Sustainable solutions

The MSc in Sustainable Architecture at NTNU aims to educate and train building professionals in the analysis and implementaion of solutions for lowering the environmental impact of buildings in a life-cycle perspective. Students in the programme are trained in both the development of scientific research works and in developing architectural design projects aiming for a zero-emission built environment.

The programme is built on the assumtions that complex multidiciplinary processes - as sustainable environmental design requires - cannot be thought on a theoretical basis. They rather need to be experienced in multidiciplinary teams collected around tables, where environmental issues of different kinds are discussed and translated into architectural practice. The MSc programme in Sustainable Architecture is, for this reason, open to both architects and engineers.

According to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change greenhouse gas emissions, concentration in the atmosphere should be significantly limited in order to “prevent dangerous anthropogenic interference with the climate system”. 

A new generation buildings

Nowadays, architects need to be able to design buildings able to establish a symbiotic relation with the natural anvironment. An architectural design process cannot any longer disregard a deep comprehension of the natural environment's limits and recources. Both in qualitative and quantitative terms. Scientific principles are used in the program as a meaningful platform for imagining a new generation of buildings, able to compensate the environmental impact due to their construction, operation and disassembly.

Holistic approach

The curriculum of the Master in Sustainable Architecture is structured around three concerns about environmental impact of the built environment:

1. environmental performance
2. environmental impact 
3. integrated energy design processes

Each semester includes a theory course and a combined theory and architectural design course. During these, students acquire scientific knowledge and practical competences for lowering GHG emissions of buildings. Lectures, studio and laboratories are addressed towards each semester's focus without losing a holistic perspective.

• First semester focuses on climate analyses and the optimization of buildings' environmental performance.
• Second semester addresses issues related to the environmental impact of materials and life cycle analyses.
• During the third semester students are trained in the development of integrated design processes optimizing building environmental performance in relation to the integration of alternative energy systems

Throughout the two year duration of the programme, a holistic approach is emphasized which encompasses the many architectural expressions and possibilities within a zero emission built environment. Within each of the theory and project courses, high demands are made towards integrated design strategies so as to ensure the usability and synergy of the design with its surroundings and users.
Throughout the whole programme, the students are continuously trained in interdisciplinary co-operation to better equip them to integrate integrated design methods in their everyday professional practice.