MSc High Performance Buildings

Gain the knowledge and skills you need for a successful career at the leading edge of the building discipline, working towards the best products and processes in the industry. You'll develop the expertise needed to address challenges such as climate change, quality of life and the new economic reality.

Key features

• Join a programme that aims to set new international standards in building performance. Move beyond the ‘green buildings’ or ‘sustainability’ paradigms – these are embedded in this programme, but we give you a more holistic view. We combine a solid grounding in core aspects such as energy ef?ciency with a wider context that includes the economic, socio-cultural and historic dimensions.
• Help tackle some of the key challenges that face the building industry, such as the new economic reality, quality of life, climate change, and population growth.
• Gain expertise in the key enabling technologies of building performance simulation, building information modelling and energy management.
• Get inspired through research-informed teaching. All staff contributing to this programme are part of a research group that runs projects funded by the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC), European Union, InnovateUK, Leverhulme Trust and others.
• Interact with various stakeholders in the building domain, including design and engineering companies, contractors, property developers, facility managers, and governmental organisations.
• Expand your network through special interest groups that focus both on industry as well as research.
• Become part of a vibrant multidisciplinary school. Part of this programme allows you to explore modules of our Masters in Architecture (MArch) programme.

This research-informed programme aims to provide you with an opportunity to develop proficiency in the quantification of building performance and the application of the performance concept throughout the building life cycle. It covers existing and novel technologies, fabrication and construction methods for buildings, as well as financial and economic drivers that govern the life cycle of high-performance buildings. The programme covers building performance in the technical context, but also from a socio-economic, aesthetic or cultural perspective. You develop the skills and knowledge needed to use building performance simulation tools, to collect data from existing buildings through monitoring and verification, and to carry out post-occupancy evaluation. You are also trained in optimisation, fault detection and control of building systems.