Net-zero carbon in a high density, mixed use commercial development
A new Knowledge Transfer Partnership with UCL
Images above: Spatial and architectural studies of standard, low and very low embodied carbon structural frame designs
AHMM has been successful in its funding application from Innovate UK to form a Knowledge Transfer Partnership (KTP) with the Bartlett School of Environment, Energy and Resources at UCL.
The match-funding for this research project was won in a highly competitive round of financial allocation; AHMM and Innovate UK will each provide just over £100,000 over two years.
The project will use a real world, large scale project with existing ambitious sustainability briefing targets, commercial ambitions and compliance needs as the basis for a comparative study to develop additional design solutions, management strategies and adaptation plans to explore and test net-zero carbon targets.
Running in parallel with an existing complex mixed use building project and involving the client and wider design team will facilitate a process to test net-zero carbon standards in a commercial setting. The research will be supported and informed by teams and clients across the practice’s projects, including knowledge, design and data from British Land and its design team on a project at Canada Water.
The study will examine what a net-zero carbon building could look like in the context of a complex, mixed use, densely developed and commercially driven project. It will also explore the implications for the development process, for commercial viability, and for architecture more generally. The outcomes from the research will include a design guide for delivering net-zero carbon buildings, academic publications to add to the body of knowledge in this subject, and promotion of the design guidance and academic publications to influence the developing framework of legislation and policy around this topic.
Knowledge Transfer Partnerships is a partly government-funded programme to encourage collaboration between businesses and universities in the United Kingdom. A KTP enables a business to bring in new skills and the latest academic thinking to deliver a specific, strategic innovation project.
This project is an important part of AHMM’s established and developing approach to sustainability and building performance, given additional impetus by the practice’s commitment to the Architects Declare initiative. The KTP and outcomes will provide an ideal platform through which to develop and share its approach within and beyond the profession and academia.
For more information on this project contact Dr Craig Robertson, Head of Sustainability.