Teaching content

Topic overview 

The institute's range of courses covers all technical aspects of building climatology. The term "building climatology", originally defined by Professor Werner Cords-Parchim, includes not only the typical topics of building physics (heat, moisture, sound, light) but also various aspects of technical construction and climatology. From this, the most important teaching contents can be derived, which are first mentioned in the following as an overview and then broken down in detail according to subject areas:

• Building materials and construction (building physics design and construction rules)
• Outdoor climate and site conditions
• Comfort and indoor climate requirements
• Physical principles of heat and mass transport and its application in building technology, in particular coupled heat and moisture transport in building structures
• Technical building equipment in the context of overall building design
• Building climatic analysis and description of thermal behavior of buildings (heating energy demand, summer behavior, energy-efficient building)
• Energy-efficient buildings as a result of the planning coordination of building construction and technical building equipment with indoor climate requirements and site conditions
• Assessment for the possibility of use of buildings commissioned for preservation of historical monuments
  Sustainability of buildings in the life cycle

Focal points of building physics

The main focus of teaching at the Institute of Building Climatology is on those areas that have emerged as research and work priorities of the Institute in the course of its existence. These include the investigation of building materials and the development of measurement and modeling of coupled heat and moisture transport processes, computer simulations of building components and buildings, and problems of building climatology in the renovation of historic buildings. As teaching contents are to be mentioned in particular:

• Modeling of coupled heat and moisture transport processes in building materials and building components
• Computational verification of the moisture balance of building structures
• Experimental control on test houses and determination of material characteristics
• Building and room acoustics
• Light and lighting technology
• Creation of planning bases
• Development of renovation technologies
• Securing the room climate during the phase of free air conditioning

Focus on technical expansion

In the field of technical expansion, the focus is on the following topics:

• Heating technology (heat generators, heat exchangers, regulation and control)
• Ventilation, air conditioning and refrigeration technology
• Sanitary engineering (drinking water)
• Electrical engineering for buildings
• Elevators and escalators
• Facility management
• Use of renewable energies (building-integrated PV and solar thermal)

Coordination of the teaching content

The design of teaching in the subjects of building physics and technical finishing, which are combined under the term building climatology, takes place in close coordination with the teaching program of other German and international universities and colleges. At the Standing Conference of University Teachers of Building Physics and Technical Finishing, the necessary coordination of content takes place, which is oriented to the needs of industry and society. The jointly coordinated teaching content of building physics and technical finishing and its temporal weighting depending on the field of study (architecture or civil engineering) can be viewed on the organization's website.

In order to be able to constantly adapt, develop and update the teaching content to current needs, university lecturers working at the Institute of Building Climatology are active members of such organizations.