Performance Gap? Energy, Health and Comfort needs in Buildings

To Register Online please click here or use the button on this page.
Fee: £10.00 (NB: Dinner is not included. If you would like to attend to the optional dinner, see information below) Deadline to register for workshop and dinner: 22 June 2015

It is a well-known fact that most buildings do not perform as well as expected. The research on this performance gap suggests that the actual energy consumption in buildings can usually be twice as much as expected. Energy models rely on predictive indicators and assumptions that are usually done at design stage, without acknowledging behavioural patterns of actual users. On the other hand, in zero-carbon refurbishment projects improved energy performance and air-tightness standards may have implications for the indoor air quality. This one-day workshop is aimed at graduate students who are working on environmental performance of the built environment. The workshop addresses research issues related to energy, comfort and health, using examples from research projects and practical case studies in Universities in Cambridge and Turin (POLITO). Is it possible to balance energy, health and comfort needs in refurbishment projects, and if so, how is this achieved? What lessons can be learned from the University’s new building projects to inform future research and policies?

Attendees will work in teams to address the case study problems and feed their conclusions back to a panel of academics and GreenBRIDGE alumni for comment and discussion. For this exercise, attendees will be given some background reading in advance so that they can prepare. The workshop groups are facilitated by Professor Stefano Paolo Corgnati (Director of the Energy Centre, POLITO), Dr. Minna Sunikka-Blank (Department of Architecture, University of Cambridge), Dr Arman Hashemi (Centre for Sustainable Development, University of Cambridge) and Dr. Tatiana Vakhitova (Granta Design, Cambridge). The workshop will close with a panel discussion with GreenBRIDGE alumni on their careers in academia and the industry, followed by a dinner at Emmanuel  College that everyone is welcome to attend.

The aims of this workshop are to:

• Bring together graduate students with expertise and interest in environmental performance of buildings;
• Develop a common understanding of research problems in energy, comfort and health in buildings based on case study examples;
• Identify knowledge gaps;
• Gain understanding from research projects that have addressed performance gap, comfort and health in buildings;
• Give graduate students a possibility to present their own research in a poster session;
• Meet the GreenBRIDGE alumni and hear their experiences of careers after completing a PhD.

The workshop  is open to all graduate students from the University of Cambridge and spaces will be allocated on first come first served basis. There will be limited places for graduate students from other universities.

Limited places: a £10.00  online-registration fee will be applied to all attendees and a separate dinner fee of £35.00 will be charged upon confirmation to workshop@greenbridge.org.uk

For further information or questions regarding the workshop please contact: Dr Minna Sunikka-Blank, mms45@cam.ac.uk

Part of the GreenBRIDGE seminar series