Building Science METU Middle East Technical University

Overview

Key features

The aim of the Building Science degree from METU Middle East Technical University is to establish an interface between the systematic findings of ‘science’ and the creative aspirations of architecture by instilling a grasp of how the former looks at the same world in which the latter performs. A highly worthwhile endeavor in view of the fact that architecture is essentially a net ‘borrower’ of knowledge from the annals of science: Some from  the physical sciences (e.g., mechanics, optics, thermodynamics, acoustics, electricity, geology, geography, meteorology, hydrology, astronomy, et al.); some from the social, behavioral and administrative sciences (e.g., psychology, sociology, anthropology, history, economics, management, et al.) and others yet from the life- sciences (e.g., plant and animal ecology, environment management, hygiene, pollution control and containment, sewage treatment, et al.). 

However, a great deal of controversy arises when ‘science’, delving  into ever-broadening domains that increasingly encroach on those of architecture, ever more frequently makes disturbing and high-handed proclamations about what architecture should and should not do, with practically  no idea about the technical, temporal and/or financial complications which these would entail if carried out as demanded. 

Needed, therefore, is a kind of ‘half-and-half’ professional: One with a background to a lesser or greater extent involved with the built environment, who is at the same time well-versed in the outlooks, approaches, motivations and methodologies of the scientist; one who, by way of being conversant in both languages, can carry the concerns of one to the other so they converge on some common ground. Put in a nutshell, this, then, is the job cut out for our graduates.