Researchers share insights from cutting-edge sustainability research

15th December 2015

Researchers from the Low Carbon Building Group shared insights from its cutting-edge portfolio of research on building performance evaluation at a national conference last month.

The conference, which was hosted by the Low Carbon Building Group of the Oxford Institute for Sustainable Development at Oxford Brookes University on 26 November 2015, was attended by an audience of academics, architects, housing providers, local authorities and industry partners. Delegates heard presentations from practitioners and researchers involved in Innovate UK’s £8m national research programme on Building Performance Evaluation.

Earlier this year, Oxford Brookes University was awarded a £500k share of funding to lead on two research projects based on evaluating whole-life building performance of homes and office buildings.

The conference also saw the launch of the Low Carbon Building Group’s Building Performance Evaluation research booklet which outlines recent and current BPE projects undertaken by the LCB Group. The booklet is available to download on the Low Carbon Building webpages.

Professor Rajat Gupta, Director of the Low Carbon Building Group and Oxford Institute for Sustainable Development said: “The conference provided a valuable opportunity to discuss the findings of our building performance evaluation research from multiple perspectives (architect, building user, developer), and extract wider lessons for practice and policy, so as to minimise the gap between intended performance and actual performance of buildings.”

The Low Carbon Building Group’s forthcoming next-generation of BPE research projects funded by EPSRC, Innovate UK and European Commission Horizon 2020 programme were also introduced at the conference. These new projects will look into linking indoor environmental conditions and occupant productivity (WLP+), developing feedback and a feed-forward system to improve the flow of information through the supply chain (HAPI), demonstrating insurance-backed warranty for whole life housing energy performances (I-Life) and monitoring positive energy settlements (Zero Plus).

"The conference provided a valuable opportunity to discuss the findings of our building performance evaluation research from multiple perspectives and extract wider lessons for practice and policy." - Professor Rajat Gupta, Director of the Low Carbon Building Group, Oxford Brookes University

More information about the Low Carbon Building Group and the Oxford Institute for Sustainable Development can be found via the Oxford Brookes University website.

Source: Oxford Brookes