The beginnings of the Chair of Buildings and Constructional Complexes go back to 1921 when the Institute for Construction Engineering at the Department of Civil Engineering was in charge of the course Buildings. The current name Chair of Buildings and Constructional Complexes was given to this unit in 1980. With the establishment of the new Chair, the teaching contents were updated to respond to the issues of the energy crisis in the 1970ies. The crisis generated new demands for the design of building envelope as an important part of the indoor living and working environment. This period is characterised by a turn in the conventional architecture engineering, with introduction of new construction materials and new envelope designs, and as a response to challenges of rational energy use and use of renewable energy sources in buildings.

The Chair is composed of teaching and research staff. Our teaching activity is focused on the master study program Buildings, courses at the study programs of Civil Engineering, as well as two courses at the Faculty of Health Sciences, University of Ljubljana. Important to our Chair are professional and research activities, with the main focus on energy savings, protection of the environment, dynamic analysis of the thermal response of building envelope and buildings as a whole, challenges of solar radiation utilisation and daylighting in buildings and care for the healthy indoor living and working environment. In the context of our laboratory, we have a fully functioning test facility of an automated indoor working environment that in accordance to weather conditions regulates the indoor illumination, thermal conditions, shading and CO₂ demand based natural ventilation.