Catalogo dei Corsi di studio

Bachelor Degree in
Sustainable Building Engineering
L 23 Class - Science and Techniques of Constructions
Studies Program 2023-2024

Specific learning targets

The Degree (first cycle – 180 ects) Sustainable Building Engineering aims to familiarise students with the
knowledge and skills which provide a sustainable future both for existing buildings and for those they will
design and build. Achieving sustainable development continues to be among the major global issues of our era.
The main purpose of this degree is to update traditional, world-renowned, Italian civil and architectural
engineering skills, with a particular focus on environmental protection and especially sustainable development.
This degree is also open to foreign students and particularly those countries where Italian building and
environmental engineering consultants or companies have designed and built major private and public buildings.
To achieve this target, the Degree will ensure the acquisition of top scientific and technological content, and the
ability to design, plan and manage solutions for the many and complex situations in terms of sustainable
architecture, built environment sustainability of territories, through the application of the following principles:
• Lower energy demand and consumption by existing and new buildings
• Exploit climate and natural resources to develop passive design strategies and sustainable architecture
• Reuse or recycle building components and materials
• Extend the lifetime of products and buildings
• Risk-free return of materials to the natural cycle
• Adopt a sustainable use of the territory and a participatory planning and design
• Reduce urban sprawl, promote urban renewal and protection of natural areas
This degree aims to form professionals that are ready to tackle different projects either locally or at an
international scale. At the design phase, a sustainable building engineer will be prepared to develop and control
sustainable design strategies in architecture and urban planning and during the construction process, will be able
to use sustainable and recycled materials, to minimise waste flows and to avoid damage to urban areas or to the
natural environment. As a facility manager, he/she will know how to reduce energy demand, how to alternatively
use other natural resources, and how to settle new activities in a sustainable manner.
The programme also provides students with the scientific knowledge needed to obtain an appropriate technical
and operational training in the fields of Architectural and Environmental Engineering, whose major target is the
organization, protection and modification of the built environment and territory for human settlement purposes.
Targets of this course are also the acquisition of analytical skills to recognise, understand, plan and design under
complex environmental conditions. By teaching the multiple activities of management, design, development,
production at the different operational scales, that are at the core of the building industry, this course is intended
to provide students with the basic knowledge to transform a territory in all its physical, economic, social and
morphological aspects, from a sustainable point of view.
The course provides a knowledge of basic subjects, such as physics, mathematics, engineering geology, and
building representation, and includes the teaching of application and intervention techniques in multidisciplinary
fields of sustainable building engineering, such as urban planning, architectural technology, hydraulics,
hydrology, environmental engineering, planning, structural mechanics, structural techniques, geotechnics and
road constructions, taught stressing the specific aspects of sustainable development. This will be accompanied by
the teaching of the principles of environmental health and of materials technology for sustainable construction.
Subsequently the Sustainable Building Engineer can tackle the many complex issues of building engineering,
from the initial design to completion with works management, with a special emphasis on environmental
protection and environmental risk prevention.
The Degree will also prepare the Degree holder for the Master of Science in Environment and Sustainable
Building Engineering (2nd cycle – 120 ects), that provides a more complete and thorough preparation and specific
skills in the subject areas required for intervention on the built environment and territory, to recover and protect
it.

The portion of the total time available to the student for personal study or other individual learning activities is at
least 60% (15 h of self-study for 1 ects).
The Degree course aims to form a professional figure able to operate within the current complex built
environment and to modify the territory in a sustainable way, and provides the scientific and technical
preparation necessary for appropriate technical and operational training in the fields of Architectural and
Environmental Engineering.
Admission requirements
(DM 270/04, Article 6, paragraph 1 and 2)
Applicants must hold a high-school diploma or another qualification obtained abroad and recognized as valid in Italy.
Certified B2 level in English skills is mandatory.
Mathematical skills are also required such that the student has sufficient skills to:

• identify the problem data and use them to provide an answer;
• infer the behaviour of a simple system, starting from the basic laws and the characteristics of its
members;
• distinguish between necessary and sufficient conditions;
• link the results to the assumptions that determine them;
• know the limits of the simplifying assumptions at the basis of the mathematical models containing the
problem.

Description of the training course
The training course, organised in two three-month periods of lessons, for each year, to gradually acquire the
following skills and abilities:
1st year: General basic training and first elements of the application technologies
2nd year: Implementation of the core subjects, basic training in engineering subjects, development of process
technologies in the building field
3rd year: Training in the sector of Sustainable Construction Engineering on the training fields applied to the
intervention in the built environment and the natural environment.
To provide the Sustainable Building Engineer with an integrated professional training both disciplinary and
interdisciplinary experimental and design laboratory activities are carried out, and the possibility of traineeships
preferably in the third year.

Verification of proficiency in foreign languages and related credits
All students must take a test of proficiency in the English language, both written and oral, 3 ects are assigned to
allow students to increase their language skills, with special attention to the technical field, the University offers
Italian language courses for non Italian students.
Study plans
Each student will submit a study plan, stating the options taken, and in compliance with the rules in force within
the deadline established annually by the Area Council. The study plan will be reviewed and approved or rejected by the Area Council, which will communicate the outcome of its decision to the student and to the Secretary's
office of the Faculty.
Final Test
(DM 270/04, Article 11, paragraph 3-d)
The student, having attended mandatory internships and orientation within the branch chosen, will conclude the
training course under the guidance of a supervising professor, with the elaboration of a synthetic Degree thesis,
to be discussed during the final test. The latter, to be held in the presence of the Degree Board, which verifies
that the candidate has reached an adequate and required level of communication, assesses the achievement of
learning outcomes, referring to knowledge data, analytical skills, synthesis processing in relation to the topic of
the thesis under discussion.

