BUILDING ENGINEERING in CANADA Paul Fazio, Ph.D.1

BUILDING ENGINEERING IN CANADA

Paul Fazio, Ph.D.1

ABSTRACT

The knowledge related to the design, construction, operation, and disposal of buildings has traditionally been treated in different disciplines. For example: Structures, construction in Civil; HVAC in Mechanical; lighting in electrical; acoustics in Physics; materials in Chemistry. Consequently it is difficult to find professionals who can look at the building in a holistic manner to ensure maximum harmony (compatibility) between subsystems to achieve high performance (comfort) at low initial and operation (energy) cost. The absence of professionals with an appropriate integrated body of knowledge in the building process also leads to building failures, or to wrong diagnostics. As the increasing demand for better performance of buildings becomes more and more dependant on science and technology the need for a Building Engineering discipline to provide the required integrated body of knowledge through education and research becomes paramount.

Based on his experience with the development of Building Engineering at Concordia University under the initial guidance of the late Dr. N. Hutcheon, the author outlines in this paper (i) the conditions and process for the development and growth of this discipline at Concordia that can serve as a guide for implementation of the discipline in other institutions; (ii) the curriculum, structure, and content of the programs in Building Engineering; (iii) the research areas required to foster Building Engineering; and (iv) conclusions and recommendations to follow for promoting the discipline.

DEVELOPMENT OF BUILDING ENGINEERING AT CONCORDIA UNIVESITY

The interest in building related research came to Sir George Williams University in 1967 with a project by the writer on sandwich panels that related to the Austrian pavilion at Expo 67 and which had been the topic of his Ph.D. studies. In 1968 ALCAN contributed $14,000 to the research, followed by another grant of $25,000 in 1969. Later in that year, armed with this extraordinary industry support in a Faculty just then moving into research, the writer submitted an application for a Negotiated Development Grant (NDG) to extend research on sandwich construction to the National Research Council (NRC), Canada’s research funding agency at the time; the funding office later branched off to what is now known as the Natural Science and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC), the federal funding agency for university research.

The first time the writer was exposed to the concept of Building Engineering was when he received the response to his application in 1970. Dr. Neil Hutcheon, the Director of the Division of Building Research (DBR) at the time, later renamed the Institute for Research in Construction (IRC), was one of the members of the review committee and commented that enough beams and panels had been twisted in Canada and what Canada needed was research and educational programs in Building Engineering. Dr. Hutcheon saw, through this application, the possibility of advancing research and education in Building Engineering in Canada and applied his knowledge and influence to make it happen. Dr. Michel Normandin, the Founding Director of the Centre de Recherche Industriel du Québec (CRIQ), was another member of that first committee and would continue to provide advice and support for the development of the research for decades to follow.

1 Paul Fazio, Ph.D., Eng (Que), P. Eng. (Ont), FCSCE, FASCE, Professor, Building Envelope Performance Laboratory, Centre for Building Studies, Department of Building, Civil and Environmental Engineering, Concordia University, 1455 de Maisonneuve Blvd. West, BE-370, Montreal, QC, H3G 1M8, Canada. Tel: (514) 848-3210, Fax: (514) 848-7965; E-mail address: [email protected]

NRC approved a grant of $40,000 to hire a consultant and establish an advisory board to help the writer define a research program in Building Engineering that would form the basis of a new NDG application. This grant generated the necessary activities to shift the mind set of the writer from panelized building structures and sandwich construction to Building Engineering. These activities provided the definition of the new discipline and its vetting from the key players in the building industry of the time.

In subsequent discussions with Dr. Hutcheon and follow-up comments of the review committee, the writer had Sir George Williams (SGW) University engage a consultant, Peter Manning, Dean of the School of Architecture at the Technical University of Nova Scotia, to carry out the study on the need and nature of Building Engineering in Canada. An advisory committee was established made up of members from universities, industry, and government to advise on the definition of a new proposal for a research program in Building Engineering. Although Dr. Hutcheon did not participate on this committee, he recommended his close associate Dr. G. Handegord. Another member of the committee was C. Davidson, Dean of the School of Architecture at the University of Montreal. The new proposal was submitted to NRC in 1974. A grant for $1.51 M over five years was approved in 1975 subject to Quebec approving an educational program in Building Engineering. The grant provided for the establishment of some 12 faculty and staff positions.

