ERGOTECNICA EDILE E LABORATORIO DI ERGOTECNICA EDILE

Module LABORATORY OF BUILDING ERGOTECHNICS

The course, including the laboratory module, aims to provide knowledge of site design and organisation techniques, the design and management of work phases and work cycles, and the execution techniques of technological subsystems.

The laboratory module contributes to these objectives through the group development of a project up to the level of executive detail, of the related cost documents and of the construction schedule.

Knowledge and understanding
Upon completion of the course, students know and understand:

• the content and logic of the documents of a project developed at the level of executive detail, and how the choices of materials, components and construction solutions affect feasibility on site, simplicity of execution, maintenance and durability;
• the regulatory requirements for thermal transmittance and thermal mass of building elements (Ministerial Decree of 26 June 2015) and the Minimum Environmental Criteria applicable to materials and products (CAM, Ministerial Decree of 24 November 2025);
• the structure of the cost documents of a public work: Unit Price List, Bill of Quantities with Cost Estimate, Unit Price Analyses, Project Budget;
• the criteria for defining the sequence of site activities, estimating their durations, establishing precedence and concurrency relationships, and drawing up the construction schedule.

Applying knowledge and understanding
Upon completion of the course, students are able to apply their knowledge to the development of a mixed-use building project, integrating technical, regulatory, economic and time aspects, and in particular to:

• engineer a given project, developing the choices of materials, components and detailed construction solutions;
• define the stratigraphy of building elements, identifying materials and thicknesses that meet the limits of thermal transmittance and thermal mass, and select products and materials meeting the CAM;
• draw up the cost documents of the project as for a public work: Unit Price List, Bill of Quantities with Cost Estimate, Unit Price Analyses and Project Budget;
• define the sequence of site activities, with the methods and conditions required for the correct execution of each, and estimate their durations;
• develop the construction schedule, representing it graphically in a Gantt chart and determining the overall expected duration.

Making judgements
Students develop the ability to choose between alternative technical solutions on the basis of feasibility, simplicity of execution, maintenance and durability, to assess the consistency between technical choices, costs and times, and to formulate reasoned assumptions in the presence of incomplete information (for example prices and productivity). They also develop the ability to reflect on the environmental implications of their choices (sustainability, CAM). The activities contributing to these abilities are the comparison of alternatives within the group and the reviews with the lecturer.

Communication skills
Students develop the ability to work in groups and to communicate clearly and unambiguously technical, economic and operational choices and their rationale, in graphic, written and oral form, as required in preparing the documents and in the examination discussion.

Learning skills
Students acquire the ability to continue studying in a self-directed way, independently consulting regulations, price lists, technical data sheets and product documentation, and to revise their own work on the basis of the feedback received.

The course content is aligned with some of the objectives of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development:
GOAL 11. SUSTAINABLE CITIES AND COMMUNITIES
GOAL 12. RESPONSIBLE CONSUMPTION AND PRODUCTION

The Laboratorio Ergotecnica edile (Construction Management Laboratory) module (3 CFU) is part of the integrated course Ergotecnica edile e Laboratorio (11 CFU). It runs for one semester and comprises 50 hours of teaching activity, all classified as other activities and none as lectures, delivered in face-to-face/traditional mode:

Interactive Teaching (DI): 50 hours of in-class project work, in which students, organized in working groups, apply the content of the theoretical module to the development of a project. Starting from the drawings of a mixed-use building, either developed in the Architettura Tecnica (Technical Architecture) course or provided by the instructor, the groups carry out the detailed engineering of the design: they choose materials, components and construction solutions, define the stratigraphies (layer build-ups), prepare the economic documents, define the sequence of works and develop the construction schedule. The work proceeds in phases, with weekly reviews with the instructor, who check progress and guide the choices.

The laboratory runs in parallel with the theoretical module, whose content it applies.

The in-class exercises of the theoretical module are distinct from the group project work of this module.

The DI activities aim to develop the ability to apply knowledge to a real project and to justify choices, in line with the expected learning outcomes.

Formal prerequisites. The course has as a formal prerequisite the course "Disegno dell'Architettura II e Laboratorio".

Cultural prerequisites. The following knowledge is required:

1. main construction technologies and building systems (important);
2. the most common graphic representation software (important);
3. reading and interpretation of the architectural design documents of a building (important);
4. basic knowledge of the energy performance of buildings, needed for the verification of stratigraphies (important);
5. basic knowledge of the seismic performance of buildings (useful).

