Sustainable Community Design – (M.Sc.)

Contents

The course is offered via full-time (one year), part time (two years) and attendance free distance learning (two to three years). All students (full-time, part time and distance learning students) take part in a three week residential course in an established ecovillage: Findhorn in the north of Scotland, where they gain hands-on experience in sustainable community design and ecovillage practice.

The list below shows which modules are available on this course. Four modules are taken in each semester by full time students: this reduces to a maximum of two for part time or distance learning students. Four modules in total are required for the PG Certificate and eight modules for the MSc and Diploma routes. MSc students will also go on to submit a dissertation equivalent in length to two modules. All modules are 150 effort hours long.

Module Choice

For the part-time MSc in Sustainable Community Design the course structure consists of two mandatory modules in each Semester in Year 1:

* Semester 1 - Environmental Studies and Sustainability in Civil Engineering
* Semester 2 – Ecovillage Practice and Community Design Practice (including 3-week residential at Findhorn ecovillage)

In Year 2, Semester 1, the course consists of one mandatory module (Low Carbon Buildings) and one option from the following list:

* Behavioural Studies
* Environmental Hydrology & Water Resources
* People & Organisational Management in the Built Environment
* International Planning & Property Law
* Ventilation & Air Conditioning

In Year 2, Semester 2, two options are taken from the following list:

* Building Energy Management
* Environmental Impact Assessment
* Lighting & Architecture
* Real Estate Development
* Space Planning and Management
* Sustainable and Intelligent Buildings
* Urban Drainage Design and Analysis
* Water and Wastewater Treatment

Full-time students take the above modules during the respective semesters in the course of one year, i.e. four modules per semester.

The course is delivered in partnership with Findhorn Foundation College which through the Findhorn Foundation has links into global networks related to integrated sustainable development such as the Global Ecovillage Network
About the Course Director and Teaching Team

This course is delivered by a multidisciplinary team, mainly based in the Architectural Engineering Programme, but including staff from other built environment disciplines which offer relevant modules.

Dr Harry Smith is the Course Director and is responsible for the course administration. An architect and planner, Harry is based in the Architectural Engineering Programme and contributes to teaching across the School. His research experience covers a range of issues in urban development and housing in Europe, Latin America and Africa, including: the interaction of land use and transport; participatory planning; low-income housing in the rapidly urbanising world; access to land for housing in peri-urban areas; waterfront redevelopment and urban place-making; the impact of globalisation on historic centres; housing and school building design; architectural research in academia and practice; and the sustainable ‘place-keeping’ of open space.

Dr David Campbell leads the Architectural Engineering Postgraduate Programme. David’s research interests include building drainage, water conservation, solar power generation and energy recovery, and ecological impact of built environment activity.

Key contributors to the course include:

* Professor Sue Roaf (Environmental Studies; Low Carbon Buildings) is an award winning architect, designer, teacher and author with a long and varied experience professional practice and training.
* Dr Doug Harris (Building Energy Management; Sustainable and Intelligent Buildings) is the academic representative for the Energy Institute, a professional body for those whose work involves energy in some capacity.
* Dr Alicia Montarzino (Behavioural Studies) is Director of the new PG Certificate Course on Inclusive Access and Design.
* Dr Fan Wang (Ventilation & Air Conditioning) has extensive teaching and research experience in building physics and architectural engineering in China and the UK.

Other staff involved in the delivery of the course modules are: Dr Bayo Adeloye (Environmental Hydrology & Water Resources; Water and Wastewater Treatment), Dr Scott Arthur (Urban Drainage Design and Analysis); Dr Pauline Thompson (Sustainability in Civil Engineering), Dr Scott Fernie (People & Organisational Management in the Built Environment); and Dr Gillian Menzies (Space Planning and Management)

Further information about all of the School of the Built Environment staff can be found on the SBE Staff Index in the left hand menu of the main SBE website by looking under the surname initial.

Key Findhorn Foundation College staff who will be providing the two residential modules at Findhorn ecovillage include:

Dr Daniel Christian Wahl

(Ecovillage Practice and Community Design Practice):
Daniel has a BSc. (Hons.) in Zoology from the University of Edinburgh; a MSc in Holistic Science from Schumacher College and the University of Plymouth; and a PhD in Design for Sustainability from the University of Dundee. His supervisors were Prof. Seaton Baxter, who set up the world’s first masters in ecological design, and Prof. John Todd, University of Vermont, regarded as one of the pioneers of ecological design. He is currently academic outreach coordinator and programme development for the Findhorn Foundation College; associate member of staff and postgraduate research supervisor at Centre for the Study of Natural Design; and programme development and event coordinator for seminars on topics related to all aspects of sustainable development at the CIFAL Findhorn / UNITAR training centre. His profile at the University of Dundee is found here:
Dr Graham Meltzner

(Community Design Practice)

Graham trained as an architect at the University of Queensland. He was a lecturer at the Queensland University of Technology from 1993 to 2001. Building on his PhD research into the connections between the social cohesion of a human group and the capacity of its members to enact their environmental aspirations, in 2005 he published Sustainable Community: Learning from the Co-housing model. He is currently architect/project manager with Findhorn Foundation.