ENVIRONMENTAL CONTROL SYSTEMS: LIGHTING, ACOUSTICS, AND THERMAL COMFORT IN BUILDINGS
The ways in which we design, construct, and operate has significant impacts on the building occupants and the environment. Architects, designers, and building engineers can work closely together to reduce depletion of critical resources, prevent environmental degradation, and create built environments that are livable, comfortable, safe, and productive. Offers the foundational knowledge on which such practice can be built on. Through a series of lectures, field measurements, and building simulations, understand how lighting, acoustics, and thermal properties behave in buildings and influence the building occupants. The proper application of building design as well as methods for designing and evaluating these features are discussed.
Prerequisites & course information
Requisites: Satisfied Quantitative Reasoning (QR) A and declared in Interior Architecture; or graduate/professional standing Course Designation: Core GenEd - Mathematics & Quantitative Reasoning Comm QR - Quantitative Reasoning B Grad 50% - Counts toward 50% graduate coursework requirement Repeatable for Credit: No Last Taught: Spring 2026 Learning Outcomes: 1. Understand physics of light, sound, color, and thermal transfer as they pertain to lighting, acoustics, and thermal comfort in buildings. Audience: Both Grad & Undergrad 2. Understand the earth science that governs solar geometry and the climate as they pertain to lighting and thermal comfort in buildings. Audience: Both Grad & Undergrad 3. Understand human physiology and psychology related to lighting, acoustics, and thermal comfort in buildings. Audience: Both Grad & Undergrad 4. Critically evaluate lighting, acoustics, and thermal comfort in both existing and future buildings using various measurement methods and computational models. Audience: Both Grad & Undergrad 5. Apply concepts of lighting, acoustics, and thermal transfer to design strategies in order to create optimal experiences for building occupants. Audience: Both Grad & Undergrad 6. Develop a conceptually sophisticated research projects that focuses on building performance evaluation. Audience: Graduate 7. Learn and lead from class activities, research projects, and self-directed study. Audience: Graduate Learning Outcomes: 1. Understand physics of light, sound, color, and thermal transfer as they pertain to lighting, acoustics, and thermal comfort in buildings. Audience: Both Grad & Undergrad 2. Understand the earth science that governs solar geometry and the climate as they pertain to lighting and thermal comfort in buildings. Audience: Both Grad & Undergrad 3. Understand human physiology and psychology related to lighting, acoustics, and thermal comfort in buildings. Audience: Both Grad & Undergrad 4. Critically evaluate lighting, acoustics, and thermal comfort in both existing and future buildings using various measurement methods and computational models. Audience: Both Grad & Undergrad 5. Apply concepts of lighting, acoustics, and thermal transfer to design strategies in order to create optimal experiences for building occupants. Audience: Both Grad & Undergrad 6. Develop a conceptually sophisticated research projects that focuses on building performance evaluation. Audience: Graduate 7. Learn and lead from class activities, research projects, and self-directed study. Audience: Graduate
Sources
- Course catalogue ↗2026-2027