• Blended Learning & Flipped Classroom

The optional courses allow the student to complete his/her own study program and to characterize his/her own training profile choosing, according to his/her own personal interests, the themes of deepening among a wide range of alternatives.

According to the Dublin Descriptors (DdD), passing the exam certifies the acquisition of the following results:

DdD 1 (knowledge and understanding), 3 (autonomy of judgment), 4 (communication skills) and 5 (learning ability)

- ability to acquire, process independently and communicate knowledge not strictly related to the subjects characterizing the Master Program (DdD 1, 3, 4 and 5)

Context

When looking at worldwide building processes today, a common and concerning pattern emerges. A large number of projects are not finished on time, exceed the estimated costs by significant amounts, and/or are not completed at the expected quality. Even if building professionals start projects with the best of intentions, using newest technology or state of the art management, they often appear to lose grip and oversight on the building process along the way

Zooming in on the reasons for delays and cost overruns, building professionals already realized that most time and money influencing questions are raised during or even after construction of a building ends. Instead of limiting design and planning to the phases in between conceptual design and construction we need to look into the whole life cycle integrating logistics, operation/maintenance and renovation/recycling as well.

Ignited by the Lehman Brother bank collapse and the following housing market crisis around the year 2008 the building market started to ask for more efficiency. Supported by new digital building process planning tools, the think-tank Silicon Valley brought most of the existing ideas and developments related to building processes together and introduced a new method of processing to the market: Hence, the term BIM (Building Information Modeling) was born.

Content

Building Information Modelling (BIM) is a planning method for designing, realising an maintaining a building to be developed across a centralized digital 3D model. BIM can be seen as a method that describes a collaborative process of designing a building by taking all relevant ‘life-cycle’ data into account. As such all information is stored and managed in a database and associatively connected via parametric links. Moreover, the information is continuously available and all participants have access to the same data. In addition to the graphic information regarding the building geometry, this also includes non-graphical information such as quantities, material properties, uses and costs. The modifications carried out on these levels influence other areas directly, regardless of whether the 3D model, the floor plan or the list of building components are modified.

Against this background the courses introduces both the theoretic principles of BIM as well as the operative tools for a holistic design approach within a collaborative working environment. An architectural project serves as a case study to build up such a BIM-based process, which enables a specific/individual design development as well as a general/overall planning, taking into account overarching requirements.

1. Assessment of Class Work (group and/or individual):
Applying knowledge and understanding; Making judgements; learning
skills; practical application of theoretical knowledge, communication skills

2. Oral Presentation (group and/or individual):
Knowledge and understanding; making judgements; communication skills

For the presentation of the projects a PDF-document has to be prepared, explaining
the starting point (initial idea), the concpet development (design process) and
the final result. In addition the physical prototypes and open file formats will be
part of the evaluation.