles by which a building interacts with the external environment through its fabric, is therefore key in understanding building performance. This module will introduce those principles as well as novel and established techniques to achieve a successful design for comfort, health and energy efficiency. On completion of the module a typical student should be able to:

knowledge and understanding:

describe the basic thermal properties of building materials
describe the properties of glazing in relation to thermal and visual parameters
explain the issues relating to the provision of comfortable and healthy air in building spaces
explain the main techniques for predicting and measuring performance for façade and ventilation design and for estimating thermal load
discuss constructively the collection, storage, distribution, and utilisation of energy in a passive building
demonstrate the dynamic heat transfer processes in facades and spaces
evaluate how heat loss and surface heat transfer can be controlled by glazing, insulation and thermal mass;
illustrate how ventilation systems can provide good air quality with the efficient use of energy
evaluate how sunlight and daylight can be controlled through facade engineering
demonstrate an understanding of core building physics principles thought in the module discipline specific skills:
interpret and act on the information produced by modelling methods.
solve problems in building physics using basic numerical and graphical procedures
identify appropriate techniques for predicting façade and ventilation performance for specific designs
engage in the integrated design process in relation to fabric and ventilation design.

Performance Evaluation (Core teaching - 10 credits)

In order to assess the potential performance of building designs, knowledge of the applicability and utility of modelling methods and tools will be required. This module will introduce a number of modelling methods available to the student, in order to equip them with the fundamental skills required to undertake performance evaluations on their own designs.

The aims of this module are to:

introduce the modelling methods available to the students;
equip students with the skills to set-up and run model based assessments on their own designs;
provide students with an understanding of the benefits and limitations of the modelling methods offered. On completion of the module a typical student should be able to:

knowledge and understanding:

explain the major differences between common design modelling methods;
formulate an evaluation strategy to solve a specific assessment problem involving passive design principles;
recognise the differing capabilities and limitations of a number of evaluation methods;
select an appropriate modelling method for a design evaluation problem;
create a model, in a format appropriate to the method;
run or implement the modelling method to obtain information on the problem. discipline specific skills:
interpret and act on the information produced by modelling methods;
operate the software Ecotect sufficiently to carry out a simulation of thermal behaviour of a design and produce meaningful results in support of a design recommendation;
operate Ecotect and Radiance sufficiently to carry out a simulation of daylighting behaviour of a design and produce meaningful results in support of a design recommendation;
operate the software WinAir sufficiently to carry out a simulation of internal air flow behaviour of a design and produce meaningful results in support of a design recommendation.

transferable skills:

develop further IT skills in the operation of complex and sophisticated software.

Low Carbon Footprint (Core teaching - 10 credits)

Low carbon design requires an holistic approach to the energy use of a building. The designer needs to understand in principle how buildings use energy and to supplement this understanding with evidence on energy use from the field. He or she needs to be able to work with goals for building design, such as zero carbon standards, and with ways of off-setting energy consumption with renewables.

The aims of the module are therefore;

to introduce the ways buildings use energy;
to introduce methods of matching these demands through renewables and low energy systems;
to introduce techniques for assessing the energy footprint and sustainable performance of the building using benchmarking and monitoring.

On completion of the module a typical student should be able to:

knowledge and understanding:

explain how buildings use energy, the demands and loads with buildings and the impact of occupancy on energy use;
explain use of renewables technologies and low energy cooling technologies within buildings;
show a basic knowledge of the concept of embodied energy;
show an understanding of assessment tools for sustainable design;
explain the benefits monitoring and calculate benchmarks for buildings;
show an understanding of zero-carbon buildings. discipline specific skills:
evaluate how well a building attains low carbon design;
assess the impact of the various building services options on a building design problem.

Efficient Services (Core teaching - 10 credits)

The design of 'environmentally friendly' buildings depends critically on the choice of appropriate servicing strategies - an inappropriate servicing strategy can negate all the work undertaken on the form and fabric of the building. This module explores the principles behind current low energy solutions to servicing strategies, and deals with basic application information and strategies. The course is designed to complement information provided in all the other modules. On completion of the module a typical student should be able to:

knowledge and understanding:

describe how, why and where buildings services consume energy;
describe the current techniques available to minimise this energy use;
present a reasoned argument in favour of efficient building services;
describe the interaction between the building services and the building fabric and form.
explain the principles behind a range of low energy servicing solutions for buildings;
recognise when and where it is appropriate to apply these solutions. discipline specific skills:
assess the impact of the various building services options on a building design problem.

Outside Inside (Specialist teaching - 10 credits)

Earlier modules have introduced the fundamentals of environmental design to the student. One of its objectives is to adapt the ambient environment to make more desirable living conditions: the designer starts with a given climate and tries to achieve specified environmental targets. This module offers advanced treatment of aspects of the environment outside and inside: of both the climatic environment and the internal building environment. Included in this is the main treatment of the acoustic environment offered in the course. On completion of the module a typical student should be able to:

knowledge and understanding:

demonstrate understanding of the material taught in the module;
use climatic data to estimate the availability of sun and wind at a particular site or building surface;
estimate how much energy and power the available wind and sun can provide;
show how the form and envelope of the building can be used to admit solar radiation selectively;
extend the basic metrics of physics to deliver more complex environmental concepts relevant to comfort;
discuss quantitative and qualitative standards for lighting, thermal and acoustic comfort;
select and explain design tactics for achieving satisfactory internal environments;
discuss the theory supporting these standards and design tactics. discipline specific skills:
demonstrate the ability to use effectively the skills introduced in the module;
operate satisfactorily the building environmental evaluation software used on the module;
use drawings and scale models to investigate the access of built surfaces to sun and wind;
select and utilise appropriate techniques from those taught to solve a range of environmental design problems. transferable skills:
present his or her knowledge and understanding in an organised and cogent way.

