Four approaches to teaching with building performance simulation tools in undergraduate architecture and engineering education

This article reflects on a series of past and ongoing teaching experiences by the authors involving building simulation tools in undergraduate architecture and engineering education. All of the teaching experiences attempt to replicate the powerful consultant/architect interaction as found in high-quality architecture practices. After an overview briefly retracing the evolution from teaching formats in which the instructor is a provider of simulations to various formats in which the students produce simulations, the article presents a newly created interdisciplinary course. The course is jointly taught by the authors (an architect and an engineer), and its enrolment is comprised of undergraduate architecture and engineering students. The purpose of the dual enrolment is to provide the students with the opportunity to practise working in a collaborative manner within a multidisciplinary group. Effective collaboration among these two groups in practice has been cited as a means of producing more environmentally sustainable buildings.