BLDG3120 - Building Structures and Envelopes

Building Structures and Envelopes is a course which focusses on architectural technology, construction and building performance. Architectural technology has always struggled to engage students in the Architecture programs due to the dry and technical nature of the content.

The cohort is a third year undergraduate class of approximately 95 students. This class is run as a flipped class with the core content delivered online while in-class activities focus on assignment work. Students are engaged with real world problems and team work to motivate them to apply their knowledge in an on-campus setting where teacher and support teachers can best assist. On-line core knowledge has helped to deliver an efficient program and has allowed students to re-engage with topics throughout the course. The on-line content is also helpful to students who have English as a second language.

Aside from normal “studio based” teaching there are presentations from industry experts, assignment reviews, a field trip and in-class quizzes .

Michael is an academic with 12 years of experience at UQ and is currently Director of Teaching and Learning in the School of Architecture. His teaching practice has been moving towards a flipped model for nearly 5 years and although there is still more he could learn about the model, he can provide advice to anyone wanting to migrate their teaching practice to flipped classes.