With a specialisation in Audio & Acoustics, this program allows you to extend your sustainability expertise into the growing area of acoustic design. With this knowledge, you can differentiate yourself as a graduate and can choose from a range of career pathways include architecture, property development, construction or urban planning, audio and acoustic design.

With extensive experience analysing and controlling the physical phenomena affecting buildings, practitioners of Architectural Science have a profound impact on the function, aesthetics and efficiency of architectural spaces.

Architectural Science courses can be taken as single or double streams. In the double stream program, the core units from the secondary degree are taken as the electives in the primary degree. The double stream program is completed as 96 credit points over two years, allowing you to draw expertise from an aligned Architectural Science stream and prepare to pursue or develop your career within a wide range of areas in the built environment.

PRIMARY STREAM

Sustainable design involves an approach to creating buildings that meets the world’s need to reduce our impact on ecological systems. The built environment professions—including architects, engineers, urban designers and planners—are increasingly held responsible for the performance of their designs and projects, including accordance with promised environmental principles. Sustainable design skills are highly demanded by the construction and design industries, environmental consultancies, government agencies and in the day-to-day operation and management of commercial buildings. This program is tailored for design and related built-environment professionals who wish to improve their knowledge and skills in sustainable design.

Our integrated approach to Sustainable Design provides you with the knowledge you need to address sustainability considerations without compromising building functionality or profitability. You will combine the aesthetic approaches to design with a thorough understanding of energy efficiency, analysis and performance metrics. You will be exposed to ratings systems, myriad testing methods and will come to understand energy and resource use from ecological, economic and governance perspectives, as well as the storage and release of energy and how to design for both performance and comfort.

SECONDARY STREAM

The Audio and Acoustics program is unique in Australia and one of only a few comparable programs in the world. The program offers a balance of studio-based production subjects and theoretical and investigative subjects in acoustics and technical audio. It will suit candidates with an academic and/or professional track record in audio and related areas who wish to extend the breadth and depth of their expertise—this includes audio engineers, architects, interior designers, sustainable designers and musicians.

The program is supported by two audio studios and one of Australia's best acoustics facilities. The Acoustics Research Laboratory houses an anechoic room and reverberant room, and contains extensive state-of-the-art equipment for measurement and analysis including the only indoor environmental quality laboratory in the southern hemisphere. The audio studios consist of a recording studio and a 5.1 channel production studio. You will also be exposed to world-class research activity and have the opportunity to do research projects on your own.

The course will provide building design professionals and allied para-professionals further knowledge and skills in the area of sustainable design. The knowledge and skills developed would be relevant to: urban planners in achieving sustainable development or sustainable cities; sustainable architects in order to reduce the collective environmental impacts during the production of building components, the construction process, or the lifecycle of the building; and those employed in design-related roles in the public sector or in a consultancy that specialises in public and non-profit client work. The secondary stream could lead to a number of vocational opportunities. Graduates work in fields including audio production, sound design, audio systems design, acoustical consulting, and research and development of audio and acoustics products. Some graduates have used the degree as the foundation for a research degree in audio and acoustics.