• General framing of the project: analysis of the starting documents of a mixed-use building (residential plus commercial and/or recreational); objectives and constraints of the engineering work.
• In-depth study of the adopted technology: choice of materials, components and construction solutions; comparison of alternatives in terms of feasibility on site, simplicity of execution, maintenance and durability.
• Stratigraphies and energy and environmental requirements: definition of materials and thicknesses of building elements; verification of thermal transmittance and thermal mass (Ministerial Decree of 26 June 2015); identification of products and materials meeting the CAM (Ministerial Decree of 24 November 2025).
• Executive details: development of nodes and detailed construction solutions.
• Cost documents: Unit Price List, Bill of Quantities with Cost Estimate, Unit Price Analyses and Project Budget, as for a public work.
• Operational plans of the works: sequence of site activities; methods and conditions required for the correct execution of each activity.
• Construction schedule: duration estimates, precedence and concurrency relationships, Gantt chart representation, overall expected duration of the works.

The examination for the integrated course Ergotecnica edile (Construction Management) and Laboratory is a single exam leading to a single final grade out of thirty. It consists of two parts:

1. an individual oral examination, which assesses learning of the theoretical module;
2. a group discussion of the project work developed in the laboratory module.

Specific arrangements for this module: discussion of the group project work. The project work is carried out in groups and consists of the detailed engineering of the design of a mixed-use building, including the technical and economic documents and the construction schedule described in the Contents section; the deliverables must be submitted by the deadlines set at the beginning of the course. The discussion, held with the instructor, assesses the skills acquired during the laboratory activities. The exam is taken as a group, but each student must demonstrate a full understanding of the entire project and is assessed individually on the personal contribution that emerges during the discussion. The questions concern materials, components and technical solutions; the economic documents; operational choices; and the construction schedule.

The following are assessed: the completeness and technical correctness of the deliverables; compliance with regulatory requirements (Ministerial Decree of 26 June 2015) and the CAM (Minimum Environmental Criteria); the consistency between technical choices, economic documents and construction schedule; the ability to justify choices and compare alternative solutions; clarity of presentation; and each student's individual contribution.

The use of Artificial Intelligence tools in preparing the deliverables is permitted within the limits set by the instructor and must be declared by the students.

The final grade is the synthesis of the two assessments and takes the following parameters into account:

• Fail: the student does not have the minimum knowledge of the main course content, has poor or no command of technical language, and is unable to apply the acquired knowledge independently.
• 18–21: the student has minimal knowledge of the fundamental content, shows a modest ability to connect topics and apply them to simple cases, forms judgments only when guided, and presents with sufficient clarity, although command of technical language is poorly developed.
• 22–25: the student has fair knowledge, although limited to the main topics; connects and applies topics in a way that is not always consistent, forms judgments in familiar situations, and presents fairly clearly, with fair command of language.
• 26–28: the student has good knowledge, connects and critically analyzes topics in a coherent way, tackles new cases with a fair degree of independence while justifying choices, and presents clearly with appropriate language.
• 29–30 cum laude: the student has in-depth knowledge, integrates and critically analyzes topics with promptness and accuracy, independently tackles complex cases or cases with incomplete information, justifying assumptions and assessing their implications, and shows excellent presentation skills and command of language.

To guarantee equal opportunities and in compliance with current legislation, interested students may request a personal meeting in order to plan any compensatory and/or dispensatory measures, in line with the teaching objectives and their specific needs. Students may also contact the CInAP (Centre for Active and Participatory Integration – Services for Disabilities and/or Specific Learning Disorders) representative of their Department (https://www.cinap.unict.it/content/referenti).

• For a stratigraphy adopted in your project, how did you verify thermal transmittance and thermal mass against the limits of the Ministerial Decree of 26 June 2015? What alternatives did you consider and why did you choose this one?
• For a material or component chosen in the project, how did you verify its conformity with the CAM and with what documentation?
• For a detail node, which construction solutions did you compare and on the basis of which criteria (feasibility on site, simplicity of execution, maintenance, durability) did you choose?
• How did you build the Unit Price Analysis of an item of the Unit Price List? What components make up the price?
• How did you determine the Bill of Quantities with Cost Estimate for an activity, and how do you move from the bill of quantities to the Project Budget?
• What is the sequence of activities for [the construction of an external vertical wall] and what conditions are required for the correct execution of each activity?
• How did you estimate the duration of an activity? What precedence and concurrency relationships did you assume? What is the overall duration of the works and what would change if a critical activity were delayed?