SUSTAINABLE HOUSING AND COMMUNITIES: MULTI-NATIONAL PROJECT - 2024/5

Module Overview

This module brings students together from the University of Surrey, the University of Wollongong in Australia, and potentially other universities to tackle a sustainable homes and communities design challenge as a project team. Students work in a multidisciplinary project team to create a design proposal for a sustainable, healthy and affordable home and/or community. The challenge is structured around addressing the UN Sustainable Development Goals through partnership and working together. Students will learn how to apply circular economy principles and how to productively work together to bring sustainability into design outcomes and communicate these outcomes creatively and effectively.

Module provider

Sustainability, Civil & Env Engineering

Module Leader

CHENOWETH Jonathan (Sust & CEE)

Number of Credits: 15

ECTS Credits: 7.5

Framework: FHEQ Level 5

JACs code:

Module cap (Maximum number of students): N/A

Module Availability

Semester 2

Prerequisites / Co-requisites

N/A

Module content

Working in multi-country groups online, students will undertake a design project related to sustainable housing and communities. Students will be provided with a design brief in consultation with an industry client (such as Housing Trust) and will be assigned into a multidisciplinary multi-country group of between 4 and 6 students.

Course content will include:

• Tutorial discussions to help teams progress towards their output


• Industry guest lectures/seminars on key topics


• Online learning in an interactive environment (including short video content, readings and engagement activities to check learning). Topics include:

• Engaging in an interdisciplinary team


• Problem definition


• UN Sustainable Development Goals


• Circular economy principles


• Sustainable housing design


• Energy performance


• Sustainable materials and supply chain


• Life cycle assessment


• Sustainable community design


• Housing connections with the community


• Demonstrating and communicating designs

Assessment pattern

Alternative Assessment

If any of the groupwork units of assessment is failed, an alternative assessment based on individual work will be offered for the failed unit of assessment(s).

Assessment Strategy

The assessment strategy is designed to provide students with the opportunity to demonstrate their skills in multi-country group project work.

The summative assessment for this module consists of:

• Problem definition group report (20%)


• Group poster (20%)


• Group presentation (20%)


• Individual report (40%)

Formative assessment and feedback:

Each group will be assigned a tutor who will meet with the group on a weekly basis and provide guidance and verbal feedback to the group as they prepare each of the group assessments. Students can prepare a draft individual report plan to discuss with the lecturer and receive verbal feedback on the planned structure.

Module aims

• To provide students experience working as part of a multi-country design group.
• To expose students to varied perspectives on implementing sustainable development through creative design
• To give students experience of remote working as part of a team.
• To allow students to reflect on multi-cultural team working.

Learning outcomes

Methods of Teaching / Learning

The learning and teaching strategy is based around applied learning through group project work supported by weekly tutor meetings. This group work will be supplemented with online learning materials and lectures to build students’ knowledge of sustainable housing and communities. The group project work is designed to give students the experience of working in a multi-country and cross-cultural context.

The learning and teaching methods include:

• Lectures (5 hours)


• Tutorials (10 hours)


• Online learning materials (10 hours)


• Independent learning (125 hours)

Indicated Lecture Hours (which may also include seminars, tutorials, workshops and other contact time) are approximate and may include in-class tests where one or more of these are an assessment on the module. In-class tests are scheduled/organised separately to taught content and will be published on to student personal timetables, where they apply to taken modules, as soon as they are finalised by central administration. This will usually be after the initial publication of the teaching timetable for the relevant semester.

Reading list

https://readinglists.surrey.ac.uk
Upon accessing the reading list, please search for the module using the module code: ENG2133

Other information

The Centre for Environment and Sustainability is committed to developing graduates with strengths in Employability, Digital Capabilities, Global and Cultural Capabilities, Sustainability and Resourcefulness and Resilience, in line with the Surrey Curriculum Framework. This module is designed to allow students to develop knowledge, skills and capabilities in the following areas: Sustainability: Students tackle a sustainability related challenge in virtual small groups made up of students from two or more universities. This module will provide students with a practical problem to which they can apply sustainable development concepts covered in this module and previous modules. Global and cultural capabilities: This module will help students develop competencies to engage effectively with people from different cultural backgrounds. Students will develop an appreciation of the benefits and challenges which cultural diversity can bring by working for several weeks in a multi-cultural team when tackling a sustainable design challenge. Digital capabilities: In this module students are required to work effectively in virtual groups made up of students studying at different global universities. To do this students learn how to make effective use of digital working tools and strategies in order to complete the required tasks. Employability: The design brief given to students will be developed in conjunction with industry partners and will mimic the sort of challenging tasks that graduates may tackle in their professional life. Resourcefulness and resilience: This module adopts a student-led, solution-focused, independent learning approach. This is supported by small group tutoring to provide feedback and support to students as they choose how to respond to the opportunities and challenges related to completing the design challenge.

Programmes this module appears in

Please note that the information detailed within this record is accurate at the time of publishing and may be subject to change. This record contains information for the most up to date version of the programme / module for the 2024/5 academic year.