BSRIA is delighted to announce that it submitted an entry in the 2017 RIBA President’s Awards for Research. BSRIA’s entry was for Long Term Performance Evaluation of a Zero Carbon Residential Development, namely Hanham Hall, resulting in being published in the final Book of Abstracts.
In their second year since their restructure, the RIBA Presidents Awards for Research continues to attract engaging research from around the world, debating “important and timely” issues. This year’s submissions came from across the globe with applicants ranging from established academics and practitioners, construction research commercial and non-commercial entities, to recent graduates and individual researchers.
A key component of the awards restructure was a blind review process for judging the work submitted in an attempt to level the playing field for all – allowing the best work in each category to rise to the top. The annual theme was housing. Categories were: cities and community; design and technical; and history and theory.
BSRIA entry – Hanham Hall, Bristol
Hanham Hall is located in Bristol and consists of 185 new residential properties, developed by Barratt Homes. The properties were built in accordance with the Zero Carbon homes standard. BSRIA was employed by Barratt Homes to quality assess the construction stage of the development, review early-occupation engagement strategies and perform a Post-Occupancy evaluation of all properties for three years (ended in summer of 2017).
The Post-Occupancy evaluation process included engaging and collecting feedback from all residents on site, through a combination of surveys and interviews, and capturing energy and water performance data, which was used to assess the properties overall performance.
Quantitative data included the monitoring of water and energy consumption of each unit across the site, at five minute intervals, for a period of three years. Ten properties, representing all different housing typologies used within the development, followed a more detailed monitoring approach including collecting data on energy consumption break-downs, performance of installed services (which included MVHR units) and assessment of indoor thermal and air conditions (installed measuring sensors).
Additional tests were also employed for the ten selected properties performance evaluation, including follow up air-tightness tests two years after properties’ completion, in-situ u-value measurements and thermographic imaging to assess the properties construction quality.
The project results were very positive, indicating that the properties performed very well in terms of energy and water consumption, while achieving high occupant satisfaction ratings. Indoor thermal and air conditions data revealed that sufficient ventilation rates were achieved in all monitored properties, and the likelihood of residents experiencing overheating was negligible.
Tassos Kougionis, Principal Consultant, BSRIA, said:
“It is a great pleasure to see our project included in the prestigious ‘2017 RIBA President’s Awards for Research’ Book of Abstracts. RIBA President Awards provide a unique opportunity for our industry to showcase, and be proud of, our achievements. BSRIA strongly supports industry participation in such awards and we are delighted to see RIBA putting this competition together.
BSRIA is particularly proud of our work with Barratt Homes on the Hanham Hall development. This is not only due to the unique nature of this project which used the Zero Carbon homes standards, which is very close to my heart, but also due to the fact that an invaluable amount of learnings has been produced.
We are committed to leading research and supporting industry work on delivering better homes. It goes without saying that we look forward to being involved and submit another entry in 2018. I would like to extend a friendly hand to the industry; your project could be our next year’s entry. Engage with us, we are here to help.”
https://www.architecture.com/researchawards
The RIBA, its members and its practices, are the collective voice of architecture: www.architecture.com
Twitter: @RIBAResearch
The Chair was Peter Clegg, Senior Partner, Feilden Clegg Bradley Studios.
The 2017 judges were:
Zohra Chiheb Architect, Levitt Bernstein
Dr Elizabeth Darling Reader in Architectural History, Oxford Brookes University
Hattie Hartman Sustainability Editor, The Architects’ Journal
Dr Matthew Jones Senior Lecturer, University of the West of England & Partner,
Coombs Jones Architects
Dr Kerstin Sailer Reader in Social & Spatial Networks, UCL
Professor Chris Tweed Head of School, Welsh School of Architecture, Cardiff University