Advanced Building Design

Advanced Building Design#

Designing better, more sustainable buildings requires interdisciplinary analysis and improvement from all members of the design team throughout the design process. But this is not enough, we are engineers, we need to prove it!

Advanced Building Design (ABD) is an interdisciplinary innovation course that has been runnning at DTU for 18 years and provides a collaborative, analysis based, professional design experience. We replicate real world design processes to test, improve and define new tools, processes and appraoches to design better, more sustainable buildings. Course participants leanr through the seamless integration of research, teaching and innovation supported by the [circular education system] concept.

Course Features#

  • Collaboration experience with peers to produce a ‘real’ design in one of 6 possible roles.

  • Roleplay the management of a design/engineering consultancy; do the work and keep the lights on.

  • Receive input from leading industry design, engineering and collaboration mentors.

  • Engage in deep disciplinary sparring and feedback with subject expert teachers (chief consultants)

  • Apply OpenBIM Technologies to support the OpenBIM Transition in the AEC.

  • Benchmark your performance against previous years and other teams to help you design ‘better’ buildings.

  • Track your design progress with project BEATS and 4 KPIss (Key Performance Indicators)

  • Gain experience working with DGNB (simplified version)

  • Selected Projects considered for a series of awards and experiences.

When does it run?#

The course runs over the spring 13 week period on monday afternoons continuing throughout the June 3 week period.

Who is it for?#

The course is designed to give interdisciplinary design and analysis experience to MSc Architectural Engineering and Civil Engineering students at the Technical University of Denmark. However other relevant disciplines are welcome to apply, please see the available [roles] for a better idea.

How does it work?#

In 2026 the course has 150 students.

  1. Participants choose a subject and form a consultancy within that subject (roughly 2 students per consultancy)

  2. Consultancies submit a tender to become part of a team (6 consultancies per team)

  3. Consultancies collaborate in the teams over 4 stages to design a building.

What is the Building?#

In 2026 we focus on the renovation / reuse options for DTU Campus that comply with DTU Campus plan and the municipalities plan. Check this year’s project for more information.

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