Operational Facilities Management is a service industry concerned with the day-to-day operations required to run an organisation's facilities. Primarily facility operation has to satisfy the user organisation's statutory responsibilities. Beyond that, whilst some major costs (such as Rates, Land Taxes, Insurance premiums etc.) are fixed, other costs are amenable to management. Operational Management necessarily requires those charged with the task to evaluate where their effort is spent and where the significant resourcing costs lie, thus allowing them to prioritise and match their effort to the effect.
This unit will involve considerations of subcontracting and examine 'best practice' guidelines for both hard and soft service provision.

This unit reviews the need for and application of Mechanical Services in the built environment - in particular commercial buildings. Mechanical Services are responsible for significant portion of energy and water consumption in buildings. Thus they have become important components of most modern building complexes, with a strong influence on other services and the architecture. This unit provides an introduction to these services by experienced presenters, including from the industry, for recent graduates or diplomats in mechanical engineering and an understanding of fundamental principles and practice for people from backgrounds other than mechanical engineering. Students will acquire skills in appreciation of impact of Mechanical services on the environment, including recent mandatory regulations, together with estimating ventilation, cooling and heating requirements, design of simple ventilation, air conditioning and smoke hazard management systems, combined with an overview of water, refrigerant, ducted systems, with applicable equipment, energy, noise, human comfort, air quality criteria. Principles of heat transfer and fluid flow are applied to applications of mechanical ventilation, air conditioning and smoke hazard magagement, to satisfy regulations and standards, occupant and community expectations. The practical basis of the programme leads to a design assignment involving selecting equipment and systems to provide mechanical services in a building.

Property and physical infrastructure are essential elements of business operations and organisational functions. This unit of study will examine the key issues in built assets and facilities management (FM), and how they relate to strategic management within the context of high performance buildings. The unit will enable students to develop an understanding of strategic asset management, portfolio planning, benchmarking of operational services, mandatory code compliances, and business needs for high performing facilities. The functions of facilities management within built assets have a direct relationship with the organisation's performance within a constantly changing business environment. A technical understanding of built assets is a prerequisite to optimising business efficiency and future-proofing against market changes. The unit is taught using a case-study methodology with students working through actual industry projects, thus stimulating a broader appreciation of the FM work involved and encouraging students to work collaboratively and creatively towards practical solutions.

Investors associated with the property industry require at the outset Return On Investment (ROI) evaluations before committing capital. This unit of study examines the economic principles as they apply to buildings, from capital growth and life cycle management perspectives. The focus is on economic and financial practices required for high performing building assets, contract procurement strategies, cash flow analysis, return on investment for retro-fitting, and economic appraisals of existing or new building assets. This unit will develop an understanding of carbon accounting in relation to building management and its importance to sustainable built asset portfolios. The unit, taught by case studies, will equip students with an understanding of economic principles and professional tools necessary for the procurement and management of real estate property, facilities and buildings at optimum economic and environmental performance.

Technological advances have transformed virtually every aspect of building services including vertical transportation, fire detection and protection, hydraulics and plumbing, heating ventilation and air conditioning, electrical and lighting, security and data networking. This unit develops a critical understanding of the principles of selection, operation and management of these service systems in buildings of larger-than-domestic scale. Upon completion of the unit, students will be able to contribute competently to the decision-making processes related to these systems, and to be aware of the implications of these decisions upon both building design and operational performance. Students will also gain an understanding of the fundamentals of building services functioning, technologies currently available, along with the design and performance implications of competing solutions. Performance metrics to be discussed include energy consumption, space requirements, accessibility for maintenance, and impacts on adjacent floors. Topics will also include the roles of the facilities manager and building services manager in achieving high performance from building service systems. Utilisation of facilities management tools including state-of-the-art software packages will be discussed along with the inclusion of building services within Building Information Modeling and Management strategies.

This unit aims to explore the scientific concepts of heat, light and sound, and from this develops foundational principles and methods applicable to buildings. It is divided into five topics: climate and resources: thermal environment: building services: lighting; and acoustics. Students will gain an understanding of the terminology, physical values and metrics in each of these topics, and how they apply to the design and function of buildings. Theoretical models to predict key physical values in buildings are presented and used in assessments. Learning is supported by measurement exercises. This unit has a focused pedagogy intended for all graduate students in Architectural Science. It is a common core unit for all of the programs (Audio and Acoustics, High Performance Buildings, Illumination Design and Sustainable Design). Students within these programs should undertake this unit in their first semester of study if possible.

Humans' thermal, visual, auditory and olfactory senses determine the perceived quality of a built environment. This unit analyses built environments in context of these human factors. This unit relates human experience of buildings to the main dimensions of Indoor Environmental Quality (IEQ): thermal, acoustic, lighting and indoor pollution. This understanding of human comfort perceptions is contextualised by an understanding of the various approaches to the evaluation of built environmental performance. You will study post-occupancy evaluation tools and workplace productivity metrics. Regulations from Australia and abroad will be explored to understand their impact on acoustics, thermal comfort, lighting, indoor air quality and ventilation. The unit also pays particular attention to sustainability rating tools from around the world, including GreenStar, NABERS, LEED and BREEAM. This unit gives students extensive hands-on experience in laboratory- and field-based methods of IEQ research and building diagnostics. A recurring theme will be instrumental measurements of indoor environments, and how they can be analysed in relation to perceptual and behavioural data collected from occupants of those environments.