During the development of the research proposal and the study being carried out by the consultant, it was recognized that there was a uniform lack of educational programs in Canadian universities to educate professionals for careers in the building industry. Consequently, a special task force was struck in 1973 to evaluate different educational initiatives that could be undertaken to satisfy the industry needs. The task force included members from industry, government agencies, the engineering profession, and the University. Dr. Hutcheon accepted to serve on this committee. The task force concluded that an undergraduate program would best respond to industry needs. A proposal outlining the undergraduate program in Building Engineering was submitted to the provincial government in 1974. Since at the time the Province had declared a moratorium on the development of all new undergraduate programs in Quebec till 1978, it advised the university to submit another proposal for a Master’s program; a dossier was submitted in June 1975 and the Master’s program in Building Engineering was approved in 1975 along with some six faculty and staff positions.

Through Dr. Hutcheon NRC provided the leadership, which coupled with the initiative of the writer and with the commitment of the young Engineering Faculty (led by the forwarding looking Dean, Clair Callaghan) wanting to distinguish itself in a new field unthreaded by neighboring institutions, provided the thrust to realize a major innovation for the building industry and establish Building Engineering at Sir George Williams University (later merged with Loyola College and renamed Concordia University). The recommendations leading to these approvals, emanating from a group of people with representation from the architectural profession through Professors Collins and Manning as well as representation from research in building through Drs. Hutcheon and Handegord, gave credibility to the initiative of the writer who was just two years out of graduate school when the first application was submitted and to a young university whose Faculty of Engineering at the time was just getting into research activities.

One of the respondents to the advertisement for the external consultant was a new Ph.D. graduate in Construction Management from MIT by the name of Alan Russell. The writer was impressed with his keen intelligence and precision of diction. Alan was hired to work with the writer and the committees to prepare the various documents and proposals and he played a key role in the development of the programs.

The Masters program in Building Engineering was initiated within the Civil Engineering Department. To accelerate the establishment of Building Engineering at the undergraduate level before the moratorium on new programs was lifted by the province, Building Engineering was started as an option in Civil Engineering. The initial positions were filled by Dr. Mark Lang in acoustics and Mal Turaga in HVAC for the indoor environment area.

One of the concentrations of the first curricula in both the graduate and undergraduate programs was construction management, reflecting Alan’s background. At the time, construction management was considered as the soft side of the discipline and it became a challenge to have it recognized and funded

by the funding agencies. The writer later became involved in the promotion of research chairs in construction management through the Canadian Construction Research Board that advised NRC and the Canadian Industries Development Council that advised the Minister of Industry Science and Technology on matters relating to the construction industry. Gradually, concentrations in construction management developed at a number of universities across Canada and today it is a thriving community of scholars especially at UBC where it was established by Alan Russell after he moved there in 1982, at the universities of Alberta where the writer participated in the establishment of an industrial research chair, at Concordia, and at a number of other universities.

The funding approved by the federal and provincial governments was of major significance. By comparing the relative values of goods (cars, houses, and salaries) around that time with current values, a rough factor of 10 could be applied to translate those grants to a value today of 15 to 20 M dollars. These resources were significant and would double the size of the Department of Civil Engineering that the writer was chairing at the time (1972-1977).

Because of the large commitment represented by the grants, the University decided that it could best sustain the initiative as a new academic unit and research centre. Because of the many challenges anticipated in setting up this new unit the writer and his colleagues would have preferred to develop the programs within the Department of Civil Engineering. The university decided on the separate academic unit to provide a clear focus on the development of Building Engineering. Hence the Centre for Building Studies (CBS) was established by the Board of Governors of the University in 1976 with the writer as its founding Director and a mandate to develop and administer educational and research programs in Building Engineering. The writer along with the members already hired under the new grants plus two other faculty members from Civil Engineering (Professors Cedric Marsh and Kinh Ha) formed the core of the new Centre.

