Building Performance - Energy Efficiency in Design - Bolton Street

What is... Building Performance (Energy Efficiency in Design)?
Clearly, architecture, engineering and surveying practices, and the growing number of consultants that support them, need to grow capacity in technical skills and knowledge relating to the performance of buildings. As practices can't wait for university graduates (who may or may not have the required learning, but don't yet have the necessary judgment), they must look at their existing teams to upskill. The only way busy professionals can upskill is part-time. Online learning technology has made this learning journey accessible and satisfactory for a far wider group than was ever possible before.

TU414 MSc in Building Performance (Energy Efficiency in Design) and its constituent parts (TU412 PG Certificate BPEED, TU413 PG Diploma BPEED and various CPD certificate courses) was created by Technological University Dublin to provide transformative learning & upskilling in key areas of technical building design to cross-disciplinary groups building design professionals.

In a great sign of faith in this programme and the willingness of hundreds of building design professionals to upskill, the Irish Government continues to provide Springboard funding (a 90% fee subsidy) for successful applicants to TU412 PG Certificate BPEED (aka Year 1 of the MSc BPEED) since 2018. As Year 1 costs €2,500, the 90% subsidy reduces the fee payable to €250.

Modules in TU412 include:

Semester 1
The Reflective Building Design Practitioner
Decarbonising Building Design
Building Energy Modelling using DEAP (Option A)
Building Energy Modelling using PHPP (Option B)

Semester 2
The Reflective Building Design Practitioner
Hygrothermal Risk Assessment
Thermal Bridge Calculation
Net Zero Carbon Residential Design Project

Please view this series of talks from the Building Performance Symposium held in 2022 to understand the programme, its value and students learning and student perspectives.

Minimum Entry Requirements?
he TU412 Postgraduate Certificate in Building Performance (Energy Efficiency in Design) course is open to the following categories of applicants:

Registered Architects
Professionally qualified architects who are or have been members of the RIAI, subject to interview.
Registered Architectural Technologists
Professionally qualified Architectural Technologists, subject to the requirements scheduled below.
Registered Building Surveyors
Chartered Engineers
Professionally qualified Engineers, subject to a minimum 2.2 Level 8 qualification plus 2 years minimum relevant accredited professional experience, or equivalent.
Other technical design professionals subject to a minimum 2.2 Level 8 qualification plus 2 years minimum relevant accredited professional experience, or equivalent.

Applications for courses commencing in September 2024 will open in November 2023.

1 Year

Mode of Study Part Time
Method of Delivery On-Campus, Online

Schedule
The delivery of TU412 Postgraduate Certificate in Building Performance (Energy Efficiency in Design) course suits those upskilling, re-skilling & returning to work.

There are a range of ways in which the schedule and delivery have been structured to suit students who are fully employed professionals.

The programme is designed so that most study takes place each week between Friday morning and Monday evening, at times the student chooses. Modules are taught one at a time. A key aspect is that students may decide when to view lecture materials; there are few fixed teaching events.

In the (5-ECTS) taught modules, the only fixed dates are webinars on the first four Tuesdays at 8pm, an online exam at 8pm on the second and fourth Thursdays, the feedback workshop at the end of the fifth week, and the project submission. Once a semester the feedback workshop will be held on campus.
In the larger (10-ECTS) project module, seminars are held on Fridays. In general these are online, though 2 or 3 will be held on campus to benefit student learning.

Flexibility is provided via (a) the online resources; (b) videoed lectures that can be repeatedly watched (slowed down or sped up); (c) the recording of webinars to allow later watching; (d) the provision of repeat online exams within the same semester; and the Autumn supplemental exams and project submissions.

Students should plan for a weekly commitment of ~20 hours in most weeks of each module.

Commencement Date: September 2024

What are my career opportunities?
Graduates of the TU412 Postgraduate Certificate in Building Performance (Energy Efficiency in Design) will be qualified to apply a range of NZEB and building performance design tools to assess the energy performance in new and existing buildings.

They will be able to research and advise on insulation options assessed as safe in accordance with the best international standards and detail, specify and oversee the installation to ensure performance targets are met.

Graduates will understand the dynamics of thermal, moisture and air movement through building fabric and understand the need to design the optimal balance of all three to ensure the integrity of any retrofit solution proposed and protect the structural longevity of the building fabric.

Their skills will be equally applicable to new build work where the principles of building fabric design are significantly more easily accommodated.

With energy analysis skills building on and enhancing their construction industry experience, graduates will be ideally placed to secure employment in the area of energy renovation of the existing building stock – an emerging and expansive field of construction activity across the European Union, in response to the recast Energy Performance of Buildings Directive.

MRIAI and RIAI (Arch Tech) graduates will be eligible to apply for RIAI Environmental Accreditation.

Progression
The Postgraduate Certificate sits within the larger TU414 MSc in Building Performance (Energy Efficiency in Design). This includes:

TU412 Postgraduate Certificate, which is focused on the acquisition of technical knowledge and tools to deliver Zero Carbon building design.
TU413 Postgraduate Diploma, which is focused on the application of Net Zero Carbon design tools & wider sustainability metrics to deliver the emerging Whole Life Net Zero Carbon building design.