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.

Objectives of this unit are to give students an understanding of energy consumption issues in buildings against the backdrop of escalating energy and carbon emission reduction targets for the built environment. In order to meet these targets, new design and operational management techniques are needed, including energy auditing, retrofitting and energy efficiency optimisation techniques. This unit is primarily concerned with energy management in buildings and Code compliance in Australia. The unit will expose students to the processes and considerations involved in undertaking an energy audit in buildings. Active energy systems and their fundamentals may be reviewed. Finally, methods of assessing energy performance will be covered, with emphasis on energy simulation. Understanding and application of Australian standards and rating schemes such as NCC/Section J, NABERS Energy, GBCA's Green Star, Living Building Challenge, etc., will also be explored.

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.

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, thermal environment, mechanical 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.

The term 'intelligent buildings' was coined some thirty years ago with the advent of Direct Digital Controls (DDC), but only recently can buildings can truly be considered 'intelligent' thanks to advances in sensor technology, control systems theory, information technology, and electronics in general. This unit presents an overview of intelligent buildings from the Building Management and Control System (BMCS) perspective, focusing specifically on Heating Ventilation Air Conditioning (HVAC) processes, plus other building services including security, lighting, and vertical transportation. Fundamentals of control systems theory and technology will be presented. State-of-the-art BMCS capabilities will be demonstrated in relation to optimising the environmental, workplace productivity and economic performance of buildings. Sustainability issues covered by the unit include the role of BMCS in monitoring and managing energy and carbon footprint, water resources and indoor environmental quality (IEQ). The learning outcomes of this unit of study will include sufficient understanding of building controls to enable optimum building performance. It will also provide a platform for critical analysis of control and operational strategies adopted through techniques such as diagnostics and trend logging of parameters such as energy, water, temperature, humidity, to mention a few.

This unit covers the technologies employed in generating, distributing, and controlling light in illuminated environments. Students learn the advantages and disadvantages of different hardware options for various lighting applications. A brief history of lighting technologies and the physical processes involved with electrically generating light are included in this unit. Practical characteristics of currently popular lamp types, as well as emerging lighting technologies, are presented. The effects of integral luminaires and other light fittings on the resulting illumination are covered, as are the electrical requirements of different lighting technologies. This unit also includes calculation techniques for predicting the illumination in spaces from lighting products. The selection, operation, and implications of lighting control options are discussed. The underlying principles and practical consequences of the different characteristics of various lighting technologies are emphasised to enable students to independently evaluate future innovations in lighting technologies.

Project Management is specific form of establishing, programming, and coordinating an activity having a specific start point and end point. This body of knowledge - as for example in the Project Management Book of Knowledge (PMBOK) - needs to be understood in general terms. Initially project managers must identify and define the services that are needed, (scope) and that their employers are willing to endorse. The activities requiring to be carried out need to be sorted and sequenced; the materials, labour and plant required need to be estimated and procured. Projects involve the management of information, and communications. This unit will develop the student's ability to ascertain and document the scope of a project, schedule a programme, and understand the difficulties in directing it. This unit approaches the profession of Project Management as a cooperative undertaking rather than adversarial: it promotes the adoption of soft-skills rather than that of forceful command and supervision.

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.