Building Performance (Energy Efficiency in Design)

Over the past five years the Dublin School of Architecture has developed a range of upskilling courses in Nearly Zero Energy Building (NZEB) for building design professionals. NZEB is the energy performance standard required under the European Union Energy Performance in Buildings Directive (EPBD). This Directive requires that all new public buildings must meet the NZEB standard from the end of 2018 onwards, and ALL new buildings from the end of 2020 onwards. The Directive also provides for the deep renovation of existing buildings to the NZEB standard beyond 2020. Achieving the NZEB standard will require a culture change at all levels in the building industry, from procurement, to design, construction, use and maintenance of the building over its life cycle.

This will require industry upskilling on an unprecedented scale across the EU. From our experience in developing upskilling programmes over the past five years it is clear that the extent of the knowledge gap within the disciplines of the Architecture, Engineering and Construction (AEC) sector is as yet neither appreciated or acknowledged. Recognising the scale of this emerging upskilling challenge the lecturing team in the TU Dublin School of Architecture has developed new skills and teaching methods over the past five years and has prepared a range of new courses in science based building performance.