Program Overview

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Building Performance (Energy Efficiency in Design)

Overview

The Postgraduate Certificate in Building Performance (Energy Efficiency in Design) is a part-time program designed to provide transformative learning and upskilling in key areas of technical building design to cross-disciplinary groups of building design professionals.

Course Details

TU Code

TU412

NFQ Level

Level 9

Award Type

Minor

Award

Postgraduate Certificate

ECTS Credits

30

Duration

1 year

Course Type

Postgraduate

Mode of Study

Part Time

Method of Delivery

Blended

Commencement Date

September 2025

Location

Bolton Street

Fees

€3,000 Total Fee

Minimum Entry Requirements

The TU412 Postgraduate Certificate in Building Performance (Energy Efficiency in Design) course is open to the following categories of applicants:

• Registered Architects
• Professionally qualified architects who are or have been members of the RIAI, subject to interview.
• Graduates of the BSc (Hons) in Architectural Technology at TU Dublin, subject to a minimum 2.2 Level 8 qualification.
• Registered Architectural Technologists
• Professionally qualified Architectural Technologists, subject to the requirements scheduled below.
• Registered Building Surveyors
• Chartered Engineers
• Professionally qualified Engineers, subject to a minimum 2.2 Level 8 qualification plus 2 years minimum relevant accredited professional experience, or equivalent.
• Other technical design professionals subject to a minimum 2.2 Level 8 qualification plus 2 years minimum relevant accredited professional experience, or equivalent.

Career Opportunities

Graduates of the TU412 Postgraduate Certificate in Building Performance (Energy Efficiency in Design) will be qualified to apply a range of NZEB and building performance design tools to assess the energy performance in new and existing buildings.

Course Content

Modules in TU412 include:

Semester 1

• The Reflective Building Design Practitioner
• Decarbonising Building Design
• Building Energy Modelling using DEAP (Option A)
• Building Energy Modelling using PHPP (Option B)

Semester 2

• The Reflective Building Design Practitioner
• Hygrothermal Risk Assessment
• Thermal Bridge Calculation
• Net Zero Carbon Residential Design Project

Schedule

The delivery of TU412 Postgraduate Certificate in Building Performance (Energy Efficiency in Design) course suits those upskilling, re-skilling & returning to work.

There are a range of ways in which the schedule and delivery have been structured to suit students who are fully employed professionals.

Progression

The Postgraduate Certificate sits within the larger TU414 MSc in Building Performance (Energy Efficiency in Design). This includes:

• TU412 Postgraduate Certificate, which is focused on the acquisition of technical knowledge and tools to deliver Zero Carbon building design.
• TU413 Postgraduate Diploma, which is focused on the application of Net Zero Carbon design tools & wider sustainability metrics to deliver the emerging Whole Life Net Zero Carbon building design.

Other Information

The Extern Examiners for the programme in academic year, Dr. Will Swan (Salford Uni.) and Ms Dara Stewart (SEAI), recently reported:

"The programme is of exceptionally high quality. It is teaching a set of skills that is not well covered, even within the EU, but are desperately needed by industry in terms of effectively meeting the net zero challenge in the built environment. It is delivered by a knowledgeable and committed team with an excellent reputation outside of the institution, both in industry and academia".

"Overall, the learning outcomes for the programme were exceptionally strong and has clear value to industry. The students indicated that the learning has significant impact on their workplace decision-making. This indicates that not only are the learning outcomes being delivered, but they are in the form of actionable knowledge".