A few weeks ago LCIC received two important visitors: Prof Xinjun (Joshua) Wang, Executive Director and Dr Qiao (Edward) Yuan, LED lighting expert and Assistant Professor arrived from the Urban Planning Architecture and Design Institute at Fudan University in Shanghai. The Institute, known by its acronym UPADI, is a relatively large organisation employing a couple of hundred people and conducting similar number of projects annually. The Profs brought with them a few example projects ranging from residential developments to smaller and very large scale offices. LCIC will be working with UPADI over the next year to help add low energy and low carbon expertise into these projects. In so doing LCIC will gain a huge amount of experience in Chinese approaches to design and construction. The intention is to use this experience to forge a longer-term strategic alliance in low carbon, low energy development.
In its eco-development work LCIC adopts a whole life approach to low energy and low carbon buildings. Taking a whole life approach involves considering energy and carbon emissions at each stage of the building’s life – design, construction, operation, refurbishment and, ultimately, demolition. In taking this approach some interesting trade-offs emerge between the carbon embodied in construction materials and the emissions arising from operation, in particular from heating. For example, buildings with greater thermal mass tend to have higher embodied carbon but, if operated properly, can save much more energy and carbon throughout the bulk of their operating life. However, if a building is powered by renewable energy, then the carbon equation shifts. The building may use more energy than a low energy one but it emits less carbon. The trade off between energy and carbon is illuminating and tied into other factors such as cost and risk. One area that deserves greater attention is post-occupancy analysis. In our experience it usually takes several months to drive down the energy and carbon emissions from low energy buildings. Not only do monitoring systems require careful tweaking but so too do the occupants. Tackling the human factors is rarely straightforward but without this many projects that are intended to be low energy and low carbon fail to deliver.
Given the scale of development in China if LCIC can help UPADI to reduce energy and carbon in the projects that they are undertaking then it will be worthwhile. There is palpable excitement on both sides about this partnership. Our initial activities have highlighted not only the scale of the challenge but also the commitment of our Chinese colleagues to develop quickly the understanding and practice of low energy and low carbon design, construction and operation. As work progresses we will add updates to the website.
Simon Gerrard
Chief Technical Officer and Acting Director
