Physics is just an underlying concept for everything around us
Watch this course overview to find out more!
Live, online, interactive teaching, with lots of opportunity to be curious
Come along ready to have some fun and use your imagination to explore building physics
"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!"
Feedback from a graduate of the Understanding Building Physics course
KEY INFORMATION
Duration
- A 10 hour course - 2 hours per week over 5 weeks
- Extended discussion can be had following on from the 2 hours of live interactive learning if interested (not required but for chance to ask additional questions and for informal relaxed discussion)
Upcoming Course Dates
- The course sessions will run on Mondays, with a choice of either mornings (10:00-12:00) or afternoons (14:30-16:30)
- Following two successful years in delivering the course, we are glad to confirm that the course will be running again in 2025:
- From Monday 10th March, on each Monday to the 7th April 2025, mornings and afternoons
- We also anticipate running the course again in June 2025 if there is demand. Please do let us know if you would be interested to hear about the June course dates if they become available: register your interest here.
Course Approach
- 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.
- 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.
- We feel there is a lot of valuable learning to be gained from taking part in the live teaching, having your camera on and giving the activities a go!
- Attending live sessions is important for this course, to gain the full immersive experience with activities and Q&A opportunities. If it should happen that a student has to miss a Module, they can discuss this with us and we can try to arrange for them to join the equivalent Module from one of the following courses, or they can simply watch the recording of the session.
- There are 20 places available each time the course runs, with up to 5 of those places available at the student price. Due to its interactive nature, the course requires a minimum of 5 students in order to run.
Why take this course?
- 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.
- 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 steppingstone to more in depth building physics and retrofit courses.
Price
- AECB Members £195 +VAT, Non-members £245 +VAT, Full-time Students £50 +VAT (must be able to evidence student status)
*Discounts are available only when the bookings are made for candidates within the same company/organisation as part of one order/transaction.
If you could also please ask your candidates to each complete the quick booking form. There is the option to select that their company is purchasing their place on the course, which will automatically send an email out to the appropriate contact that they provide.
Please first wait to receive notification that each of your proposed candidates has applied successfully and has been offered a place on the course. Then follow the link in one of those notification emails, in order to request an invoice for payment for all of your candidates (we can currently only process the multi-buy discount via invoice):
- 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 Understanding Building Physics course at the student member price of £50 +VAT
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 Vapour behaviour vs Liquid water behaviour
- Moisture envelope(s) - and link to thermal envelope
- Retrofit and New Build Scenarios
- Moisture & comfort
- Moisture Risk - damp related building issues - cavity walls, mould, rot, bio/chem factors etc.
- Water state and phase transition - causes and consequences
- Applying physics in thinking about our surroundings
- Physics for comfort
- Physics in building system and environmental system
- Material behaviour
- Longevity, embodied carbon and economics
- Intro 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
- Building Performance Evaluation
STUDENT FEEDBACK
A well structured course that simplifies Building Physics concepts and helps us utilize them better in the field
Feedback from Hannah.K, Architect (graduate of the Understanding Building Physics course)
Instructive and good fun
Henrik, Self-builder
GLO MADE THE COURSE FUN. SHE WAS INFORMATIVE AND ENCOURAGING OF ALL STUDENTS TO CONTRIBUTE. I WAS NEVER VERY GOOD AT PHYSICS AT SCHOOL BUT THE WAY GLO TAUGHT, MADE IT FUN AND EASY TO UNDERSTAND
Feedback from graduate of the Understanding Building Physics course
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.
Feedback from graduate of the Understanding Building Physics course
I used to hate physics but now I'm hooked and want to learn more!
Feedback from graduate of the Understanding Building Physics course
Glo demonstrated a really helpful depth of knowledge and communicated the course material effectively. The inclusion of forums were really helpful in allowing for practical engagement with real-life scenarios.
Feedback from graduate of the Understanding Building Physics course
The concepts of building physics taught in a simple, easy to grasp, engaging and fun way!
Sajjad Bhanji, Business Development Manager
The motivations behind this course:
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 and Landscape Architecture.
Gloria is currently a director of Scottish Ecological Design Association (SEDA) and chairs SEDA Solar, organising events and was part of the judging panel for the Kerr MacGregor Award for Solar Innovation in previous years. She volunteers with Architects Climate Action Network (ACAN) as coordinator and heavily involved with their thematic groups and 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).
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.
Trish is the AECB's CarbonLite Training Manager. She is responsible for managing the AECB's suite of training offerings. Trish and her team continue to develop retrofit and AECB Building Standard training courses, in order to upskill and train the construction sector. She believes we all have a role to play and a personal agency to move away from destructive construction practices towards more regenerative methods, and this includes retrofit and good low energy building standards. Trish qualified as an architect back in 1999 and she has a passion for sustainable design and architecture. She developed with colleagues the UK's first wholly sustainable Part II at the Graduate School of Environment at CAT, where she worked as Senior Lecturer for 14 years.
Sarah became the Training Coordinator at the AECB following eight years of providing student support and programme administration for the suite of Postgraduate courses at CAT. Sarah is now helping to develop the training offerings at the AECB, looking after and developing the online learning platforms and overseeing the internal quality assurance of the training provision. Sarah recognises that the quality of the learning provision and student support is of highest priority, and is glad to be helping students and professionals on their journey to effect real and lasting change in the building design and construction industry towards a net zero carbon future.