Giuseppe Desogus. The presentation shows an innovative model of integrated workshop on building design. It is aimed at improving the students’ knowledge on the importance of a collaborative approach among both architectural and technical specialists. Such an approach once was adopted only for main architectural works. Nowadays, however, the increasing necessity of both structural (seismic) and energy performances of the buildings requires a more complex approach also in ordinary ones design. The workshop is part of the course for the master degree in Architecture of the University of Cagliari. It is composed by three modules: Architectural Engineering, Structural Design and Physics Engineering. The single theory modules are less than an half of the semester. Most of the time is dedicated to a practical workshop in which the students are divided into groups and work on a assigned design theme. Last year it was the revisiting of three buildings designed by Mario de Renzi, one of the main architects of Italian modernism. The aim of the workshop is giving the students a first-hand experience on the importance that every choice on the architectural field has on structural and energy performance ones and vice versa. The results are quite encouraging. The workshop constantly receives positive feedbacks in the students’ evaluation questionnaires and it is above the average rating of the course. The main strength is the systemic approach that results in outputs that are far beyond what could have been done teaching the same subjects separately. In the future a new module on Building Information Modelling will be added to the workshop. It could give the possibility to better structure and manage the interactions between architectural and technical aspects.

1. Multidisciplinary workshop on building design
Giuseppe Desogus, Fausto Mistretta, Roberto RicciuGiuseppe Desogus, Fausto Mistretta, Roberto Ricciu
University of Cagliari

2. Presentation summary
• Why an integrated workshop on buildings technical design
• Systemic workshop: more than the sum of its parts
• Last year’s themes
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• Last year’s themes
• Results and feedback

3. The building design process: from a linear to a circular approach
Circular and holistic
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Linear and sequential

4. Targets of the multidisciplinary workshop
• Increasing student knowledge and skills on:
• Detailed design of building envelope
• Structural design
• Building thermophysics
• Contributing to understand the correlations among architectural, structural and
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• Contributing to understand the correlations among architectural, structural and
energy/HVAC system design.
• First – hand experiencing the consequences that every choice made in one
field has on the others.

5. Architectural engineering module
The module aims at improving skills of students in managing the relationship between
Architecture and Technology.
Particularly, the topics of theoretical lessons and practical workshop are:
 The building materials and components market
 Materials and constructive elements of opaque envelope;
 Materials and constructive elements of transparent envelope;
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 Materials and constructive elements of transparent envelope;
 The design of building envelope details;
 Architectural integration of renewable energies;
 Architectural integration of solar shadings.

6. Structural design module
The course aims to give the student the tools to set the structural design theme in terms of
safety and integration into the architectural organism, and acquire basics to understand and
use with confidence procedures aimed at new construction.
Particularly, the student will be prepared to draw up a structural project in all its phases:
 design of building's structural concept according with its architectural form and with its
required functional performance;
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required functional performance;
 choice of structural materials according to the specificity of their mechanical behaviour;
 definition of the shape and size of the structural elements with their connections;
 evaluation of the applied loads;
 identification of a mechanical model that takes into account the materials performance and
their evolutions in time and the manufacturing processes.

7. Building thermophysics module
The module provides to the students knowledge and skills on the thermal hygrometric comfort
prevision and evaluation, the design of HVAC and DHW systems and their possible supply by
renewable energy. The course program deals with the following topics:
 Technical aspects regarding the thermo-hygrometric comfort in indoor spaces;
 Physical characteristics of building envelope and HVAC systems.
 Thermal load calculation, psychrometry and air conditioning.
 Building HVAC systems components, energy transfer terminals, air treatment plants, air
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 Building HVAC systems components, energy transfer terminals, air treatment plants, air
distribution, regulation of power plants.
 Renewable energy sources: solar energy, solar systems with flat collectors, solar thermal
systems, photovoltaic.

8. Interactions of modules
• Static scheme
• Loads
• Choice of materials
Architectural detailed
design of the envelope
• Opaque envelope layers
• Transparent envelope
components
• Thermal bridges
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Dimensioning and
sizing of main structural
elements
Energy performance
assessment and HVAC
sizing
• Thermal bridges
• Clash detection

9. Workshop schedule
Workshopintroductionand
Workshopprojectsassignment
Architectural
engineering theory
module (lectures)
Structural design
theory module
(lectures)
Multidisciplinary work
on assigned projects
(students divided in
groups)
Multidisciplin
ary work on
assigned
projects
(students
Intermediaterevision
Finalrevision
Exams
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weeks0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11
Workshopintroductionand
Workshopprojectsassignment
(lectures)
Building
Thermophysics theory
module (lectures)
groups)
(students
divided in
groups)
Intermediaterevision
Finalrevision
Exams

10. Workshop themes
M. De Renzi:
1. Quartiere Valco San Paolo: stellar towers.
2. Quartiere Tuscolano II: boomerang house.
3. Quartiere Tuscolano II: tower house.
3
1
2
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11. Workshop results
Theme 1:
Example of architectural
detail table
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12. Workshop results
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13. Workshop results
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14. Workshop results
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15. Workshop results
Theme 2:
Example of architectural
detail table
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16. Desogus– Multidisciplinary workshop on building design
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17. Desogus– Multidisciplinary workshop on building design
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18. Desogus– Multidisciplinary workshop on building design
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19. Workshop results
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20. Workshop results
Theme 3:
Example of architectural
detail table
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21. Workshop results
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22. Workshop results
• Immagini tema torre FT
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23. Conclusions
The workshop has
obtained positive
feedback from the
students: the yearly
surveys carried out so
far show a satisfaction
degree above the
average of the course.
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average of the course.

24. Conclusions
Starting from the next semester a new module will be added. The use of Building
Information Modelling (BIM) will be introduced in the workshop and the
potentiality of the methodology will help to better manage the correlation among
architectural, structural and energy/HVAC design.
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25. Thank you for your attention
Giuseppe Desogus gdesogus@unica.it
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Giuseppe Desogus gdesogus@unica.it
Fausto Mistretta fmistret@unica.it
Roberto Ricciu ricciu@unica.it