Architectural engineering: collaborating to deliver energy-efficient buildings

The demand for and complexity of sustainable buildings mean that architects and engineers increasingly need to collaborate to deliver high quality designs for both small and large projects. Whether considering the design, efficiency, economics or, more broadly, sustainability, the input from each profession is vital and makes a significant contribution to the constructed outcome. At Cambridge we are addressing this need for close collaboration by jointly teaching final year Architecture and Engineering undergraduates in a project-based course in Architectural Engineering, focusing on the design of energy efficient buildings. Student groups work on focused projects where design incorporates calculated solutions for energy, lighting, ventilation and structure. Our aim is to dispel traditional notions of the role of architects solely in design and engineers solely in calculation, and firmly establish that good design (in both architecture and engineering) is the goal for each profession, best attained by collaborating from the inception of any project. Integrated design teams incorporate all the knowledge and skill required to deliver a first-rate building in the 21st century. We hope to instil this method of design in architects and engineers early in their careers. Our first year of the course indicates that students from both disciplines benefit from considering the design implications of technical aspects of buildings, and that the collaboration among more experienced students, while not always easy, results in thoughtful, innovative, plausible, and substantiated design.