Program Description

Driven by the current urgency of building more environmentally friendly buildings and cities, the environmental Architecture and Urbanism Program (ENVR) aims at preparing architects and urban designers specialized in environmental design. Graduates are capable of understanding the relationship between humans and buildings and between buildings and their environment. They can integrate all the aspects dealing with the built environment and how it is planned, designed, used, furnished, landscaped, managed, and valued by the society in their creative thinking while dealing with complex architectural and urban environment problems. The program introduces students to building science and enables them to conceive the basic concepts of sustainable architecture and urbanism. They are trained to balance functional and ecological demands when developing policies or designs for new construction. Graduate will be able to deal with modern techniques and tools for learning and linking theory and practice. All efforts are directed towards achieving environmental architecture and urbanism.

Career Prospects

The acquired skills through the program qualifies the graduates to occupy a wide range of jobs, fulfilling the market’s diversity of needs. They can work as architects or urban designers whether in multi-national and local companies or in architectural, urban design firms and environmental design consultancies. Moreover, graduates will be equipped to work in fields of interior design, visualization using computer graphics, 3D modelling, and model making. Specializations extend as well to dimensions of project/construction management, site supervision, and quantity surveying. The ENVR graduates can deal with environmental building assessment techniques and be aware of issues related to building energy efficiency, net zero systems and net plus systems. The current market in Egypt is thriving for such kind of interdisciplinary-skilled graduates who have strong background in environmental design that is highly needed nowadays.  

Program Concentrations

There are no specified concentrations in this Program.

Agreements and International Accreditation

The BSc (Hons) Environmental Architecture and Urbanism is the first program in Ain Shams University to get International Accreditation in 2022. The Accreditation body is the Chartered Institute of Architectural Technologists (CIAT) in the UK https://architecturaltechnology.com. CIAT is a dynamic, forward-thinking and inclusive global membership qualifying body for Architectural Technology. CIAT represents those practicing and studying within the discipline and profession. It is a membership organization representing 10,000 members within the discipline who wish to be professionally recognised. CIAT Accreditation ensures that the program has been assessed in terms of content, structure, resources and has met the Institute’s requirements. The benefit of studying on a CIAT Accredited Program is that it will support individuals wishing to become Chartered Architectural Technologists.
Furthermore, the program has the potential of two options of Dual Degrees; The first Dual Degree option is a partnership with the University of East London (UEL), United Kingdom for a Bachelor Dual Degree. The Graduates should receive two B.Sc. certificates, one from the University of East London, and one from Ain Shams University. Students are allowed to study a full year or more in London with a 10% reduction in the UK tuition fees. The second Dual Degree option is a partnership with Mediterranea University of Reggio Calabria in Italy (UNIRC). After successfully finishing  a 5-years degree course, 300 ECTS between ASU and UNIRC, the student gets a B.Sc. certificate from ASU and a Master from UNIRC.

Program Competences

In addition to the competences for all Engineering Programs (A-Level), the Environmental Architecture and Urbanism Program graduate must be able to (D-Level):

• D1: Create aesthetically pleasing and technically sound architectural and urban designs by using the architectural and urban planning principles, history and theories, technologies, economics, human sciences and local culture and heritage.
• D2: Produce designs that meet building users’ requirements through studying the relationship between people and buildings, and between buildings and their environment.
• D3: Prepare design project briefs and documents and analyse the context of the architecture in the construction industry, including the architect’s role in the processes of bidding, procurement of architectural services, and building production.
• D4: Solve problems and creatively design sustainable building schemes or urban contexts that demonstrate awareness and integration of information and processes in project work by using building environmental systems and management together with the underlying concepts and theories.
• D5: Realize the process of sustainable building and urban design and their various components through the integration of structural design, construction, technology and engineering problems associated with building designs.
• D6: Coordinate and monitor the production of information and data from a variety of sources, including drawings, specifications, codes of practice, related to principals of environmental architecture and urbanism.
• D7: Apply appropriate mathematical and computer-based methods for modelling and analysing environmental design problems.
• D8: Judge engineering decisions considering balanced costs, benefits, risks, safety, quality, reliability, and environmental impact, while having adequate knowledge of industries, organizations, regulations and procedures involved.
• D9: Produce professional technical and workshop drawings to transform the concepts into buildings using traditional drawing tools and computer-aided drawings’ techniques, as well as building information modelling techniques.
• D10: Exchange knowledge and skills with engineering sectors and industrial sectors working in the field of environmental control.

Required Courses

In order to get a Bachelor of Science Degree in this program, and to satisfy the Program Competences, the following set of courses need to be completed.

Table 31 List of Environmental Architecture and Urbanism Program Requirements courses.