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Understanding Building Physics Course

SKU: 31044

Available
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Multibuy available
Renewal only - requires existing registration onto a CarbonLite course
Members only
Bundle available
CarbonLite Graduate discount available
PHI credit points
Partial funding available

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Live online, interactive teaching with lots of opportunity to be curious

Watch this course overview to find out more!

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You can book on behalf of someone else with a course voucher.

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Following our 5 courses that ran in 2026. This course will run again in 2027, starting from late January through til June.

Please register your interest to hear when booking opens for 2027 course dates

Timing and duration

10 – 12.5 hours live teaching (2 – 2.5 hours a week over 5 weeks)
- The sessions will be a min of 2 hours, with an extra half an hour allowance each session depending on the number of questions (for chance to ask additional questions and for informal relaxed discussion)
Choose from either on Monday mornings (10:00-12:00/12:30), or Monday afternoons (14:30 – 16:30/17:00)
Extended discussion can follow on from the main 2 hours of interactive learning. This is an optional opportunity to ask additional questions, discuss around the topics, and raise your project specific questions related to the topic.

Upcoming Course Dates

From Monday 7th July, on each Monday to the 4th August 2025.

The course sessions will run on Monday mornings (10:00-12:00/12:30).

Monday afternoon sessions take place at 14:30 – 16:30/17:00

Starting 1st June 2026, on each Monday up to and including the 29th June 2026, with a choice of either morning or afternoon sessions.

- Mornings: 10:00 am – 12:00/12:30 pm
- Afternoons: 14:30 – 16:30/17:00 pm

This course is an introduction to basic building physics. There are no entry requirements, but please come along ready to have some fun and use your imagination to explore – What is building physics and why is it important?
Live, online, interactive teaching, with lots of opportunity to be curious.
The course breaks down building physics into its key areas, and includes active learning via in class practical experiments to follow along with (using items found around the home/office), all wrapped up with a final module that brings those topics together wholistically.
Join in with an open mind for the opportunity to question and discuss with your tutor and peers.
Your questions can help tailor your learning to your needs and to dig deeper to the level of understanding that you are seeking. In this course we can start from scratch and then build from there (aided by the types of questions asked); so that you can think from first principles, build from fundamentals upwards, to gain a deeper understanding, think critically and ask harder questions (of yourself and others) and resolve them logically.

The aim is for you to have some fun, learn without any pressure, and come away with greater confidence and understanding of building physics fundamentals.
This course introduces building physics concepts in a way that makes them easier to grasp and relate to.
Find out what you can and ought to ask architects/engineers/consultants – find the right questions to get the right answers, in order to give your home or your building the right treatment.
Ask questions related to your own projects to help relate what you’re learning towards your own experiences and finding solutions to issues that you have encountered.
Bring along your own case studies to discuss and examine, either in the last half hour of the relevant topic session or within the discussion forum.
Gain an undersanding of the basics behind complicated equations.
Find out as designers and modellers the principles behind building physics calculations.
We feel that it’s important for everyone to have a basic understanding of, and appreciation for, their built environment.
This course could help you find the confidence and motivation to potentially take on new challenges and upskill further. With this background understanding, use this course as a stepping stone to more in depth building physics and retrofit courses.

AECB Members £195 +VAT

Non-members £245 +VAT

Full-time Student members £50 +VAT (must be able to evidence student status).

Multi-buy discounts are available to membership levels that have supplementary members*

Multi-buy discounts are available only when the bookings are made for candidates within the same company/organisation as part of one order/transaction.

If applicable, please contact [email protected] to request an invoice for your multi-buy discount and please provide your candidate names and email addresses.

5% discount for a group of 2-4
10% discount for a group of 5-9
15% discount for a group of 10 or more

*Discounts are not available when purchasing the course at the student member price of £50 +VAT or when purchasing the course under a funding scheme.

Prices will be subject to review and update in summer 2025 following continued update and enhancement work.

What will you learn?

