The construction industry is becoming increasingly complex and now requires far more stakeholders than it did a decade ago. One of the reasons for this is the growing importance of technical building services (TGA) in construction projects.
As part of its support for science, the Wilo-Foundation funded a study launched in 2016 that investigated the prerequisites for academic teaching and research in technical building services.
The starting point of the study was the increasing complexity of the construction sector, which is leading to closer interlinking between the work of building services engineers, civil engineers and architects. In practice, however, the curricular separation of the degree programmes in architecture, civil engineering and building services engineering often results in problems of understanding and communication between the parties involved in the planning and construction process.
The Department of Architecture at TU Dortmund University therefore carried out a study in cooperation with the VDI Society for Building and Building Technology to explore the requirements for university education in which building services engineers, architects and civil engineers study together. In the long term, the aim was to improve the training of building services engineers. The focus was on a holistic understanding of buildings, increasing the number of graduates in technical building services engineering to meet labour market demand and strengthening the already existing interdisciplinary education of architects and civil engineers. Higher qualification of those involved in planning and construction is intended to optimise processes in the construction industry and achieve better results in high-quality, cost-efficient and on-schedule building.
Header photo: TU Dortmund University
