Welcome to the Faculty for the Built Environment
The
Faculty for the Built Environment has, as its focus of study, those issues that relate to the design, or “creative organisation”, of the built environment, which is the physical environment that is created as a result of human intervention. The Faculty aims to address these issues in a holistic manner, from the macro-scale of the urban and rural landscape, through the integration of buildings and structures within such landscape, to the micro-scale of the construction detail, in such a way as to allow it graduates to work to “make another world, a better world”. In the words of Colin Stansfield Smith, good design “should infiltrate the visual standards of everything from sign-writing, and graphics, to interior design, and a good deal in between. It should not be restricted to buildings, but should include spaces and environments generally …”
Within this vision, the Faculty for the Built Environment embraces a wide range of disciplines, including:
- systems of urban, town or spatial planning
- urban design, and hard and soft landscaping
- infrastructural support systems, such as transport systems, water
resources, distribution, and disposal - design and planning of buildings and other physical structures
- engineering support systems, such as structure, utility services
- the study of history of the built environment in its wider meaning
- the protection and conservation of the existing built heritage
- the management of the construction processes
- the science of the environmental performance of buildings
- the study of the environmental impact of buildings, structures and other
related interventions.
The Faculty for the Built Environment, (formerly the Faculty of Architecture and Civil Engineering) embraces the wider meaning of the term “architecture”, which is derived from the latin and greek terms that mean master builder/construction leader. It seeks to re-interpret the classical Vitruvian principles of firmatitis, utilitatis, venustatis, robustness, utility and delight, to the contemporary requirements of the environment, and of the construction process. The Faculty thus seeks to deepen knowledge in the science of construction, and of environmental performance, at different scales, whilst continuing to promote the subservience of such sciences to the over-riding requirement to make positive, aesthetic, and ethically sound, contributions to the quality of the environment which we inhabit. It is currently re-structuring its degree courses.
SACES
19 May 2013
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