The built environment needs the System Architect

With all the modern wishes for the owners and users of buildings, a range of disciplines is required. The need within the built environment to respond to current trends in sustainability, digitalization, cyber security and comfort/functionality for the user, requires a combination of technical disciplines. The System Architect's role is to bring all disciplines together and oversee the entire system, but also to make the link with owners, users and project leaders.

The FHI trade organization for Building Automation has the course together with TVVL System Architect set up to learn those qualities. A number of former students are quoted in the articles on the TVVL site. Their experiences best indicate what someone can expect and what that person can do with it in practice. The pieces below are quotes from those articles.

'Robert Verwijs started the post-higher professional education System Architect Building Automation and Management course at TVVL in 2017. He now also works as a System Architect at Heijmans.' Robert immediately starts talking about his experiences with the training; 'It was a fun and educational course where you learn to think at a higher level. The teaching days are a lot of fun. Your fellow students all come from other companies, so you also hear a lot about how things are going at others. What works, what doesn't work. You also learn from that.'

John Verspeek adds to Robert: 'We were enthusiastic because the System Architect training fits perfectly with Heijmans' total vision of focusing on comfort, technology and energy.'

An older article quotes two former students.

'The important question, of course, is whether the training is in line with practice. Both gentlemen agree on this. Rudy in particular is very enthusiastic about the ICT component of the training: “I can now sit at the table with an ICT specialist as a discussion partner, while I previously found that more difficult.” Martin explains his enthusiasm with a practical example: “Thanks to the training, I now know how to better approach a customer and in which situation and how you can offer a solution.

For example, for a major problem for a customer (spread over several floors), I first made an inventory and then an action plan in collaboration with this customer. The result was a major adjustment on every floor. For me, this means that the customer gets what he actually wants, even if he did not know in advance exactly what that would entail. I gained this insight partly through the methods provided in the training.'

More about this training can be found on the TVVL website: https://www.tvvl.nl/cursussen/sa