Integrated decision-making for buildings
Summary
This course addresses low-carbon buildings as a problem of integrated decision-making. Through cases, debates, and decision exercises, students learn to justify decisions at the energy-material nexus, navigating trade-offs, uncertainty, and competing technical, economic, and societal objectives.
Content
The course is organized in three parts:
1. The technical object of decision-making
- Decision-making theory and the psychology of decisions
- Energy strategies: efficiency, electrification, flexibility, sufficiency
- Material strategies: embodied carbon, circularity, and lock-in
- District and urban systems: choosing the decision boundary
2. The decision environment
- Policies, standards, and regulatory contexts
- Actors, users, and social acceptance
- Economics, financing, and business models
3. Decision-making under complexity
- Integrating multiple objectives and decision support
- Uncertainty and robust decisions
- Portfolio decision-making in practice
Keywords
Decision-making, low-carbon buildings, energy-material nexus, systems integration, uncertainty
Learning Prerequisites
Important concepts to start the course
Basic knowledge of building physics and energy systems. Ability to interpret and manipulate quantitative data. Familiarity with sustainability concepts is recommended but not mandatory.
Learning Outcomes
By the end of the course, the student must be able to:
- Formulate low-carbon building and district challenges as decision problems, identifying what is being decided, by whom, and under what constraints.
- Analyze trade-offs between technical, economic, environmental, and societal objectives.
- Apply structured decision-support approaches to compare alternatives across energy and material strategies.
- Assess / Evaluate the role of uncertainty in building-related decisions and the robustness of recommendations.
- Defend a recommendation, in writing and orally, including its assumptions, limitations, and counterarguments.
Transversal skills
- Access and evaluate appropriate sources of information.
- Take feedback (critique) and respond in an appropriate manner.
- Communicate effectively with professionals from other disciplines.
- Take responsibility for environmental impacts of her/ his actions and decisions.
- Demonstrate the capacity for critical thinking
Teaching methods
Short focused lectures combined with active learning: flipped preparation, case discussions, structured debates, role plays, and in-class decision exercises. Independent study of teaching material and regular quizzes.
Expected student activities
Preparation before class (readings, short videos, case material), active participation in case discussions, debates, and role plays, regular quizzes, preparation and submission of individual and group assignments, and preparation for an individual oral examination.
Assessment methods
- 60% Individual oral exam
- 30% Individual and group assignments
- 10% Quizzes
Supervision
| Office hours | No |
| Assistant.e.s | No |
| Forum | Yes |
Resources
Virtual desktop infrastructure (VDI)
No
Bibliography
Lecture notes, written documents and videos, scientific articles, complementary documents. Standard excerpts will be uploaded on Moodle.
Moodle Link
Prerequisite for
Master's thesis project, research and future careers in sustainable construction, building and urban energy systems design, energy consultancy, and policy advising
In the programs
- Semester: Fall
- Exam form: Oral (winter session)
- Subject examined: Integrated decision-making for buildings
- Courses: 2 Hour(s) per week x 14 weeks
- Exercises: 1 Hour(s) per week x 14 weeks
- Type: optional
- Semester: Fall
- Exam form: Oral (winter session)
- Subject examined: Integrated decision-making for buildings
- Courses: 2 Hour(s) per week x 14 weeks
- Exercises: 1 Hour(s) per week x 14 weeks
- Type: optional
- Semester: Fall
- Exam form: Oral (winter session)
- Subject examined: Integrated decision-making for buildings
- Courses: 2 Hour(s) per week x 14 weeks
- Exercises: 1 Hour(s) per week x 14 weeks
- Type: optional
- Semester: Fall
- Exam form: Oral (winter session)
- Subject examined: Integrated decision-making for buildings
- Courses: 2 Hour(s) per week x 14 weeks
- Exercises: 1 Hour(s) per week x 14 weeks
- Type: optional