Study Programmes 2015-2016
ARCH0003-7  
Building construction techniques I, elements
Duration :
30h Th, 30h Pr, 2,5d FW
Number of credits :
Bachelor in engineering5
Bachelor in engineering5
Lecturer :
Shady Attia
Language(s) of instruction :
French language
Organisation and examination :
Teaching in the first semester, review in January
Units courses prerequisite and corequisite :
Prerequisite or corequisite units are presented within each program
Course contents :
The course "Sustainable Building Construction Technology Ia" is aiming to address sustainable architecture and conceptual design from a technical, constructive and material science perspective. During the study semester we explore the basics of building construction approaches and technologies in order to serve architectural projects.
This course is designed to deeply study sustainable building techniques and principles. The course explores the construction elements, and constructive approaches in parallel to performance of the various building materials and their implementation in construction. The course is structured into three main parts: 1) Design and materials, 2) construction timeline on site and thermal bridging details. The topics will be presented in logical order to achieve a deep understand and ideal representation of sustainable building construction techniques. The following topics are studies during this course:


  • Sustainable design and construction, and life cycle assessment of buildings.
  • The anatomy of buildings (spatial, structural and material)
  • Building construction systems (bearing walls and wood frames, foundations, walls, slabs, beams, roofing)
  • Building materials (classification, usage and properties)
  • Construction timeline  
  • Thermal bridging details
Learning outcomes of the course :
At the end of this course the student should be able to:
  • Observe and represent building construction.
  • Learn the systems and methods for a supporting structure and an envelope.
  • Learn the main building materials and their technical implementation.
  • Read and interpret technical drawings
  • Apply and propose different architectural solutions based on different structural systems
 The course should enable students to: 
  • Inventory: References and understand the common construction systems,
  • Comparison: identify and differentiate solutions
  • Defining and naming: recognize and know the parts of a building construction
  • Proportion: materialize and order the different parts of a structure,
  • Projecting: compose and share solutions.
  • Creation and design: of buildings on different construction scales (sizing, scale, thickness modularity)
  • Learn to work independently while referring to specifications and professional referential documents.
Prerequisite knowledge and skills :
Planned learning activities and teaching methods :
Flipped Classes (Enriched skeleton mapping), Practical work, integrated project, Construction site visits
Mode of delivery (face-to-face ; distance-learning) :
Face to face from September till December.
Recommended or required readings :
  • Publications du CSTC Centre Scientifique et Technique de la Construction,  www.cstc.be (accès avec identification en bibliothèque FSA)
  • Contact du CSTC » : http://www.cstc.be/homepage/index.cfm?cat=publications&sub=bbri-contact
  • F. Péters, Lexique du cours d'architecture, ULg 1992 ;
  • René Vittone, Bâtir, manuel de la construction, 2010,  Presses polytechniques et universitaires romandes
  • Thierry Gallauziaux, David Fedullo, Gérard Karsenty, Tout savoir avant de faire construire, 2013, Édition Eyrolles
  • Ursula Bouteveille, La construction, comment ça marche ? Toutes les techniques de construction en images, 2012, Éditions du Moniteur
Assessment methods and criteria :
Examine for the theoretical part: 40% of the overall grade
Overall evaluation of the practical work: 60%
Work placement(s) :
Organizational remarks :
You must enroll in this course! The course has automatically an online course space on the eCampus (Blackboard) platform.
Contacts :
Shady Attia, PhD, LEED AP Professor of Sustainable Building Construction Head of Sustainble Buildings Design (SBD) Lab
ArGEnCo Dept., Faculty of Applied Sciences, University of Liège
Quartier Polytech 1, Allée de la Découverte 9 4000 Liège, Belgium Tél:  +32 43.66.91.55 - Fax: +32 43.66.29.09 shady.attia@ulg.ac.be
http://www.sbd.ulg.ac.be/