Department of Building Structures

The department focuses on current issues of architectural design theory and structural design of buildings in accordance with the sustainable development of building construction, building thermal technology, acoustics, insolation, day lighting, energy efficiency of buildings and building climatology.

The department participates in the education at the bachelor's and engineer's level of study as well as at the third level of study in the programme Theory of Building Design and Environment with its subjects focused on structural-architectural studio work, legislation of design documentation of buildings in the scope of complex architectural and engineering services.

The research activity of the department focuses on the design and analysis of architectural structures, theoretical and experimental analysis of low-energy and low-entropy buildings. Significant attention is paid to the evaluation of transparent structures on the basis of qualitative and quantitative. Experimentally, the department pays attention to the study of the interaction of building structures (roofs and facades) with structures with integrated vegetation layer. For research purposes, experimental roof segments of vegetated biodiverse and wetland roofs of variant compositions are constructed in order to measure in situ their influence on building structures and the building as a whole. It also addresses heat and moisture fluxes in building structures and the quantification of the degree of influence of different types of building envelope on the overall energy balance of buildings, as well as the assessment of thermal, moisture and light conditions in buildings. Significant attention is also paid to the diagnosis of physical faults and the restoration of buildings, as well as to the verification of the effectiveness of remediation measures in removing faults.

Within the scope of activities for construction practice, the department focuses on:

• preparation of project documentation for buildings

• preparation of light-technical assessments of daylighting and glare

• processing of thermo-technical assessments

• elaboration of fire safety projects for buildings

• building physics diagnostics of buildings

• analysis of mass humidity of building structures

• measurement of the airtightness of buildings using the „Blower door test“ method

• processing of energy certificates and audits of buildings

• measurement and processing of thermal imaging reports

• development of simulation analyses of buildings aimed at assessing thermal comfort and overheating

• development of simulation analyses of building structures aimed at the assessment of surface temperatures, thermal bridges, heat and mass transfer analysis in building structures

• simulation forensic diagnostics of building structures and buildings

• Simulations of the evacuation of the National Football Stadium in Bratislava: experimental verification of the effectiveness of measures for safe evacuation of people during social events, 2018

• Reconstruction of the Ice Stadium in Prešov: Project documentation for zoning procedure, building permit, tender documentation, author's supervision, 2018 - 2021

• Reconstruction of the Andy Warhol Museum of Modern Art in Medzilaborce: Project documentation for building permit, tender documentation, 2019 - 2020

• Integrity tests of the Prešov tunnel area: determination of the decrease in concentration of extinguishing agent, 2021

• Building-physical diagnostics and diagnostics of radioactivity of building materials in the historical building at the Master Paul Square in Levoča, 2022

• Diagnostics of infill structures: analysis of condensate formation on selected segments of windows and glazed walls and proposal of solutions leading to the elimination of the fault, 2023