Building Your Dream Home (Introduction to Building Engineering and Architecture)

Course Description

Course Description:
Sustainability topics are not just a major research field in higher education, sustainability should be taught to our younger generations since childhood so that they can make informed decisions throughout their life. Almost everyone thinks of a dream home; therefore, it is important to gain hands-on experience in how we can build a dream home that makes us feel comfortable and at home. In this course, students will learn about the principles of building a dream home that considers different topics, including climate, culture, energy efficiency, comfort, etc. The topics are introduced through various fun activities for young students from grade 8 to 11 but the core teaching method is collage making. In the collage-making process, students are given a set of different materials including cut-out images of different components of homes, including different walls, thermostats, furniture, cars, etc. Then, students will start making their dream homes with the materials presented through a supervised learning process. During the process, students are introduced to different topics and gain hands-on experience in building a dream home. Other activities include drawing ideas and using cut-outs to fill their drawn homes with cut-out images of important components in buildings. The content of this course and the topics presented are based on two fields of building engineering and architecture.

Learning objectives:
After taking this course, students should be able to:
- Understand major components of buildings
- Build a home that reflects their ideas
- Identify the most important elements of the indoor environment (such as window size, floor-to-ceiling height, etc.)
- Understand the importance of energy-related components (such as thermostats)
- Understand different concepts such as thermal comfort, acoustic comfort, etc. in an easy-to-understand process
- Identify the key elements of a home that responds to climate (such as different roof types for rain and snow)
In addition to the learning objectives, students will develop leadership and collaboration skills as they work in groups. More importantly, they will have an exchange of ideas that has been scientifically proven to boost the learning process.

Information on teaching method
The collage-making process is a well-established and tested method of teaching when it comes to architecture and different building topics. This process promotes collaboration among students and gaining hands-on experience on different topics in architecture and building engineering. This method has been used for children from kindergarten (5 to 6 years old) to students in higher education.

References:
[1] Shields J. Collage and architecture. Routledge; 2014.
[2] Mkhize-Mthembu N. Collage-Making as a Way to Refine My Teaching Practices and My Relationship to Learners’ Learning in My Classroom.
[3] Ramadhaniar P, Lukito YN. Collage in architecture and its use as a design method.