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INDUSTRY VIEWFINDER: WORKING TOWARDS ZERO CARBON EXPERT VIEW
Louisa Bowles comments on the effect of cost pressures: “Cost pressures are a driving force in the majority of projects, no matter the original aspirations. We see evidence of value engineering affecting scope and lack of willingness to pay for additional consultancy for analysis to prove and track design decisions against targets. There is also a lack of capacity in the skill set required across designers, contractors and suppliers.”
When it comes to practicality for people living in ‘affordable’ residential projects, we wanted to discover architects’ views on the impacts on ‘liveability’ of low energy, highly insulated designs with potentially smaller floorplates. Again the results were reassuring, with 59% of respondents saying that they did not think that it would be impacted, and 37% saying they believed it would.
Solutions
The RIBA Climate Challenge has specific energy targets for different sectors (residential, new build offices, and new build schools), which are roughly half of the emissions of a notional ‘business as usual’ energy consumption figure. For domestic properties, as opposed to a ‘business as usual’ operational energy figure of 120 kWh/m2
/year, RIBA posits a 2025 target of <60 kWh/m2 /y,
and below 35 kwH by 2030. For non-domestic sectors, there are different targets – operational energy of <75 kWh/m2 and <55 kWh/m2 130 kWh/m2
/y by 2025 /y by 2030 (as opposed to ‘business as usual’ /y) in new build offices. And in new build schools, the
A healthy result Generally speaking, our survey respondents gave a positive response to the ‘Best Practice Health Metrics’ based around wellbeing aims within the RIBA Climate Challenge, in terms of their achievability by the 2030 deadline at least. Daylighting would be required to be above 2% average daylight factor, with 0.4 uniformity, and 60% said this was realistically possible across all sectors. Overheating would be controlled within a 25-28˚C parameter for 1% of occupied hours – and this was seen as achievable by 58% of respondents. Total VOCs should be under 0.3 mg/m3
, and 47%
accepted this figure as achievable. 44% said it was achievable to have formaldehyde levels below 0.1 mg/m3
CO2 level of below 900 ppm was seen as achievable by 40%. EXPERT VIEW
Louisa Bowles says the overheating challenge is hard to fix in the mainstream: “To achieve this level of compliance requires upfront passive design integration and design stage modelling, and solutions that are locked in onsite. It is not possible to deliver without these processes in place.”
“Will affordable low carbon designs impact liveability for occupants (e.g. in terms of floor area?)”
Rodrigo Moreno Masey comments on addressing overheating in refurb projects: “For refurbishments, overheating targets aren’t possible within the average scope.”
, and the target indoor
RIBA is calling for <70 kWh/m2/y by 2025, and <60 kWh/m2/y by 2030 (as opposed to 130 kWh/m2/y for ‘business as usual’). Respondents said the RIBA 2025 energy targets were most likely to be achieved in the residential sector (59%), then education (45%). However when it came to commercial buildings, our respondents were less emphatic on whether the targets would be achieved by 2025, with 38% thinking they would, but 32% saying they weren’t realistic, and 31% being on the fence.
EXPERT VIEW
Louisa Bowles says the RIBA targets represent best practice: “The 2030 Challenge contains energy targets for three typologies, from which it might be possible to derive targets for others. The 2025 targets are realistic but in our experience represent the best practice energy in-use possible with current technology, design and modelling. They are not achievable by the ‘average’ project in any typology.” Rodrigo Moreno Masey, director, MorenoMasey says that project team dynamics are critical: “It’s down to who’s pulling strings, and the scale of the projects; three/four years simply isn’t long enough for a large infrastructure project to get its house in order. In restaurants, for example, there is a huge disconnect between landlord, brand and operator.”
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