Passive Design (Specialist teaching - 10 credits)

Passive Design refers to the practice of designing buildings so that their form and fabric make use of ambient energy to reduce the load on building services. Principles of building physics that need to be understood have been introduced in earlier modules, and it will be assumed that students understand how to apply them in a general approach to this end. In this module specific strategies will be explained, with guidance on when to apply them and what level of performance to expect from them. On completion of the module a typical student should be able to:

knowledge and understanding:

demonstrate familiarity with the main principles of passive design;
discuss constructively the collection, storage, distribution, and utilisation of energy in passive strategies;
propose suitable implementations of daylighting, heating and cooling strategies in specific contexts;
explain in principle the relative suitability of alternative strategies that could be proposed for these contexts. discipline specific skills:
estimate how the performance of strategies is affected by the selection and sizing of design parameters;
use simple techniques to compare the energy and environmental performance of alternative design proposals.

Environmental Design Practice (Specialist project - 30 credits)

One of the aims of this module is to provide students with the opportunity of learning how to apply the ideas taught in class to problems which, whilst not real, will exercise a similar range of skills to a real problem. The knowledge they require will be taught in the core modules that run in parallel, and which they share with other degree schemes. Another aim of the module is to channel the understanding and skill that students gain from these core modules into problems that call on the more specialist perspective adopted in their specialist area of study in the environmental design of buildings. Because the students are from varied professional backgrounds with different practice needs to meet, another aim is to keep the project brief flexible enough for students to be able to choose problems that suit this variety. On completion of the module a typical student should be able to:

knowledge and understanding:all stages

demonstrate an understanding of the material taught in the supporting modules through its application;
demonstrate extension of his or her knowledge beyond the taught material in investigating the project. discipline specific skills:
first stage (site)
estimate the availability and nature of sun, light, wind and other environmental elements at a site;
devise effective methods of harnessing and moderating the existing environment with minimal intervention in the built landscape;
show how these matters affect the objectives that environmental designers should pursue;
operate satisfactorily the software for climatic analysis used in the module. second stage (fabric)
investigate the potential for environmental design of a specific brief for a building;
interpret climatic and environmental data in ways useful for indicating design objectives;
propose daylighting, heating and cooling strategies appropriate to a specific site and brief;
evaluate the environmental performance of design proposals.
third stage (services)
show how building service loads are influenced by the use, form, fabric, and setting of a building
estimate the building service loads for a particular building proposal
propose appropriate building service systems to meet loads efficiently
justify your choice of one building services proposal over another.

transferable skills:

all stages
present his or her knowledge and understanding in an organised and cogent way.

Environmental Design Application (Specialist project - 10 credits)

The students taking the previous project module were able to apply the ideas delivered in the parallel core modules to their specialist interest of environmental design. This module allows them to apply the more advanced ideas that they learn in the specialist teaching modules at the end of Stage One. The knowledge they require will be taught in those modules, so that this module can focus more closely on its application to problems which, whilst not real, will exercise a similar range of skills to a real problem. One of the aims of the module is to provide students with the opportunity of testing out their ability to apply in practice what they have learned in class and of learning the skills involved in doing so. The students are from varied professional backgrounds and will have varied practice needs to meet. Another aim of the module is to keep the project brief flexible enough for students to be able to choose problems that suit this variety. On completion of the module a typical student should be able to:

knowledge and understanding:

demonstrate an understanding of the material taught in the supporting modules through its application;
demonstrate an advanced understanding of how to estimate a building's access to wind and sun;
show an advanced understanding of how to use a building's form and fabric to harness the sun and wind;
demonstrate extension of his or her knowledge beyond the taught material in investigating the project. discipline specific skills:
devise effective methods of harnessing and moderating the existing outside environment;
integrate various passive daylighting, heating and cooling strategies in a single proposal for a particular brief;
specify closely the environmental requirements for a given activity;
make appropriate provision for the building fabric and services to achieve the environmental requirements;
select and deploy appropriate output from the environmental software used in the course to demonstrate achievement of environmental performance;
argue how the planned and accidental operation of a building by its occupants might affect its environmental performance. transferable skills:
present his or her knowledge and understanding in an organised and cogent way.

Dissertation (60 credits)

This final module in the scheme is intended to give students an opportunity to focus on some aspect of the subject matter about which there is insufficient published knowledge to be found. All practitioners working in the forefront of their field find themselves from time to time extending knowledge with original ideas and novel applications. They need to feel secure moving in new territory, to be able to come to reliable conclusions, to pass their experience on to others, and to learn from other people's advances. In this module, students choose some aspect of the programme's subject that needs further study, and conduct academic research in order to make a small advance in knowledge. This will help them to consolidate their capacity for independent study, to develop a critical stance towards standards of research supporting new contributions to knowledge, and to learn some of the techniques needed to conduct academic research proficiently themselves. On completion of the module a typical student should be able to:

knowledge and understanding:

demonstrate, through the dissertation, systematic knowledge in a selected aspect of the subject area of the scheme of study;
have made a critical evaluation and analysis of a body of knowledge, or an original contribution to knowledge, in the subject area of the scheme of study;
interpret cogently and convincingly the results of the research in relation to the research objectives;

discipline specific skills:

define objectives pertinent to the chosen research problem and make an effective plan for pursuing them;
apply established techniques of research and enquiry productively in pursuing the research objectives;

transferable skills:

exercise initiative and personal responsibility in planning and implementing the research;
communicate the aims and methods and results of the research with clarity and in a style appropriate to the expected audience;
show a thorough and systematic approach to planning, implementing, and reporting the research.