Green Building MSc, PGDip, PGCert

Centre for Alternative Technology

Develop a comprehensive understanding and confidence to apply sustainable design principles on our MSc in Green Building.

Achieving zero carbon in the design and building industry requires a transformation in materials and methods. This course equips students with critical thinking skills to effectively integrate green building principles into their work, projects, and professional practice, thereby enhancing their future employability in the sustainable construction or property sectors while learning to adapt the built environment to current environmental changes.

The course merges theoretical knowledge with practical hands-on learning and research experience in sustainable building design, construction, and renovation, enabling students to build scientific literacy, academic rigour, and teamwork skills, construct evidence-based arguments, and gain proficiency in research methods to undertake an advanced independent project.

Students will acquire a holistic understanding of sustainability, incorporate risk and vulnerability assessment into their decision-making, and comprehend how the urgency of climate change influences their choices regarding building design, construction methods, materials, and cultures.

Key areas of study

Through the Green Building course, you will gain an in-depth understanding of sustainable design principles and their practical application, best-practice construction methods and standards, evidence-informed approaches, and socially and ecologically responsible practices.

Some of the topics you’ll study include:

• Transformational change, resilience building, and adaptive capacity
• Advanced building analysis and construction techniques
• Heat and moisture flows in buildings, zero carbon building standards, and methodologies
• Circularity applied to building project management and the building project life cycle.
• Environmentally responsive materials, resources, and life-cycle analysis / environmental assessment
• Acute resilience pathways for cities and communities
• Renewable energy systems
• Biodiversity enhancement in buildings and cities and ecosystem services provision
• Environmental politics and the prevailing social and economic systems