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Unit of study_
DESC9014: Sustainable Construction Technology
2025 unit information
This unit covers three related areas of investigation: basic building construction practices, advanced sustainable construction practices and environmental rating of building construction. It begins by introducing a number of recurrent themes in construction in Australia at the present time including the idea of building culture, the various modes of delivery and variety of classifications of buildings and building elements and rational construction. There follows a review of sustainable construction techniques of domestic scaled buildings using, where appropriate, examples of well documented and/or accessible exemplars. The second part of the unit reviews current approaches to sustainable building technologies employed in more complex public and commercial scaled buildings, particularly with regard to processes of structural system selection, facade systems design and construction and material performance. Aspects of the National Construction Code and integration of services into the building fabric relevant to building services engineers will also be reviewed. Finally the unit will review current issues related to environmental rating of building materials.
Unit details and rules
Managing faculty or University school:
Sydney School of Architecture, Design and Planning
| Study level | Postgraduate |
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| Academic unit | Architectural and Design Science |
| Credit points | 6 |
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Prerequisites:
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None |
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Corequisites:
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None |
| Prohibitions:
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None |
| Assumed knowledge:
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None |
At the completion of this unit, you should be able to:
- LO1. appreciate the broader context of the construction industry in Australia
- LO2. understand broadly the basic principles and current best-practice building technologies
- LO3. identify technological components to produce analyses with sketches and diagrams
- LO4. collect and analyse information in relation to building technologies with sustainable design and clearly communicate results and conclusions in report and infographic form
- LO5. investigate case studies to independently develop your knowledge of building technologies and sustainable construction techniques
- LO6. evaluate opinions, make decisions and reflect critically on technical decisions and their impact on the environment.
- LO7. understand the key aspects of sustainable construction and basic principles of life cycle assessments
- LO8. use efficiently a life-cycle assessment software
Unit availability
This section lists the session, attendance modes and locations the unit is available in. There is a unit outline for each of the unit availabilities, which gives you information about the unit including assessment details and a schedule of weekly activities.
The outline is published 2 weeks before the first day of teaching. You can look at previous outlines for a guide to the details of a unit.
| Session | MoA ? | Location | Outline ? |
|---|---|---|---|
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Semester 1 2025
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Block mode | Camperdown/Darlington, Sydney |
Outline unavailable
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Modes of attendance (MoA)
This refers to the Mode of attendance (MoA) for the unit as it appears when you’re selecting your units in Sydney Student. Find more information about modes of attendance on our website.
