2025 (Current Year) Faculty Courses School of Environment and Society Undergraduate major in Architecture and Building Engineering
Environmental Design
- Academic unit or major
- Undergraduate major in Architecture and Building Engineering
- Instructor(s)
- Ryo Murata / Naoshi Kaneko
- Class Format
- Lecture (Face-to-face)
- Media-enhanced courses
- -
- Day of week/Period
(Classrooms) - Intensive
- Class
- -
- Course Code
- ARC.A306
- Number of credits
- 100
- Course offered
- 2025
- Offered quarter
- 1Q
- Syllabus updated
- Mar 19, 2025
- Language
- Japanese
Syllabus
Course overview and goals
Architectural design has an interest which involves the ingenious use of form and materials to control environmental elements such as light, heat, wind, and water, and to create comfortable spaces and places in harmony with the lifestyles and climate of the people who live there. The ingenuity to take advantage of nature's potential that has been cultivated in vernacular architecture around the world is a prototype, and now, combined with scientific approaches such as environmental engineering, it has become one of the important methodologies in architecture for a sustainable society, such as passive design and life-cycle carbon minus (LCCM).
This course aims to develop students' ability to read the environment and utilize it in architectural design by learning about the background, theories, design methods, and examples of architectural design that responds to the environment.
Course description and aims
To understand the background, theory, design methods, and examples of architectural design that respond to the environment, and to develop ability in reading the environment and using it in architectural design.
Keywords
Architecture Responding to the Environment, Sustainable Design, Passive Solar Design, Life Cycle Carbon Minus
Competencies
- Specialist skills
- Intercultural skills
- Communication skills
- Critical thinking skills
- Practical and/or problem-solving skills
Class flow
Through the lectures, the background, theory, design methods, and examples of architecture that responds to the environment will be outlined, and through the exercises, the relationship between climate, building form, and thermal environment will be examined in more detail.
Course schedule/Objectives
| Course schedule | Objectives | |
|---|---|---|
| Class 1 | Lecture 1: Perspectives on Architecture in Responding to the Environment | Understanding the Interrelationships among Environment, Architecture, People, Places, Event and Things. |
| Class 2 | Environmental Design and Simulation Tools | Understanding Tools for Reading the Environment. |
| Class 3 | Lecture 3: Architecture Design Responding to the Environment | Learning Architectural Design Principles and Practices Through Case Studies. |
| Class 4 | Presentation and discussion of exercises | Examining the relationship between climate, building form, and thermal environment Design. |
Study advice (preparation and review)
To enhance effective learning, students are encouraged to spend approximately 100 minutes preparing for class and another 100 minutes reviewing class content afterwards (including assignments) for each class.
They should do so by referring to textbooks and other course material.
Textbook(s)
N/A
Reference books, course materials, etc.
BIOCLIMATIC DESIGN (SHOKOKUSYA)
Dictionary of methods of passive solar design (SHOKOKUSYA)
Nature in the home (MARUZEN)
The design method of the LCCM demonstration house (KENCHIKU GIJUTSU)
Methodology of House Design incorporating Time (SHOKOKUSHA)
Physics design (GAKUGEI SHUPPANSHA)
Evaluation methods and criteria
Presentation, Reports
Related courses
- N/A
Prerequisites
N/A
Other
Intensive Class