EDUCATION PROVIDER PROGRAM (EPP)

As technology advances, lighting and power are becoming increasingly vital in enhancing user experience and building performance in healthcare environments. In this course, you’ll discover how flexible lighting solutions and their control features can transform both indoor and outdoor spaces, boosting health and productivity. You will also explore best practices for power and energy management, along with strategies for achieving safety compliance. Elevate your skills and learn how to create safe, tech-integrated spaces that support health and functionality.

ONGOING

Every designer needs a strong digital presence to stake a place in a crowded marketplace. This course presents easy-to-implement, expert advice for how creatives can craft effective websites and social media profiles that help build their brands and attract prospective clients.

This course provides an in-depth overview of recycling and waste diversion programs, focusing on effective planning, stakeholder engagement, and strategic bin placement. It offers practical guidance on selecting bins, designing consistent signage, and using communication strategies to improve user compliance. The course also explores additional methods to reduce waste at the source and covers techniques for continuous monitoring and adaptation to achieve long-term sustainability goals.

Synthetic or artificial grass bears virtually no resemblance to its early version produced over fifty years ago. The current product is much more aesthetically pleasing, safer, softer, and durable, made with environmentally friendly materials, highly customizable to suit many indoor and outdoor uses, and recyclable and nonflammable. This course details the many sustainable attributes of this material; its benefits, construction, and certifications; and numerous sample installations.

Curved elements, such as walls, ceilings, columns, soffits, light coves, clouds, and arches have often been used to add interest to architectural designs. This course outlines conventional methods of framing curves in wood and steel, as well as new methods of framing using flexible track systems. Discussions include options for wall coverings and trims for curved surfaces.

Electrical systems that deliver access to permanent power and enable device connectivity are critical components of the design and operation of high-performance buildings. Today’s mobile technology means people can connect and move freely between the indoors and outdoors and integrate their social and work lives anytime, anywhere. This course examines permanent outdoor power delivery offerings, including personal and electric vehicle charging stations, in-ground power boxes, and rooftop boxes, that support the growing demand for connectivity and data and audiovisual communications in outdoor spaces and help to create an outdoor environment that promotes longer stays, stimulates creativity, and increases productivity.

At their root, metal roofs and walls made from steel, copper, zinc, or aluminum have a lower environmental impact because of their ability to be recycled and reused. This course focuses on the green aspects of standing seam metal roofs, and in particular, their cool roof characteristics. Also addressed are the implications of heat islands, what constitutes construction of cool roofs/walls and how they work, some rules of thumb for understanding cool metal roofing, roof slope impacts on performance, and codes, ratings, and standards that apply to designing cool roofs/walls.

Modern interior spaces often feature open areas and hard surfaces. What should be comfortable rooms in these spaces

can become unpleasant from noise and echo or sound reverberation. This course discusses how melamine foam can

be used to improve the sound quality in a space. The different options for melamine foam products are discussed along

with their installation methods. This course also provides an overview of the sustainability features of sound-absorbing

melamine foam.

ON-GOING 1.5 HRS

The principles, tools, and techniques for sustainable community planning (SCP) outlined in Part 1 of this course have evolved into various approaches to the actual implementation of SCP around the world. These approaches have been developed in response to local context and in communities ranging in size and form from large cities to small ecovillages and housing clusters. Part 2 of this course describes a number of these approaches for both land and water and also suggests a means of integrating them into a single, comprehensive planning model. The course concludes with case studies of a range of built sustainable community examples and planning exercises and includes some of the lessons learned.

The tools, techniques, and approaches to sustainable community planning (SCP) have evolved substantially in the last few decades, turning it from an abstract notion into a most comprehensive and beneficial planning approach. Part 1 of this two-part course examines the basic principles that these tools and approaches are based on, the local and global issues that they must address to be effective, and the nature and structure of the tools themselves. The review includes numerous links to the sources of these tools. 

Bathrooms can be dangerous places for people with and without physical limitations. The prevalence of bathroom falls amongst persons of all age groups and levels of ability has driven the trend of accessible shower design. Presented here is an overview of how curb less shower pans are designed for durability and safety, and to meet the needs of accessible design. Included are discussions on traditional and modern shower pan design and installation methods and their associated drawbacks and benefits. Industry resources and standards are outlined.

Healthcare facilities are striving to meet the needs of all patients and caregivers by offering healthy, safe, and inclusive spaces that can be repurposed quickly if needed. This course reviews innovations in plumbing design, such as vacuum plumbing and its applications, and explores how these design innovations support trending healthcare needs, including infection prevention, behavioral healthcare, and bariatric applications, and fulfill ADA requirements. Several case studies showcasing successful examples are also covered.

While the bathroom was once a strictly utilitarian space, a growing trend among luxury consumers is to create a custom, spa-like wellness retreat right in the home. Surveys find that luxury consumers value functional and design excellence, uniqueness that reflects a creative side, and exceptional quality and value. This course examines the shower products available that help to create a personalized, multisensory wellness experience with beautifully designed pieces that meet water efficiency standards.

In recent years, the inclusion of wine cellars has become a hallmark of luxury and upscale housing, extending beyond individual homes to multifamily residences, bars, private clubs, and restaurants. This course is a practical guide for architects, designers, general contractors, and engineers on building attractive, efficient, and highly functioning wine cellars that successfully integrate technical requirements with design intent.

Elevate your railing designs with a premanufactured system without compromising aesthetics or adaptability to site conditions. When you choose a manufacturer with design and engineering capabilities, you can customize premanufactured systems to meet safety standards AND enhance a project’s design. In this course, we discuss how a railing manufacturer helped three architects create unique solutions from premanufactured components.