Developing a safe and healthy built environment with examples of interdisciplinary student research project

Today's academic education is positively challenging. Students (especially in the upper years) are most likely to engage in the process when the knowledge they need to acquire is shared in a way that brings something new and far from routine. The purpose of this article is to present examples of student research projects carried out using a modern, as for Polish conditions, didactic method called Project Based Learning (PBL). Four interdisciplinary projects realised at the Silesian University of Technology will be discussed, mainly with the involvement of students and academic teachers from the Faculty of Architecture, Faculty of Civil Engineering and Faculty of Energy and Environmental Engineering. The research tasks carried out were devoted to ergonomic issues, with safety of use and health as the key guiding words. The following will be presented first: No 1. the concept of an obstacle training track for blind and visually impaired people called "adaptive path "; No 2. the idea of a multifunctional temporary inhabitable container, with the possibility of its vertical multiplication, which fits into the economic model of circular economy. Another strand of research within the presented PBLs was devoted to the topic of sustainability and related to issues related to building energy demand, to optimize and provide users with a sustainable thermal balance. Based on the example of typical residential houses in Poland, in project No. 3 the energy and environmental analysis of single-family houses will be discussed; in No 4 research relating to passive cooling solutions for improving thermal comfort in apartments in multi-family buildings from 1960s will be described. The projects carried out for several years at the Silesian University of Technology raise interesting and worthwhile ideas and develop valuable research conclusions. Each time they also prove that their added value is, on the one hand, professional, interdisciplinary cooperation, so useful in future professional life, and on the other hand, shaping the so-called soft competencies, where communication, patience, time management and problem solving skills are of great importance.