Engineering of urban environments

Duration

18h Th, 36h Pr, 60h Proj.

Number of credits

Lecturer

Sigrid Reiter

Language(s) of instruction

French language

Organisation and examination

Teaching in the first semester, review in January

Schedule

Schedule online

Units courses prerequisite and corequisite

Prerequisite or corequisite units are presented within each program

Learning unit contents

This course teaches the design and evaluation of an urban atmosphere in its quantitative and qualitative aspects. The theoretical course is illustrated by various examples of real urban developments.
The practical work consists of carrying out the project of a sustainable neighbourhood, while using various tools for evaluating and aiding to design built environments (solar simulations, Guide for Sustainable Neighborhoods design, evaluation of the construction costs of the urban project).

Learning outcomes of the learning unit

The course objectives are :

- Understanding issues related to the design of high quality urban atmosphere.

- Knowing the quantitative and qualitative criteria that influence pedestrians' comfort in public spaces.

- Learning to assess planned or built urban environments in terms of their atmosphere, integrating people comfort, environmental and sustainable performance of built areas.

- Exploring tools for modeling urban environments and evaluating the sustainability of neighborhoods.

- Developing an expertise in neighbourhood design aiding tools, by using three of them : a solar simulation software, a methodology for neighbourhoods sustainability assessment and the calculation of the urban project construction costs.

- Acquiring adaptation and self-learning skills in relation to the used design aiding tools.

- Put into perspective the design choices in terms of construction costs with the choices related to urban composition and the environmental aspects.

- Developing critical thinking in relation to urban projects optimisation tools (choice of the best software or method, choice of the best parameters or criteria, critical analysis of results, ...).

Prerequisite knowledge and skills

Planned learning activities and teaching methods

The teaching is based on theoretical courses given by podcasts, accompanied by a design studio at the neighborhood level. The design studio takes place in the first quadrimester, on Thursday afternoon, from 2 p.m. to 6 p.m.

Theoretical courses address the notions of built environment and sensitive analysis of public spaces, as well as the study of contemporary reference projects.

The design studio consists of developing a sustainable neighborhood, while using urban design aiding tools (for example the Guide for sustainable neighbourhoods developed by the Walloon Region).

The course aims to develop an analytical and critical perspective on the tools used and the evaluation results, obtained as well as on the capacity of these tools to be integrated into the process of architectural composition. The project will also focus on the development of comfortable public spaces.

Theoretical teaching includes theoretical courses given as an inverted class and analyzes of contemporary reference projects, carried out by students in groups, on the basis of an analysis grid given in the theoretical course.

Project reviews are organized weekly. The integration of urban design assistance tools is facilitated through the use of a protfolio and a progressive planning including the stages of development of the project to be reached and the tools recommended for each phase.

Mode of delivery (face to face, distance learning, hybrid learning)

Blended learning


Additional information:

Courses from September to December, on Thursday from 14h to 18h.

Recommended or required readings

The slides accompanying the oral presentation are available in pdf format and will be sent to students by email. The podcasts are sent to students via MyULiège.

The following documents and tools are made available to students on eCampus:

• A DWG basemap (PICC and PLI) of the project site;
• The unit price schedule of the Professional Union of Architects.

The grade obtained for the written report will count for 90% of the overall grade for that course. The additional 10% will come from the evaluation of your presentations and analyzes of eco-districts and contemporary public spaces, carried out as part of the theoretical course.
This evaluation is given according to the quality of the neighbourhood proposal(built morphology, quality of public spaces, used materials, lighting plan, etc.), the evaluation of the project from its solar access point of view as well as as related to neighbourhood sustainability criteria, the budget estimation, the accuracy of the arguments developed and the critical eye on the design support tools used.

Work placement(s)

Organisational remarks and main changes to the course

Any questions or requests for additional information is welcome.
Students wishing to meet me can get an appointment by sending an e-mail.

Contacts

Prof. Sigrid Reiter tél.: +32 (0)4 366 94 82 e-mail: sigrid.reiter@uliege.be

Association of one or more MOOCs

Items online