Some serious challenges faced the new Centre: first, it had to fill the positions in Building Engineering from a pool of expertise that did not exist in Canada and it was small on the world scene; second, it had to develop new labs and a new discipline; third, it had to develop a student clientele; and fourth, once the students graduated it had to introduce them to industry and inform the fragmented building industry of the nature and capacity of this new discipline and these new graduates.

The undergraduate option became a full fledged program when in 1981-2 the first graduate was accredited, thus providing accreditation of the program by the Canadian Accreditation Board.

Building Engineering had had some development in the UK after the war. The writer visited and surveyed the universities in the UK with programs in Building Engineering to learn about their programs, facilities, and potential candidates for positions. This effort did reap some success since the Centre acquired one faculty member from Heriot-Watt University in the area of acoustics and building science.

In 1976 the University received approval from Quebec to rent a complex of 50,000 sq ft of new space for the Centre, which was developed gradually and filled with some unique facilities that served the educational, research, and industry needs.

Faculty was developed from members of various disciplines that were prepared to accept the positions available in the Centre and work towards the objectives of the Centre. A number of graduates from the graduate programs stayed on to establish new areas. For example, Dr. Radu Zmeureanu stayed on after he received his Ph.D. to establish the area of energy analysis and conservation. Energy became the focus of national attention after the first crisis in 1973 and the CBS responded with the creation of the strongest university-based concentration of expertise in energy and the indoor environment. Several graduates started their career within the Centre but were soon attracted elsewhere. For example, Dr. Sam Mattar, who had been supervised by Dr. Manning and the writer and later coached by Dr. Hutcheon in the area of building science, left for the Alberta Government and later joined the UN where he took up a position as the vice rector of a university in a developing country.

Initially several adjunct professors were hired from industry and research establishments due to the limited number of available university-based candidates. For example, Dr. Hutcheon would commute from Ottawa and established the course in Building Science. Later he converted his lectures into the book entitled “Building Science for a Cold Climate” with his colleague Dr. Handegord; this book is still used as textbook in some of courses. Bill Dawson, the CEO of the only foreign company that had won a contract with the Housing and Urban Development agency in the US in the 1970’s introduced the CBS to the pilot project on computer aided design pioneered by Public Works Canada. He too would commute from Ottawa to teach courses in industrialized buildings. Tony Soda, president of Ascon construction in Windsor, Ontario would commute to Montreal to teach courses in project management and collaborate with Alan Russell. The CBS had caught the attention and interest of industry and government alike. They all pitched in to help. The CBS established an advisory board with leading members from industry to advise the Director on the direction of the CBS.

The development of faculty with expertise and commitment to the field of Building Engineering remained both a challenge and high priority since some of the faculty members that had committed to work in the area of Building Engineering, subsequently went back to their previous field of interest which remained their prerogative within the concept of academic freedom. Most professors acquire a Ph.D. in the field of their first degree and identify with their first professional degree. The writer advanced the concept of encouraging the top graduate from the undergraduate Building Engineering program to obtain a Ph.D. elsewhere; he then sought to attract them back on Faculty at the CBS. One faculty member (Dr. Hugues Rivard) was recruited through this approach. Later he left for another institution, ETS, where he is generating Building Engineering related activities. There is continuous need to scout, train, and engage new qualified expertise as existing professors move or retire.

The funding received through the NDG grant supported research for the first five years. Some apprehension developed as to what would happen after the five years. There were some that believed that the CBS would wind down after the NDG funds were exhausted. Instead, in the early 80’s the CBS succeeded to secure a major grant from the provincial government and, except for some interruption in the 80’s, maintained it till the middle of the 90’s when the writer stepped down as its Director. Efforts by the current Director, Dr. Radu Zmeureanu, have proven successful in regrouping a large number of participants across Quebec in search for continued recognition and funding. In another provincial competition in the 1980’s the CBS was successful in securing, after three attempts, an “Actions structurantes” program that provided the Centre with two additional faculty positions in the area of the indoor environment. The Centre continued to be successful that at one point it received the highest per capita grants in all of the University.

