Academic year/semester: 2026/27/1

ECTS Credits: 5

Available for: All OU students

Lecture hours: 0
Seminarium:0
Practice: 3
Laboratory: 0
Consultation: 0

Prerequisites: Minimum 1 completed year in architecture or civil engineering studies. IMPORTANT: Students can choose whether ONLY MSc courses, or ONLY vertical studio courses! Exceptions we can make on individual decisions based on special requests, maximum for less than 50% of the courses - please contact our international coordinator.

Course Leader: Kalmár Péter

Faculty: Ybl Miklós Faculty of Architecture and Civil Engineering, 1146 Budapest, Thököly út 74.

Course Description:
The course focuses on designing energy communities’ development, integration of architectural and engineering aspects. Students will explore the role of energy communities today, including material and technological possibilities, as well as the rational use of AI, references, and precedents. Energy communities’ definitions. Technologies and best practices. Environmentally friendly building materials and building structures. Possibilities of using renewable energy sources in construction. Structures and energy systems of low energy buildings. Presentation and analysis of realized examples. Participants will work in international and interdisciplinary teams, collaborating through a vertical studio system.

Competences:
- Ability to develop context-aware energy concepts - Integration of structural and material thinking in early energy design phases - Effective collaboration in multicultural and interdisciplinary teams - Visual and verbal communication of complex ideas

Topics:
1. week: Introduction
Project briefing, team formation, mapping the context
2. week: Energy communities
Characteristics and types of environment-friendly building materials and building structures. Use of natural and recycled building materials in energy-conscious structural systems
3. week: Massing and urban integration (from different countries)
Energy communities’ concepts, urban integration, functional logic
4. week: Structural and material logic
Initial structural strategies and engineering input
5. week: Calculation of the energy characteristics of the building (Building services, renewable energy sources)
6. week: Architectural utilization of solar energy.
7. week: Consultations + Midterm presentation
Concept presentation, peer feedback
8. week: Development Phase I: Design principles, basic structural systems and development directions
9. week: Team studio day
Individual/team consultations
10. week: Methods and possibilities of complex architectural and building engineering design of zero energy buildings I.
11. week: Engineering integration: structural systems, envelopes, active and passive energy systems, envelope, environmental performance
12. week: Studio day / Consultations
Individual/team consultations
13. week: Final Phase: Representation, Communication
Graphic design, storytelling, diagrams, model suggestions
14. week: Final presentation
Studio presentations, feedback session, reflection, peer assessment

Assessment: final mark based on group work, design project outcome – semester project presentations

Exam Types:

project-based evaluation

Compulsory bibliography: none

Recommended bibliography: Articles and case studies shared during the course

Additional bibliography: none

Additional Information: The course will be held in English. Students are expected to work in mixed teams. Special skills are not required.