Systems and balance
Scales of operation & magnitude of impact: Global Scale, Local Scale, Building Scale
Climate, Weather: Location effects
Water cycle: Phases of water,
Pressure Volume Temperature relationships
Form Factor vs Surface to Volume Ratio
Units: use them to explain what the numbers really mean
Comfort: Biophilic environmentally aware design, Locational context, Human well-being needs

Conservation of Energy
Three forms of Heat transfer
Defining thermal envelope, system boundaries
Thermal bridges
Heat gains and losses
Insulation envelope design – Conductivity vs Resistivity and U-values
Energy and heating demand and supply
Fluctuations and effective modulation with thermal mass
Controls for balance – Insulation and cooling balance

Natural ventilation – stack effect and solar chimneys
Mechanical ventilation
Ventilation flow rate
Windows – locations, cross ventilation, trickle vents, louvred vents, glass, insulation, reflection, refraction
Airtightness – units explored, worked example
Daylight – daylight factor (illumination)
Solar gains – heat
Angle of sun and glare
Conservatories and glass houses – heat gains and losses, glazing ratio, effective control

Moisture balance – gains and losses – system
Moisture movement mechanisms – Liquid and Vapour
Temperature and moisture relationship – holding capacity
Dew Point and Condensation – Water state and phase transition – causes and consequences
- Moisture Risk – damp related building issues – cavity walls, mould, rot, bio/chem factors etc.
Water Vapour behaviour vs Liquid water behaviour
Moisture envelope(s) – and link to thermal envelope
Retrofit and New Build Scenarios
Moisture & comfort

Applying physics in thinking about our surroundings
Physics for comfort
Physics in building system and environmental system
Material behaviour
Understanding EPDs
Longevity, embodied carbon and economics
Introduction to hygrothermal performance, modelling, monitoring and evaluation
Adaptive comfort and controls – resilience
Energy conservation using principles of physics and natural means
Pit falls and risk reduction – Introduction to building condition and envelope detailing analysis with example
Building Performance Evaluation

Watch this short video for an overview of the course topics

Tutor Gloria Lo talks about the topics you will learn about on the course.

What do our past students say about the course...?

A fantastic, well-run course that I thoroughly enjoyed. It has made me more excited to pursue future learning and deepen my understanding

James Watts, Interior Designer

A fantastic introduction to the physics connecting buildings, people and our environment – a real eye opener!

I think anyone making decisions about buildings should go on this course. The course is a great introduction to building physics, which the tutor manages to make interesting and fun.

I used to hate physics but now I’m hooked and want to learn more!

The concepts of building physics taught in a simple, easy to grasp, engaging and fun way

Sajjad Bhanji, Buisness Development Manager

A well structured course that simplifies building physics concepts and helps us utilize them better in the field

Hannah K., Architect

Instructive and good fun!

Henrik, Self-Builder

THE COURSE WRITER & TUTOR - Gloria Lo

Gloria is an architect with over 20 years’ experience in Conservation and Sustainable design, in line with her passion to be a good temporary custodian of both the built heritage and the planet. She is qualified with Certified Passive House Designer, BREEAM Accredited Professional and Domestic Refurbishment amongst other certifications. Currently undertaking research in hygroscopic materials and its effect on indoor humidity, with MA and CE Engineering Departments of Strathclyde University, part funded by Historic Environment Scotland and Engineering the Future Scholarship from Strathclyde University.

Gloria has, since her childhood, a desire for understanding the world that surrounds her, to find out about the living environment through physics, geography, and architecture. She is keenly interested in the education of the younger generation of architects and others, especially in climate literacy, technical skills in building physics and material specification – toxicity, embodied carbon, circular economy, hygrothermal performance, biodiversity etc – by being a tutor, visiting critic and lecturer for universities and other organisations in the UK. Mainly, as a tutor for Master of Architecture Course at the University of Edinburgh School of Architecture.

Gloria is a Director and immediate past Chair of Scottish Ecological Design Association (SEDA). She volunteers with Architects Climate Action Network (ACAN), being actively involved with several thematic groups and Scotland group events. She helps with the Royal Incorporation of Architects in Scotland (RIAS) Education Committee and is an Examiner for The Architects Professional Examination Authority in Scotland (APEAS). She gave evidence to Scottish Parliament (2025) in relation to the scientific cause and solutions for damp and mould in buildings to inform primary legislation in Housing and Heat in Buildings bills. She continues to champion for knowledge backed radical changes for fair policies, and better design decisions for housing providers, to eradicate fuel poverty and to support health and wellbeing for all.

Tutor Gloria Lo talks about the motivations behind developing the Understanding Building Physics course.

COURSE CO-DEVELOPER - Sara Edmonds

Sara Edmonds is an architect, passive house designer and activist, director of Studio seARCH, a consultancy that advocates for systemic change around low carbon domestic retrofit. She is the steering group coordinator at ACAN, an organisation formed to empower individuals within architecture and related built environment professions taking action to address the twin crises of climate and ecological breakdown and is co-host of Zero Ambitions Podcast. The focus of Sara’s work is to drive essential change in the built environment and wider communities through bottom up, grassroots projects and strategies. The AECB is pleased that Sara has agreed to coordinate the development of the course, and that she is endorsing its promotion.