Brief historic overview: houses in Norway. Water installations, drainage/waste, heating, indoors climate, ventilation. Moisture mechanics, vapour, humidity, sound regulation, fire protection. Building materials: wood and wood-based, metals, glass, plastics, concrete. Constructions, foundations, basement walls, stories separators, walls, roof constructions, etc.

The course should give the students a basic understanding of: the building of residences and other simple constructions, building physics (with focus on heat and moisture movements), properties of building materials, indoor climate and ventilation, requirements for fire resistance and sound regulation in buildings, choice of materials and constructions for fulfilling various requirements.

Lectures. Seminars/discussion groups with teacher present. Independent work with exercises. Self-study.

Textbook: Trehus, Håndbok 5, SINTEF Byggforsk. Latest edition(!) and additional material to be distributed during lectures.

Exercises and excursion. Exercises should be delivered for approval one week before the examination at the latest.

For a course of 10 credits, 250 hours of work in total is normally to be expected. That means that in addition to structured teaching, about 15 hours of work must be expected per week.

Minimum requirements for entrance to higher education in Norway (generell studiekompetanse)

Lectures: 52 hours. Exercises: 26 hours. Excursion takes place in lecture hours.

The external and internal examiner jointly prepare the exam questions and the correction manual. The external examiner participate in examination.