This is your go-to source for free AIA-approved continuing education for architects. Plus, almost all our courses are delivered in streaming HD video. Registration is fast and easy, just click on Login/Register above. Then, you can enroll in any of our courses found in any of our programs with a single click. Our courses meet or exceed NCARB's high standards for state board license renewal. AIA member? Your credit will be reported to AIA for you.
Neuroarchitecture is a design discipline that seeks to incorporate neuroscience into design to augment the built environment’s positive influence on the emotional and physical health of people.
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Designing with green roofs affords design professionals opportunities to plan projects with exciting new elements, added value, and significant, tangible benefits, thereby enhancing the built environment with newly-created landscapes. This course examines green roof systems, including the types, benefits, components, and related standards. It also reviews a number of installations that demonstrate these principles.
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Program: Landscape Environmental Design
This course will describe the replica Green Wall Trend, that is the use of biomimicry in artificial plants in interior and exterior green wall systems. The trend toward biomimicry is driven by low cost, low maintenance, very high quality plant substitutes, and no water, light, power or HVAC resource requirements. Yet, Replica installations provide the same aesthetic and evoke the same desirable biophilic responses as live plants.
HSW Justification:
Replica Green Walls have all the biophilic benefits of green walls, such as promoting healing, reducing anxiety, and attenuating noise. Replica green wall spaces are especially conducive to gathering and can foster community, encourage group meeting and communication, and promote human interaction. In addition, they have added sustainability benefits by eliminating regular maintenance, the need for water for irrigation, or the need for electrical energy for light, or the need for electrical and/or natural gas for heating or cooling.
Learning Objective 1:
Students will be able to define a Replica Green Wall and describe its benefits and advantages
Learning Objective 2:
Students will be able to identify and describe the quality indicators in a green wall, including the types of systems available, the types of foliage available, and the areas of research and development underway.
Learning Objective 3:
Students will be able to describe appropriate applications for a replica green wall.
Learning Objective 4:
Students will be able to list in detail the various methods of installation.
Note: The Continuing Architect is permitting the brand name of this product to be mentioned because it was the only product of its type and is patent pending.
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This course will cover introductory level descriptions of various sectional door styles and how they impact energy efficiency, maximize ambient light, add to design aesthetics. Additionally, applicable varieties of industrial doors will also be included.
HSW Justification: Understanding upward acting door and safety device specification and installation contribute to health, safety and welfare of building occupants, including infants, children and the elderly, by helping avoid entrapment, injury, or exposure to exhaust gasses. Additionally, proper installation helps assure comfort control, energy efficiency and better design aesthetics.
Learning Objective 1: Students will be able to recognize and differentiate various types of sectional and industrial doors, with a focus on selecting door types that enhance occupant safety, support energy efficiency, and improve building design aesthetics for a healthier environment.
Learning Objective 2: Students will learn to specify upward-acting doors, prioritizing occupant health and safety by understanding how door selection impacts injury prevention, exhaust gas exposure, and energy conservation, while also enhancing natural light and aesthetic integration.
Learning Objective 3: Students will gain skills in assessing mounting conditions, headroom and side room requirements, and types of lifts and operators, with particular attention to how these considerations affect safety, mechanical reliability, and occupant welfare.
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NFPA 70, the national electrical code details 2 different types of Emergency Lighting Control Devices—devices that guarantee that life safety lighting will be on at desired illumination levels in the event of an emergency. This course will help mitigate the confusion regarding the specification of these devices and understand their applications in the real world.
Prerequisite Knowledge: Knowledge of life safety systems, particularly a high-level understanding of the purpose of emergency lighting inverters and generators. In particular, ISO-1001/ISO-1002 would be a perfect lead into this course.
HSW Justification: This deals with life safety, the safe egress, and illumination of buildings in the event of an emergency.
Learning Objective 1: Understand the background technology where ALCR and BCELTS devices need to be deployed.
Learning Objective 2: Learn the difference between the technologies and reviews how they sit within one-line diagrams.
Learning Objective 3: Understand some of the real world tradeoffs between the device types as it relates to wiring, proximity and ease of testing.
Learning Objective 4: Understand the integration of lighting controls with the different types of ELCDs and review some tricks for how to reduce costs in systems.
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This article explores some of the latest products and solutions improving the air quality, thermal comfort, electric light, and daylight control that can be incorporated into a project. Each improves the wellness of the people in the built environment.
Learning Objective 1: Explain how air circulation improves thermal comfort and alertness.
Learning Objective 2: Describe the ways that increasing the presence of plants and greenery on a project have been shown to clean the air, reduce urban heat island effect, and positively affect the health and wellbeing of people in the built environment.
Learning Objective 3: Summarize how circadian LED lighting technology delivers health benefits—improving overall sleep quality, daytime productivity, and feelings of wellbeing—that modern architectural lighting lacks.
Learning Objective 4: Discuss how using an underfloor air distribution system (UFAD) improves indoor air quality.
Learning Objective 5: Identify the latest advancements in smart window technology that allows these solutions to control glare and solar heat gains, while maintaining views to the outdoors.
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In this session, we will learn the fundamentals of all successful AE firms and provide the basis for making well-grounded business decisions. We will learn how firms can transition from being professionals providing services, to highly tuned businesses that can identify the needs of the marketplace and create services and products that are appropriately priced and yield consistent and greater profits.
Rather than seeking out new projects that merely build upon your current skills, you will start from a business-thinking mindset, where processes that are critical to building a thriving firm are examined and constituted in your firm. We will explore the importance of data within an architect firm and demonstrate how careful collection and interpretation can lead your firm into more exciting and profitable territory.
Following are the course's Learning Objectives:
Architecture tells us a great deal about society. In fact, glass and glazing are used to blur the lines between inside and out, helping elevate performance and the experiences of people. Yet while humans can use environmental cues to identify glass as a barrier, there is growing realization that birds cannot. The solution is bird-friendly glass that delivers on performance, energy efficiency and the needs of people. This course from Guardian Glass is intended to provide the basis for a better understanding of how to recognize issues affecting the bird population while learning about best practices and design fundamentals for smarter, safer buildings.
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This course will introduce you to the custom balanced door. You will learn about the system components and the differences between a Balanced door and a conventional hinged or pivoted swing door. Then we'll take a closer look at how a balanced door works in an installation. Finally you'll learn about the specific engineering requirements needed to accommodate balanced doors.
HSW Justification:
Balanced doors are safer than conventional doors because they require a smaller interference zone on the sidewalk. Also, they open with ease which benefits smaller people, weak or disabled persons, and the elderly. The majority of this course deals with those benefits and with the mechanical features of the door that make these health and safety benefits possible.
Learning Objective 1:
Understand the differences between the balanced door and a conventional hinged or pivoted swing door
Learning Objective 2:
Know specific requirements for ADA handicap guidelines LO 5: Understand how the balanced door interfaces with power operation LO 6: Understand specific engineering requirements to accommodate balanced doors
Learning Objective 3:
Understand what components make up a typical balanced door system
Learning Objective 4:
Know how the design concept works in an actual installation
Dynamic lighting, also known as tunable, color-changing, and circadian lighting, is being adopted and employed in current lighting designs. There are many studies showing the benefits of dynamic lighting in built environments. Early adopters have seeded the market and several lighting manufacturers now employ some level of Dynamic Lighting. This course is intended to explore what Dynamic Lighting is, how it works in commercial luminaires, how to control it, and where the lighting community is being directed by standards, regulation, and voice of the customer.
At the end of this course, participants will learn: