MEGA

MEGA is a collaborative design studio where students work in multi-disciplinary teams to make an integrated design of a large multi-functional building. Students work in teams of 5 to 8 students in which they are each responsible for one discipline. The disciplines cover different (technical) aspects of building design like architectural design, structural design, climate design, façade design, computational design, and urban design. The course targets master students in Building Technology, Architecture and Urbanism, welcomes students from Civil Engineering and is open to non-TU Delft students (conforming with TU Delft regulations).

By working in multi-disciplinary teams, MEGA closely matches the design process of large international projects in the competition phase. This allows students to specialize in one discipline and teaches them to collaborate and communicate with students that represent other disciplines. The disciplines are divided amongst the team members and each member is responsible for the contribution and integration of these aspects in the collective design. The design collaboration is supported by an integrated design process that supports on computational modelling (including parametric design, performance analysis, multi-disciplinary computational optimization or design exploration). The course is supported by external international design and engineering offices. As examples from recent years, support was given by Arup, UNStudio, ABT Neutelings Riedijk Architecten, MVRDV, DGMR, Techniplan, Packhunt, Thornton Tomasetti, Foster en Partners, Stichting Hoogbouw.

Sustainability runs throughout the course and the different disciplines, and becomes apparent in the interdisciplinary collaboration. More specifically, this course regards the construction of large buildings in a perspective of sufficiency: how can we increase the density in urban regions with a limited amount of energy and materials? In doing so, it touches upon aspects of climate adaptation and resilience, circularity, renovation.