Unit Synopsis
This unit provides a direct focus on spatial design theories and assessment tasks incorporating relevant spatial design activities. This will enable the development of independent thinking to inform the creative design skills that are essential to the building design profession. Theories of Environmental Perception, Environmental Psychology and Environment Behaviour Studies (EBS) are included in some depth; as are matters of human comfort and spatial design to facilitate climatic design strategies. Spatial design for effective circulation, disabled access and emergency egress is also covered. Teamwork is included to enable the exercise of critical judgement in collaborative team activities. You will develop initiative and accept responsibility in your creative design role tasks to address these spatial needs in residential, community, commercial and industrial buildings.
Details
| Level | Undergraduate |
|---|---|
| Unit Level | 3 |
| Credit Points | 6 |
| Student Contribution Band | SCA Band 2 |
| Fraction of Full-Time Student Load | 0.125 |
| Pre-requisites or Co-requisites |
Prerequisites: BLAR11045 and BLAR12036
Important note: Students enrolled in a subsequent unit who failed their pre-requisite unit, should drop the subsequent unit before the census date or within 10 working days of Fail grade notification. Students who do not drop the unit in this timeframe cannot later drop the unit without academic and financial liability. See details in the Assessment Policy and Procedure (Higher Education Coursework). |
| Class Timetable | View Unit Timetable |
| Residential School | No Residential School |
Unit Availabilities from Term 1 - 2026
Term 3 - 2026 Profile
Attendance Requirements
All on-campus students are expected to attend scheduled classes - in some units, these classes are identified as a mandatory (pass/fail) component and attendance is compulsory. International students, on a student visa, must maintain a full time study load and meet both attendance and academic progress requirements in each study period (satisfactory attendance for International students is defined as maintaining at least an 80% attendance record).
Recommended Student Time Commitment
Each 6-credit Undergraduate unit at CQUniversity requires an overall time commitment of an average of 12.5 hours of study per week, making a total of 150 hours for the unit.
Assessment Tasks
| Assessment Task | Weighting |
|---|---|
| 1. Presentation and Written Assessment | 30% |
| 2. Presentation and Written Assessment | 30% |
| 3. Presentation and Written Assessment | 40% |
This is a graded unit: your overall grade will be calculated from the marks or grades for each assessment task, based on the relative weightings shown in the table above. You must obtain an overall mark for the unit of at least 50%, or an overall grade of ‘pass’ in order to pass the unit. If any ‘pass/fail’ tasks are shown in the table above they must also be completed successfully (‘pass’ grade). You must also meet any minimum mark requirements specified for a particular assessment task, as detailed in the ‘assessment task’ section (note that in some instances, the minimum mark for a task may be greater than 50%).
Past Exams
All University policies are available on the Policy web site, however you may wish to directly view the following policies below.
This list is not an exhaustive list of all University policies. The full list of policies are available on the Policy web site .
Term 3 - 2024 : The overall satisfaction for students in the last offering of this course was 75.00% (`Agree` and `Strongly Agree` responses), based on a 40% response rate.
Feedback, Recommendations and Responses
Every unit is reviewed for enhancement each year. At the most recent review, the following staff and student feedback items were identified and recommendations were made.
Source: The lecturer's conversations with students in online Zoom sessions
Students found case studies of community center buildings provided in the Moodle to be useful in completing Assessment 3.
The teaching team ensures that they provide case study buildings for students to support their creative design processes.
In 2024 offering, a Zoom session was dedicated to review case studies of community centers.
Source: Student Unit and Teaching Evaluation Survey
There was a suggestion that the teamwork component is Assessment 2 to be replaced with an emphasis on participation in the online design critique sessions of online forums.
Review the strategies to further support online design critiques and peer-to-peer feedback on design tasks.
In Progress
Source: Student Unit and Teaching Evaluation Survey
There was a comment about the lecturer being insightful and offering interesting discussion making students to contemplate each new public space they enter.
Continue to engage students in discussion about emerging studies and research in Human-Environment relationships.
In Progress
On successful completion of this unit, you will be able to:
- Integrate concepts of environmental perception, environmental psychology and Environment Behaviour Studies (EBS) in spatial design
- Assess human comfort needs and apply relevant design solutions for climatic conditions
- Evaluate circulation patterns within proposed spatial designs including disabled access and emergency egress
- Modify spatial design proposals for diverse cultural needs
- Analyse spatial needs and propose appropriate design solutions for large and complex buildings
- Participate effectively in team activities.
| Assessment Tasks | Learning Outcomes | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | |
| 1 - Presentation and Written Assessment | • | • | • | |||
| 2 - Presentation and Written Assessment | • | • | • | • | • | |
| 3 - Presentation and Written Assessment | • | • | • | • | • | |
| Graduate Attributes | Learning Outcomes | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | |
| 1 - Communication | • | • | • | • | • | • |
| 2 - Problem Solving | • | • | • | • | • | • |
| 3 - Critical Thinking | • | • | • | • | • | • |
| 4 - Information Literacy | • | • | • | • | • | • |
| 5 - Team Work | • | |||||
| 6 - Information Technology Competence | • | • | • | • | • | • |
| 7 - Cross Cultural Competence | • | • | ||||
| 8 - Ethical practice | • | • | ||||
| Assessment Tasks | Graduate Attributes | ||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 10 | |
| 1 - Presentation and Written Assessment | • | • | • | • | • | • | |||||
| 2 - Presentation and Written Assessment | • | • | • | • | • | • | • | ||||
| 3 - Presentation and Written Assessment | • | • | • | • | • | • | • | ||||