Policies were developed for the CBS to respond promptly to special needs of the industry. Because of the uncertainty of funding and the large number of researchers and staff on soft funding, a trust fund was initiated to cover shortfalls in external funding. The sum grew to a point where part of the fund was used to cover the deficit of other researchers in the rest of the university.

One of the recommendations of Dr. Peter Manning in his initial report was the establishing of a development wing that would serve to expose students and professors to practice the same way that is done in the medical field. In the 1980’s, under the Quebec program of Virage technologique designed to support initiatives in special sectors of the economy, the writer succeeded to secure a grant of 2.2 M $ to establish a non-profit corporation for the application of new technologies to the building industries. Over the next 15 years top graduates from the Building Engineering program would intern at SIRICON and later take positions as building engineers. It had been observed that the industry needed to be better informed and conditioned to what a building engineer was capable of doing. For example companies and governments would advertise for civil or mechanical engineers for jobs that were definitely Building Engineering. SIRICON served as a training ground for many students and graduates who would later take Building Engineering positions in government and in industry. Technologies developed at SIRICON changed the design of the building envelope in Quebec for example and are much in use to this day. SIRICON resources made major investments in computer technology and for a while provided computer facilities for the CBS thus enabling its faculty and staff to stay at the forefront of this new technology. It

provided some scholarships to top graduates to get a Ph.D. in Architectural in the U.S. and then return to the CBS.

In the 1990s significant cuts were imposed by the government on the university system in Quebec. Many programs were reviewed and either closed or merged. The writer was mandated by the Vice Rector in 1995 to merge the two academic units, the CBS and the Department of Civil Engineering, with the proviso that the integrity of the CBS would be maintained. From this exercise a new academic unit emerged named School for Building with the vision of creating a major Centre for education and research in building in North America while still having a thriving Civil and Environmental Engineering program in the School. While administrative changes that followed renamed the unit Department of Building, Civil and Environmental Engineering, the future of Building Engineering is very positive and indicators point to a strong case for the development in Canada of a major thrust in the growth of this discipline in the decade ahead.

CURRICULUM, STRUCTURE AND CONTENT

Since the 1980’s Building Engineering at Concordia has been taught at the Bachelor, Masters, and Ph.D. levels (Fig. 1). Certificates were added later. A typical outline of the structure and curriculum is show in accompanying figures. At the Bachelor level, students in higher standing can opt for the co-op program with which they can complement their studies with work experience. The undergraduate program (Fig. 2) is distinct from other engineering curricula and is accredited by the Canadian Accreditation Board the same way as the other programs in Civil, Mechanical, etc. The shaded areas in Figure 2 represent courses specific to Building Engineering, while the other courses are common to other engineering disciplines as well. Elective courses can be chosen from another list of courses, half of which are specific to Building Engineering.

Building Engineering Programs

Undergraduate Master Doctoral Certificates Program Programs Program

Building M.A.Sc., Ph.D., Building Building Building Co-Op •Building Science M.Eng., • Building Envelope Building • Construction Management • Energy Efficiency • Indoor Environment • Facility Management Figure 1. Building Engineering programs

Y1A Y1B Y2A Y2B Ordinary Differential Advanced Calculus Vector Calc. & Partial Numerical Methods Equations D.E Statics Dynamics Building Science Lighting & Acoustics Bldg Eng. Drawing Mechanics of Materials Principles of Electrical Engineering Materials Engineering Computer Applications Programming for B & C Structural Analysis I Structural Analysis II in B Eng. Eng. 1 Technical Writing Thermodynamics I Fluid Mechanics Building Eng. Systems

Surveying Y3A Y3B Y4A Y4B Probability and Building Service HVAC System Design Architectural Statistics in Eng. Systems Appreciation and Design Building Economics Computer-Aided Building Envelope Construction Eng. Building Design Design Soil Mechanics Engineering Law Capstone Building Eng. Capstone Building Design Project Eng. Design Project Thermal Analysis of Structural Design II Elective Elective Buildings Structural Design I Impact of Technology Elective Elective on Society

