Intro to Engineering and Architecture

This one-year elective class is the first in a series of classes designed to prepare high school students for a career in the Architecture, Engineering, or Design fields. Students learn to communicate their design ideas by sketching and using computer Assisted Drafting (CAD) software such as AutoCAD and SketchUP.

Architecture Design 1A/1B

(Prerequisite: Intro to Engineering and Architecture 1A/1B or Interior Design 1A)

This course meets the UC/CSU “a-g” Fine arts requirement.

This second year elective class, students will design 2 homes to particular styles of architecture. Students will learn to utilize bubble diagrams, create elevation “block-outs”, create professional-looking hand renderings (using technical pens and markers), and to use Revit Architecture software to create the drawings for the buildings. Students will create: Site Plans, Floor Plans, Presentation plans, Electrical Plans, Expanded Floor Plans, Interior Elevations, Building sections, Wall sections, Details, Schedules, 3D views, and Computer Renderings of their buildings.

Architecture Design 2A/2B

(Prerequisite: Green Building Design 1A/1B)

In this fourth year elective class, students will learn Revit MEP software, expand their knowledge of EnergyPro software, and utilize Visual Lighting software to produce energy efficient buildings. The focus of the class will be the Mechanical, Electrical, and Plumbing “MEP” systems of the building. Students will design (in 3D) the air conditioning systems complete with ductwork, supply, return and exhaust diffusers, leveraging EnergyPro to get the loads of the building zones. Students will design energy efficient lighting (in 3D), leveraging Visual Lighting software, EnergyPro Energy Modeling software, and Revit MEP. Students will design plumbing plans to include waste piping, hot/cold water piping, and vent piping (all in 3D). Students will use Navisworks software to do basic collision detection between the MEP elements and between the building’s structural elements.

Interior Design 1A

In this one-semester elective class, students will be introduced to Revit Architecture software. Revit Architecture software is relatively new to the architecture field and very “in-demand” by architecture firms. Utilizing Revit Architecture will allow students to more efficiently design building interiors and extract critical data utilized in cost analysis. Students will produce a set of construction documents related to the interior elements of a residence such as: Interior Elevations, Expanded Floor Plans, Floor Finish Plans, Furniture Plans, Schedules, Specification Sheets, Ceiling Plans, 3D views, as well as produce “Material Boards” to show physical sample of the materials used in the building.

Green Building Design 1A/1B

(Prerequisite: Architecture Design 1A/1B)

In this third year elective class, students will design two buildings: one residential and one commercial. Students will use Revit Architecture and EnergyPro (energy modeling) software to efficiently design “Green Buildings”. Green Building (also called “Sustainable Design”) is a way of designing and building structures that allows people to be more responsible with energy and natural resources. Humans are simply consuming more resources than we can sustain over time. Buildings are the biggest culprit, and must be designed differently than in the past. Santiago students will learn the US Green Building Council’s (USGBC) “LEED Standards” and apply them to their building. The class text is Green Building Design and Construction 2009 edition, the same manual used by architecture firms to get their buildings “LEED Certified”. On the commercial building, Santiago students will utilize a process called “Worksharing/Central Files”, allowing student teams to work on the same file at the same time: producing their building more quickly and in the same way it is done in a progressive architecture firm using Revit Architecture..