Current Courses

Civ E 507 Building Science & Technology

Winter 2006. Tuesdays 8:30-10:30 (RCH306) and Friday 8:30-10:30 (RCH306)
The functions of buildings. The building process. Loadings other than structural: heat, air, moisture, (some sound and fire). Hygrothermal analysis and design of enclosure walls, windows, roof. Energy and sustainability related considerations for the building.

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Arch 673: The Science of the Building Enclosure

Winter 2006 Mondays 9:30 am -12:30 pm.
This course builds on the 2^nd year undergraduate building science course. The building envelope has become the single most significant and element within the contemporary economy of building. It bears much of the identity and amenity of buildings, is the site of significant expenditure, the occasion of environmental concern and attention, the object of much technological innovation, and the locus of entropy. This course provides an advanced study of the building envelope as the place where design, technology, building science, and environmental concerns converge. It discusses matters such as natural light and ventilation or the short- and long-term behaviours of building materials, and assesses the use of new generations of "smart" mechanical environmental devices. Consent of instructor required for those outside of the M.Arch program.

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Technical Resources -- for Architecture and Engineering Students

Check out my growing list of
technical resources (currently down until we get password protection) and
building details for durable, functional, and green building design.
My links and
photos may also be interesting to some students.

Recent Past Courses

Arch 264: Building Science.

Fall 2005. Held Monday mornings 9:30-12:30 in Cambridge Loft
The physio-technical factors that influence building design for performance: durability, efficiency, health and sustainability will be explored. Common building design construction problems, their causes and solutions, will be examined with the aid of case studies. Using the principles of building science, good details of masonry, wood, steel and glass will be developed.

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Civ E 708: Building Physics and Modeling

Held depending on demand and professor availability. Tentatively Winter 2005.Course ID 000535
This course covers methodologies for the quantitative prediction of building enclosure and building system performance. Issues considered include heat conduction, radiation, and convection; air flow through cracks, openings, vents, and porous media; and moisture transport by diffusion, convection, capillary action, adsorbed flow and osmosis. Students are introduced to research-quality formulations, commercial models, and simplified methods.

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Civ E 707: Advanced Building Science

Held depending on demand and professor availability. Course ID 000534
This course deals with the science of heat and air flow, moisture storage and transport, and psychrometrics. Through the use of worked examples, these principles are applied to the analysis of typical building enclosure systems. Basic concepts are developed for the design of building details that are effective in the control of heat, air, vapour, rain, and that accommodate building movements. Various case studies of problems and solutions will be used.

CivE 265: Structure and Properties of Materials.

Fall 2004. Held Monday 8:30-9:20, Wednesday 11:30-12:30, and Friday 8:30-9:30 in CPH 3385
An introductory course in the structure, behaviour and uses of engineering materials. Topics include monotonic and cyclic stress-strain behaviour of metals, phase diagrams, diffusion, nucleation and the growth of grains. Metallurgy and mechanical properties of irons and steels. The structure and mechanical properties of wood, plastics, cements and concrete. Material degradation mechanisms, esp. corrosion and fatigue.

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