Elective Courses o Programming for Bldg. and Civil o Modern Building Materials Engineers II o Fire and Smoke Control in Buildings o Matrix Analysis of Structures o Building Energy Conservation Technologies o Introduction to Structural Dynamics o Building Acoustics o Building Illumination Indoor Air Quality o Project Management for Construction o Control Systems in Buildings o Foundation Design o Legal Issues in Construction o Design of Reinforced Concrete Structures o Labor and Industrial Relations in Construction o Design of Steel Structures o Construction Processes o Topics in Building Engineering

Figure 2. Undergraduate curriculum in Building Engineering

Areas of concentration for graduate studies (Fig. 3) are available in Building Science and the Building Envelope, Construction Management, Energy Efficiency, Indoor Environment, Integrative Studies for Building Engineering, and Facility Management. Candidates can pursue Certificates, Masters, and Ph.D. Certificates, consisting of 5 courses at the graduate level, were added to accommodate the needs of the working professionals who could not commit the time required to complete a full Masters. The work completed for the certificates however could be counted towards the Masters if the candidate later decided to continue his/her studies. At the Masters level students can pursue a research thesis (MASc) or mainly course work (MEng). The Ph.D. is research oriented, but it is possible for students to complete it on a part-time basis while working. Research areas and unique facilities were developed over the last three decades in support of the educational programs (Fig. 4).

The success of the program so far is reflected in the current enrolment: close to 200 in the Bachelor program, over 100 at the Masters level approximately 50 in the Ph.D. Success can also be measured by the large number of graduates practicing Building Engineers in industry and in government and by their positive testimonials about the education and training their received. Several companies, especially those involved in building diagnostics, have expanded their services in building science and in Building Engineering.

Graduate Degrees & Courses available in several research areas Certificates INTEGRATIVE STUDIES FOR MASTERS in Building Eng. Applications of Artificial Intelligen • M.A.Sc. Computer-STRUCTURALAided Building ENGINEERING Operat • M.Eng. Heat StructuralTransfer (**) Systems for Buildings BuildingWind Economics CONSTRUCTIONEngineering I (**) and Building MANAGEMENT Project Management CERTIFICATES in Building Aerodynamics Construction Planning and Control Decision Analysis Engineering Advanced Labour BUILDINGReinforced and Industrial ENVIRONMENTConcrete Relations in C Pre-cast and Pre-stressed Legal Building issues inEnvironment Construction • Building Science Concrete Structures Construction Mechanical Processes Systems in Building • Building Envelope Design of IndustrialENERGY Structures CONVERSION Project Building Cost Estimating Acoustics • Construction Project Building AcquisitionPrinciples Illumination and of SolarControl Engineering Management Building HVAC Economics Equipment ControlBUILDING Systems II Design SCIENCE for Solar • Energy Efficiency IndoorEnergy Air QualityBuilding Conversion and Enclosure • Indoor Environment Vtilti PassiveBuilding Solar ScienceHeating • Facility Management Solar ModernEnergy BuildingMaterials Materials DOCTORATE: ScienceIndustrialized Building • Ph.D., Building Studies Fire and Smoke Control in Buildings Figure 3. Curriculum: Graduate studies in Building Engineering

Building engineers are trained in the latest building technologies that have a broad application to building design, construction, and operation and they can bring state of the art knowledge to the design process. New technologies need to be integrated in a holistic approach in the design of the building. Structures, envelope, services, mechanical systems etc. are often implemented as independent components, yet they must work together. Some of these disciplines are more advanced than others and performance will be determined by the lowest performer. For example, the envelope accounts for 20% of the building cost, which is the same as the cost of the structure, but accounts for 50% of the failures. Scenarios for performance and safety must be anticipated and designed for at the design stage and flaws that would lead to failures eradicated.

