Preface:

Year 2 undergraduate students in the Sustainable Infrastructure Engineering (Building Services) programme at the Singapore Institute of Technology (SIT) embarked on a learning journey of a module titled BIM for Mechanical, Electrical, and Plumbing Design Studio. The module aimed to educate the students on solving complex MEP design problems and enhancing self-learning skills by providing resources for independent learning. Students were required to justify their designs using criteria such as functionality, safety, buildability, maintainability, cost efficiency, environmental sustainability, and compliance with Singapore codes and standards. The design studio module’s learning journey was designed to achieve the stated education goal in an attempt to contribute to the students’ readiness for their forthcoming 8-month industry attachment called the Integrated Work Study Programme (IWSP).

To effectively justify their designs within these criteria and determine whether their designs have the potential to deliver value to building occupants and the environment, the module instructor created a learning journey driven by intellectual curiosity. Facilitated by the module instructor, this intellectual curiosity required students to engage in asking questions that guided the thinking and learning necessary to generate experience (knowledge, understanding, and skills) to inform appropriate design decisions. Making informed design decisions and being conscious of the thought process would make it easier for students to justify the decisions made. It would also help them appreciate feedback from the module instructor and effectively improve their design based on the feedback and their new thinking initiated by the feedback.

The autonomy given to the students to make their own design decisions and take responsibility for the decisions necessitated an improvement in their depth of experience with MEP systems in buildings, especially high-rise buildings, in Singapore. This experience would enhance the quality of the questions that set the students’ intellectual curiosity in motion. Improving the quality of questions asked is important, but without direction, the quality of the questions would diminish over time. Abstract reasoning is needed to provide this direction. Abstract reasoning involves mentally interacting with concepts that cannot be physically touched and perceiving connections between these concepts. The module instructor emphasised to the students the importance of abstract reasoning in the module learning journey.

The design studio module’s learning journey featured four milestones known as continuous assessments (CAs). There are four CAs in the module’s learning journey. In CA1, each student’s hand-drawn sketches of design ideas, attendance in the design studio, and professionalism displayed in the studio were assessed. In CA2, a non-fictional story report written by a group of students was assessed. In CA3, each student’s oral presentation of the produced design with justifications was assessed. In CA4, each student’s design drawing with justifications was assessed.

This paper focuses on the CA2 milestone of the design module’s learning journey. It presents a non-fictional story of the learning journey of a group of seven students within the CA2 milestone. The learning journey required students to interview industry professionals to gain insights that could answer the overarching question of the design studio module’s learning journey: “What does it take to design, construct, and manage MEP systems of a high-rise building in Singapore?”

The goal of the assignment was to enhance students’ thinking processes, with the additional benefit of learning more concepts to effectively address the problems involved in designing MEP systems that provide value to high-rise building occupants. Samples of students’ reflections on how the designed learning journey for this module has enhanced their intellectual capabilities can be found in the appendix section of this paper. This paper is made publicly available to allow readers to engage in a learning journey that can help them generate knowledge and understanding, empowering them to improve educational and industry practices in their own capacity. 

Keywords: Design; Storytelling; Learning journey; Critical and reflective thinking; Abstract reasoning; Problem solving

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Cite as: “Koh KLK, Lim Z, Liaw YQ, Abdul Wahid MK, Liew SHW, Tam SMY, and Fadeyi MO (2024). Learning journey on the intricate world of mechanical, electrical, and plumbing systems in a high-rise building. Teaching and Learning Case Studies #07. ISSUU Digital Publishing.”