Platform: Complex Built Environment Systems

Completed

Energy Efficiency(Residential and commercial)

Basic and strategic applied research

ENGINEERING AND TECHNOLOGY (Architecture and the Built Environment)

Not Cross-cutting
Sociological economical and environmental impact of energy (Environmental dimensions)
Sociological economical and environmental impact of energy (Consumer attitudes and behaviour)
Sociological economical and environmental impact of energy (Technology acceptance)
Sociological economical and environmental impact of energy (Other sociological economical and environmental impact of energy)

Professor T Oreszczyn
Bartlett Sch of Env, Energy & Resources
University College London

Standard

EPSRC

01 February 2006

31 January 2011

60 months

£438,078

Management & business studies

London

NC : Engineering

Professor T Oreszczyn, Bartlett Sch of Env, Energy & Resources, University College London

Miss J Berry, The Bartlett School of Graduate Studies, University College London
Dr NW Blades, Bartlett Sch of Architecture & Planning, University College London
Professor M Cassar, The Bartlett School of Graduate Studies, University College London
Dr B Croxford, Bartlett Sch of Architecture & Planning, University College London
Dr M Davies, The Bartlett School of Graduate Studies, University College London
Dr KP Mansfield, Bartlett Sch of Architecture & Planning, University College London
Mr P McLennan, Bartlett Sch of Architecture & Planning, University College London
Professor B Nutt, Bartlett Sch of Architecture & Planning, University College London
Mr P Raynham, Bartlett Sch of Architecture & Planning, University College London
Professor JP Steadman, UCL Energy Institute, University College London

The Bartlett at University College London is the UK s largest multidisciplinary faculty of the built environment. It runs undergraduate, MSc, professional and doctoral programmes across a full range of built environment disciplines including, construction, environmental design, architecture, planning and virtual environments. The environment area of Bartlett research is one of the largest and most mature within the Bartlett and has expanded significantly over the last five years to a team of fourteen core funded permanent staff. This group of building scientists who research environmental problems are now restructuring into the Complex Built Environment Systems (CBES) group. CBES is primarily interested in developing solutions to the practical problems of designing, constructing and managing appropriate environments within and around buildings. CBES aims to tackle the following three main issues: (1)How to design, maintain and operate the built environment while minimisingtheemissions of greenhouse gases. (2)How to adapt the environment, fabric and services of existing and new buildings to climate change. (3)How to improve the environment in and around buildings to provide better health, comfort, security and productivity.

Initially, in the 1950 s and 1960 s, most building science research focused on applying physics, chemistry etc to the environment in buildings. Many of the problems that can be tackled by this single discipline approach have now been solved; the key remaining problems are multi-disciplinary. Hence, Bartlett research in this area expanded to involve multidisciplinary activities across the built environment, with building scientists working closely with planners, architects etc. In the 1980 s and 1990 s, much of this work still relied on individual disciplines using existing tools and techniques from their own discipline by simply applying them along with tools from other disciplines. More recently, the strategic direction of CBES has been shaped by the necessity for a truly multidisciplinary approach. The development of CBES is therefore very much in line with the recent key recommendation of the Second International Review of Engineering that academia, industry and government develop strategies to encourage increased linkage of engineering research to more basic mathematical, physical, chemical and biological sciences, so that scientific and engineering discoveries may stimulate even more and broader discoveries and their applications. The strategic development of CBES rests upon two key factors:1. The identification and development of innovative opportunities to advance academic and industrial collaboration beyond the traditional territories of the Built Environment.The group is already taking an international lead in work involving significant breakthroughs in health, energy and conservation issues related to environment in buildings. Its success in developing this multidisciplinary approach has been rewarded through increased and more diverse research funding (4.4M since 2000, 56 EPSRC funded). CBES have already developed a unique set of interdisciplinary projects, working with acarologists, epidemiologists, sociologists, chemists and conservators, ininstitutions across the UK and worldwide. However, there is considerable potential for new projects working with clinicians, climate physicists, neurologists, electrical engineers, nano-technologists, economists and crime scientists to tackle key questions which determine the physical environment in and around buildings. Working with these disciplines is vital in order to tackle such key problems as the impact that climate change is having on the urban heat island and environmental control inbuildings, how occupants interact with the built environment to control and adapt their environment, how we neurologically assess the lit environment within buildings and the impact that the built environment is having on health.2. The development of the required theoretical cross disciplinary techniques to undertake these new challenges. CBES aims to work with the most appropriate discipline specialists and to provide the most appropriate techniques for solving the practical problems facing thebuilt environment. For example, CBES feels there is considerable potential to adapt epidemiological techniques for the building stock as a whole. Also developments in complexity theory are applicable to many of the research challenges the research group is currently studying but so far have not been applied to these areas. If CBES is to fully achieve its planned strategic development, Platform funding is required to provide a step change in the way it undertakes research and works with newdisciplines

01/01/07