Building Engineering Performance of the Building Envelope and Materials: 11Building Envelope Performance Building Envelope Diagnostic Rain Penetration Building Environment: Indoor Air Quality and Ventilation Wind Effects on Buildings: Building Aerodynamics Weather Station Building Materials Acoustics & Lighting Building Structures Computer-Aided Engineering Construction Engineering and Management Energy Conservation Thermal Environment and HVAC Control Figure 4. Research Areas

The life cycle of a building can be divided into four phases: design, construction, operation, and disposal. Decisions made at the design stage have high influence on the life cycle cost (LCC) of the building, while decisions made later at the construction stage have low influence on the LCC. Hence, the design stage is the shortest of the three, but it has the greatest influence on the expenditures of the subsequent phases of the building. Expenditures are low at the design stage and high at the construction stage. The variation at the construction stage varies according to the quality of design. For example, the less defined the design, the greater the variations in construction cost due to change orders and modifications on site. Similarly, low consideration given to features related to the maintenance and operation of the building will result in large variation in operating efficiency and therefore costs in the maintenance and operation of the building. In fact, the operation of the building can exceed its initial capital cost. Hence, decisions at the conceptual stage, which is at the initial part of design stage, must be technically and economically sound - a compelling case to involve the building engineer from the very beginning of the building process in order to ensure good technical and economical performance of the building.

CONCLUDING REMARKS

The knowledge related to the design, construction, operation, and disposal of buildings has traditionally been treated in different disciplines. For example: structures in Civil; HVAC in Mechanical; lighting in Electrical; acoustics in Physics; materials and MVOCs in Chemistry. Consequently, it is difficult to find professionals that can look at the building in a holistic manner to ensure maximum harmony (compatibility) between subsystems to achieve high performance (comfort) at low initial and operation (energy) cost. The absence of professionals with an appropriate integrated body of knowledge in the building process also leads to building failures, or to wrong diagnostics.

Investigations are often driven by the narrow expertise of the specialists and problems are often wrongly diagnosed. For example, mycologists called in to investigate suspected presence of mold are sometimes asked to make recommendations on how to fix the building envelope.

Respective fields of operation must be rationalized. The design of the technical aspects of the building falls within the competence of the engineer. The building envelope, for example, is a technical component, but it is also a medium to give character to the building which is strictly the province of the architect. The creation of the architect is best preserved and long lasting if supported by sound technical design of the envelope. Hence it is to the advantage of the architectural profession to integrate the building engineer and to foster schools of Building Engineering. It is accepted practice to have a mechanical engineer design a mechanical system for a building. It would be even more advantageous if that engineer had the knowledge of the thermal performance of the building envelope, of air movement, materials gassing off, controls, and of indoor air quality to provide a holistic indoor environment for comfort and efficiency. This type of integrated knowledge base can be provided by the building engineer.

RECOMMENDATIONS

1. Establish similar educational programs across Canada. If it makes sense to have over 35 programs in Civil Engineering to address the need of the heavy construction, it also makes sense to have a few programs in Building Engineering that address 60% of the construction industry. 2. There is a need for collaboration and coordination of Building Engineering activities across the country. Establish a national advisory council on Building Engineering. 3. Open a dialogue with government departments that have a need for building engineers and have them include building engineers in their ads. Industry and government should advertise for and hire building engineers for Building Engineering work. Increase demand for education by hiring building engineers for Building Engineering work. 4. Establish a Building Engineering Society that fosters the interests of building engineers and Building Engineering. 5. Provincial Orders and Associations should list Building Engineering as one of their discipline along with Civil, Mechanical, etc.

6. Avoid proliferation of names and stick to the title of Building Engineering. 7. Provide funding to get researchers from IRC to teach courses in Building Engineering programs. 8. Use Building Engineering to implement the Kyoto protocol on a national basis and in major building projects such as the mega hospitals that are at the planning stage now. 9. R&D can be increased with industry participation in establishing research chairs. 10. Have a graduate student work on your research needs. 11. IRC, previously the Building Research Division, was the research institute that helped in establishing Building Engineering in Canada. It and other government agencies are in the privileged position to animate new initiatives across the country to respond to new trends. 12. Increase and harmonize the community of peers.