Study program

• Objectives

  For engineers and architects, the challenges of sustainability are now crucial. Having the knowledge and skills to integrate these issues into the solutions they develop is therefore an important asset. By the end of this course, participants will have:

  Acquired the basic concepts of sustainability, so as to be able to explain them.

  Understood the significance of orders of magnitude and grasped the challenges of sustainability with the help of case studies.

  Learnt how to address sustainability issues using a scientific and factual approach.

  Understood the complexity of interactions.

  Been prepared to adopt a self-reflexive stance toward the role and responsibility of engineers and architects in the face of today's challenges.

• Content

  Sustainability Days: two days to discover the current and future challenges of sustainability. On the programme: a Climate Fresk workshop; examples of real projects carried out at HEIA-FR by researchers and students; discovering the 'sustainability' track in the study plan for each department, linked to technical skills.

  An online course, built up in stages. The first stage provides an overview of the current situation and an understanding of the scale of the major issues and challenges. The second explains the main conceptual frameworks, such as planetary limits and the notion of the ecological footprint. The third presents concrete pathways for engineers and architects to take action that have tangible impact in several key sectors. Finally, the last section offers a number of thought-provoking discussions on social and economic aspects, as well as subjects that are raising debate.

  A series of lectures and workshops will shed further light on the issues addressed in the course, with some speakers representing local businesses.

  Course fulfillment - The course will be validated if the following conditions are met: participation in the 2 sustainability days; validation of the online course's multiple-choice questionnaire, with a minimum passing score of 60%; participation in a minimum of 2 conferences or workshops.

Type of teaching and workload

Course specification

Evaluation methods

• Continuous assessment Online course's multiple-choice questionnaire. The course will be validated if the following conditions are also met: participation in the 2 sustainability days and in a minimum of 2 conferences or workshops.

Course grade calculation method

Course fulfillment: events' participation and average of multiple choice questions (unanswered multiple choice questions correspond to a result of 0%).

Intructor(s) and/or coordinator(s)

Jean-Philippe Bacher, Sofia Marazzi