Employment and career opportunities for graduates
(DM on Classes, Art. 3, paragraph 7)
There are a variety of professional, managerial and policy-making positions in a wide range of organizations,
involved in the management and use of existing buildings. There's an increasing demand in Europe and
internationally for built environment professionals in the field of sustainability, who are able to develop and
deliver holistic solutions for the sustainability of existing and future buildings.
The Degree program is designed to form an intermediate professional figure, able to carry out activities in
various fields of the building industry, cooperating in the planning, design and implementation of interventions
to organise and transform the territories at different scales. More specifically, graduates in this Degree course
will know and understand the morphological, typological, structural and technological characters of modifying
interventions, preservation and protection of the territory and construction, transformation and conservation of
building structures into their material and constructive components, in relation to environmental, social,
economic, regulatory and productive context.
The specific skills of the graduate in Sustainable Building Engineering cover all operations aimed to:
• optimise energy efficiency of existing and new buildings
• develop passive design strategies and sustainable architecture, taking advantage of climate and natural
resources
• reuse or recycle building components and materials, without risks
• plan for liveable and ecological communities
• adopt a sustainable use of the territory and participatory planning
• reduce urban sprawl, promote urban renewal and protect the natural environment.

Graduates may therefore practice the acquired skills in public and private companies, engineering companies,
construction and environmental industries, construction companies, as well as in private consulting. The degree
programme also prepares to access further degree courses and, in particular, the master's degree programme in
Environmental and Sustainable Building Engineering, which provides more specific skills in the subject areas
responsible for intervention on the territory, both to change and to protect it.

The course prepares students for the profession of:
• Engineers and related professions - (2.2.1)
• Civil engineers - (2.2.1.6)
• Building engineers - (2.2.1.6.1)

Typology of courses taken and the procedures for verification of proficiency
For each course lectures, tutorials, workshops, group work will be provided, in addition to any other activity
deemed appropriate.
 The assessment related to each subject is usually done through an examination (E) consisting of oral
and / or written tests, as defined by the teacher and communicated along with the program (or posted on
www.uniroma1.it, the Faculty of Civil and Industrial Engineering site (http://www.ing.uniroma1.it).
 For some activities an exam will not be held, but replaced by a “judgement of eligibility” (V); also in
this case the procedure will be defined by the Teacher.


Attendance also referring to part-time students
The freshmen and students of the Degree course, who are simultaneously engaged in other activities, may opt for
part-time and achieve fewer ects per year, instead of the 60 required.
The rules and procedures applicable are indicated by the University Rules. To regulate the rights and duties of
part-time students, please refer to the general rules established.
The Degree course will appoint a mentor, who will support part-time students in the training programme agreed.
Rules to pass to subsequent years and prerequisites
The student, in order to be enrolled in the second year of the course of study, must have obtained at least 21
credits, and 45 to enroll in the third year of the course.
During the course of their training, students must comply with the prerequisites listed in the table:
Students enrolled under previous didactic regulations
Students from degree courses of Engineering already opened at the Sapienza University of Rome may, upon
request, obtain to be transferred to the new Degree in Sustainable Building Engineering of the L23 Class (DM
270/04), after obtaining the approval, by the Academic Board, of the training activities performed in terms of
university credits.
Transfers
Students who wish to enroll in the Degree course of Sustainable Building Engineering, coming from degree
programs of other classes and / or courses of L23 class of other universities, must submit a special application to the CdA and simultaneously require, if appropriate, an abbreviated training path documenting the passing of
exams of disciplines present in the didactic regulation of their original Degree course.
Check procedures of study periods abroad
Courses taken in European or foreign universities with which the Faculty of Civil and Industrial Engineering has
in place agreements, projects and / or contracts, are recognised in the manner prescribed by the agreements.
Students can, with permission of the Degree course council, carry out a period of study abroad within the scope
of the LLP Erasmus project.
In accordance with the academic regulations of the University in the case of studies, examinations and academic
degrees obtained abroad, the Degree course examines individually the programme for the purpose of credit
allocation in the corresponding disciplinary scientific fields.
General Information
Information regarding the Degree course is shown in the study @ sapienza section of the Sapienza University of
Rome website http://en.uniroma1.it/study-us, and also available on the official website of the Ministry of
Instruction, University and Research (MIUR).
Detailed information relating to:
Programme and educational materials is available on the website www.uniroma1.it , Faculty of Civil and
Industrial Engineering.
The e-mail address of the course of study is sbe@uniroma1.it
Tutorial services: the Degree course offers tutoring services made available by the Faculty. The teachers of the
Degree perform disciplinary tutoring activities to support the students. On the Course site (www………….)
emails, phone number and office hours of teachers are reported. Regarding the internship academic tutors and a
company tutor will be appointed, who will follow the development of the student. In addition to the regular
tutoring service, the Degree course also provides additional tutors, in particular for basic and design disciplines.

Quality assessment: individual courses during the Degree course, in collaboration with the Faculty, are assessed
individually by the students. This is integrated with a quality path responsibility of which is entrusted to the selfassessment
group, composed of teachers, students and staff of the degree programme. The results of the surveys
and the conclusions of the self-evaluation group are used to improve teaching and training.

The Coordinator of the Master’s Programme
Prof.ssa Agostina Chiavola