The MPRINCE - Master in Integrated Design in Building Construction, is a postgraduate course with a duration of 2 Years/4 semesters (120 ECTS), essentially directed at students already graduated - and, even, professional activity - in the areas of Civil Engineering and Architecture, which aims to recreate, within the framework of a specialized academic training, the most efficient model of multidisciplinary development of building projects, referred as IPD Integrated Project Delivery.

Using a case study as a basis, students, organized in working groups, always with engineers and architects, will explore the knowledge and skills essential in the various relevant areas of building design – thermal and acoustic behaviour, building facilities, construction technologies, fire safety, sustainability, BIM, management of project, construction works and building – which will be aggregated and catalysed in an Integrated Design work in which the various professional perspectives and regulatory and technological constraints will have to be balanced and coordinated in order to respond to a challenge proposed by a real customer.

Among the several industrial activities, the Construction Industry is probably the one where, to obtain a final product, the number of expertise and technical components to be involved is the largest, with input from a wide number of professionals covering an extensive scope of scientific areas in the fields of engineering and architecture. Also, the fact that the products of this industry – in particular buildings – are expected to last for several decades, leads to the need of an increased attention and concern about how they are materialized.

This is reflected by the increasing number of connections and interrelations of all involved matters and their impact in the built environment, often translated in related codes that need to be complied with. Therefore, awareness of the essence and application of the diverse expertise linked in a global construction project is fundamental, as well as the skills and competences needed to contribute for an effective management of those with the aim of conceiving, designing and building sustainable constructions.

MPRINCE aims to be a space where the distance between the views of architecture and engineering, still recurrent in the professional environment, will fade leading its students to understand the greatest efficiency, transversal to all expertise, which results from an integrated approach of the processes that go through the stages of inception, design, construction and use, obtaining the skills and tools necessary to achieve this goal.

Taking into account that some of MPRINCE students may want to follow the course in parallel with their professional activity, the timetable will concentrate on one part of the day, morning or afternoon.

The language for the course will be English or Portuguese, in this last case if all students speak Portuguese.

After a successful completion of the 2-year programme (120 ECTS), the student will achieve the Diploma of Master in Integrated Building Design and Construction. 

The MPRINCE MSc in Integrated Building Design and Construction, developed by the Faculty of Engineering of the University of Porto with the collaboration of the Faculty of Architecture of the University of Porto, offers an opportunity for training under the operational and methodological domains of Integrated Design and Construction. In addition to the theoretical and applied knowledge in the diverse scientific and technological areas required for the development of building projects, it also will provide the tools needed to ensure that the objectives, constraints and specifics of the different expertise may be developed under a logical, coordinated and efficient way.

This programme will provide to all of its students an integrated view of areas of Civil Engineering and Architecture, in particular:

Management of Construction Design and Works, Building Physics and Technologies, ITC in Construction, Sustainability in Construction.

The MPRINCE MSc in Integrated Building Design and Construction will provide further training and competences beyond the ones offered by the degree of MSc in Civil Engineering. At the end of this programme, the students will have acquired skills and competences that will allow them to have a global and integrated vision of the Civil Engineering and Architecture professional areas and of the conceptual and technical components that the development of a construction project involves, in both areas of civil engineering and architecture.

Thus, they will be able to coordinate multi-disciplinary project teams, participating through supported decision-making processes, therefore being possible to respond more effectively to all performance requirements of construction, ensuring the search and achievement of more sustainable, integrated and coherent solutions.

Participation, Coordination and Management of Multi-Expertise Design and Construction Teams.