Jørgen Erik Christensen

TEACHING INTERPERSONAL SKILLS IN AN INTERNATIONAL DESIGN-BUILD COURSE

The Technical University of Denmark (DTU) and Helsinki Metropolia University of Applied Sciences (Metropolia) started the CDIO concept in the autumn of 2008. The aim with this was to reform the B.Sc. courses to guide students to become better and more efficient engineers. The working conditions of a typical engineer involve many other fields than just those requiring technical skills. Interpersonal skills are becoming increasingly important, including communication, teamwork and leadership. The purpose of this paper is to describe the co-operation between DTU and Metropolia on the development of an International Communication Course for the engineering students and to emphasize the importance of including a course like this into the CDIO concept, to be worked on in the process of further development. The course described in this paper is a strictly non-engineering course in communication; it is special in that its chief purpose is to bring into focus the fact that students have to take an active part in the exercises as well as involve themselves in the interactive communication process. This is in stark contrast to a teacher giving lectures about communication, leaving the students passive listeners. The personal involvement aroused a negative reaction from several students at the beginning of the course however, during the one- week course the students gained a better understanding of the importance of learning how to communicate appropriately. Altogether, the four key questions dealing with the quality of the course show a very high satisfaction with the instruction. The grades one and two (1 best/very much, 5 worst/very little) of the responses to these four questions are ranging on average from 69.5% to 88% (on a yearly basis). The positive responses indicate that the students are very satisfied with the course recognising the need for education on international communication.

Evaluating economic and environmental aspects of using solar panels on multi-angled facades of office buildings

This paper is concerned with using solar panels as high-tech cladding materials on multi-angled facades for office buildings. The energy produced by the solar panels will be consumed inside the office rooms by cooling compressors, ventilation, lighting and office equipment. Each multi-angled facade unit is directed into two different orientations on a vertical axis (right and left), but not tilted up and down. The different facade orientations will optimize the use of solar radiation to produce the needed energy from the solar panels when placing them on the parapets of these facades. In this regard, four scenarios with different facade configurations and orientations are evaluated and discussed. The method for the simulations and calculations depends on two main programs: first, IDA ICE program to calculate the energy consumption and evaluate the indoor climate of the building; and second, PVBAT to calculate the cost of the electricity produced by the solar panels and evaluate the total amount of energy ...

Architectural Qualities Of Danish Office Buildings Built Between 1960 And 1980, Seen In A Contemporary Sustainable Perspective

This study is about evaluating the past and present architectural quality of office buildings built between1960 and 1980 in Denmark. The evaluation will focus on the expression of these buildings in relation to their context, combined with the present sustainable performance of the buildings and their critical problems. The initial method is a historical study to define the originally intended architectural quality of the office buildings and the different aspects related to this quality. The architectural quality is studied in relation to the societal and technological processes that characterized this period, with special focus on industrialization and its impact on the design process, particularly in adopting rational and economic solutions. When evaluating the buildings in a contemporary, sustainable perspective, the designer faces many problems. These include: economic problems due to high energy consumption; comfort problems due to bad indoor climate; and environmental problems due to the use of construction materials with a negative impact on the environment. Site visits show that these buildings are facing many characteristic constructional and aesthetic problems regarding material durability, mould and fungus, and lack of tightness. The analysis of the originally intended architectural quality combined with current constructional, sustainable and aesthetic evaluation forms the basis for a discussion on the possibilities of implementing sustainable solutions in the office buildings. This implementation will have an impact on the aesthetic output, and the concepts of possible contemporary architectures are highlighted.

New Concept for Museum Storage Buildings – Evaluation of Building Performance Model for Simulation of Storage

Museums keep and protect a part of our material cultural heritage for future generations; however the museums only exhibit a little part of their collections and most of the objects are kept in storage. Unfortunately the climates of many storage rooms are not ideal for keeping the chemical and physical decay of the objects as low as possible. Museum storage buildings should be able to provide a considerable stable indoor environment in terms of temperature and relative humidity. This paper explores how to simulate and build low energy museums storage buildings, and the paper shows that it is possible to make a building of low building expenses, very low running expenses and very high quality. In addition it is described that the energy consumption is only 2% compared to normal HVAC solutions, and the 2% can be delivered by excess wind power from Danish windmills resulting in that the building is close to be CO2 neutral. The analysis shows very good agreement between simulations and measurements, meaning that the proposed methods can be used for designing museum storage buildings. The analysis also shows, that the weather conditions of previous years, affect the indoor environment of the following years. Keywords-component; museum storage; dehumidification; energy efficiency; conservation conditions; airtightness; CO2 neutral building