Building engineering
Contents
1 Building engineering: a discipline for the modern era
2 Specializations in Building Engineering
3 Education
4 Educational institutions offering Building Engineering
Building engineering: a discipline for the modern era
Building engineering, commonly known in the US as architectural engineering, is an emerging
engineering discipline that concerns with the planning, design, construction, operation, renovation, and
maintenance of buildings, as well as with their impacts on the surrounding environment. As building
construction projects are increasingly large and complex, the discipline requires pertinent knowledge
integrated from traditional well-established disciplines:
Civil engineering for building structures and foundation;
Mechanical engineering for Heating, Ventilation and Air-Conditioning system (HVAC), and for
mechanical service systems;
Physics for building science, lighting and acoustics.
Electrical engineering for power distribution, control, and electrical systems;
Chemistry and biology for indoor air quality;
Architecture for form, function, building codes and specifications;
Economics for project management.
Building engineers are trained in all phases of the life cycle of a building and develop an appreciation of
the building as an advanced technological system requiring close integration of many sub-systems and
their individual components. Technical problems are identified and appropriate solutions found to
improve the performance of the building in areas such as:
Energy efficiency, passive solar engineering, lighting and acoustics;
Construction management;
HVAC and control systems; Indoor air quality;
Advanced building materials; building envelope;
Earthquake resistance, wind effects on buildings, computer-aided design.
The building engineer may work as a consulting engineer, design engineer, project manager, construction
manager, cost engineer, facility manager, conservation-utility director, HVAC engineer and operation
manager, and process engineer, or in research and development among other career possibilities.
Specializations in Building Engineering
Building Indoor Environment covers the environmental aspects in the design, analysis and
operation of energy-efficient, healthy and comfortable buildings. Fields of specialization include: thermal
comfort, air quality, lighting, acoustics, HVAC and control systems.
Building Envelope is an application area which draws from all areas of building engineering,
especially building science and indoor environment. It focuses on the analysis and design of building
envelopes, including durability, heat and moisture transfer and interaction with the indoor environment.
Building science focuses on the analysis and control of the physical phenomena affecting the
performance of building materials and building enclosure systems.
Building Structure area concerns with the principles of structural mechanics, material behavior
and their applications to the analysis and design of steel, reinforced concrete and timber building
structures. Fields of specialization include: wind and seismic effects on buildings.
Construction Management includes construction techniques, construction processes, planning,
scheduling; project tracking and control, labor and industrial relations, and legal issues in construction.
Computer Aided Engineering is an exciting area in Engineering. Even though computers have
become ubiquitous in the architecture-engineering-construction industry, their present use is mostly
limited to drafting, analysis, member sizing, cost estimation, and construction management. Computers
have tremendous untapped potentials in the field of Building Engineering.
Energy Efficiency is also an application area which draws from the building science and building
environment areas. It includes analysis, design, and control of energy-efficient buildings and HVAC
systems, solar energy utilization and intelligent buildings.
Education
Building engineers would normally have an accredited academic degree with a concentration in building
engineering from a recognized university. The completed degree may be designated as a Bachelor of
Engineering, Bachelor of Science or Bachelor of Applied Science depending upon the university. The
length of study is between three to four years and the program consists of basics of engineering and
sciences (technical drawing, engineering mechanics, mechanics of materials, thermodynamics,
mathematics, computer programming, surveying), subjects in building engineering sciences (structural
analysis and design, soil mechanics, building engineering systems, the aural and visual environment,
building envelope design, building economics, construction management, thermal environment and
building service systems). Elective courses towards the end of the program allow students to specialize in
one or more sub-disciplines.
Some building engineers may wish to pursue a postgraduate degree such as a Master of Engineering, an
Engineer's degree, or a Doctor of Philosophy in Engineering. The Master and Engineer's degree may
consist of either research, coursework or a mixture of the two. The Doctor of Philosophy consists of a
significant research component and is often viewed as the entry point to academia.