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Making the built environment work better for society

The Built Environment research division is an interdisciplinary centre of excellence with internationally renowned expertise in the design, construction, operation and use of buildings and infrastructure.

Our remit extends ‘across the scales’ with the aim of making the built environment work better for society. Our work draws on architecture, design, science and engineering, social science and management. It addresses the intersection of the physical, biological, social and cultural environments that affect people’s lives, including quality of life, sustainability of communities, wealth generation and long-term resilience.

Our research areas

Technologies for Sustainable Built Environments

Organisations, People and Technology

  • practice-orientated research in design and construction management;
  • construction economics and innovation studies;
  • Building Information Modelling (BIM) and immersive visualisation;
  • cultural and gender diversity in construction;
  • migrant workers and employment;
  • professionalisation and business processes. 

Energy and Environmental Engineering

  • building and urban environmental quality;
  • urban green infrastructure;
  • energy system behaviours as related to building scale energy demands, power network operation, future energy technology portfolios, demand side management, and the urban climate-energy-environmental systems nexus.

Urban Living

  • designing for healthy lives and wellbeing across a range of indoor and urban environments;
  • methodologies of co-design including urban living labs and urban agriculture;
  • mapping and evidencing value including cultural and social value;
  • the experience of urban environments;
  • data gathering and utilisation;
  • technological change and Smart cities, as well the diffusion of innovation across scales in the context of climate change.

research highlights

Using design and architecture to fight superbugs

Professor Flora Samuel is co-investigator of Information Design and Architecture: Combatting Drug Resistant Infection (IDAPPS) , an Arts and Humanities Research Council-funded project co-led by Typography’s Professor Sue Walker. Flora has supported the development of innovation competition with design practices and pharmacists to design and pilot an installation to inform the public about the dangers of antibiotic overuse. 

Reading 2050

Reading 2050 is building a strategic, long-term vision that will support growth and prosperity in Reading, helping to deliver a truly smart and sustainable town by 2050. The project is a partnership between the School of the Built Environment, Barton Willmore and Reading UK CIC. Professor Tim Dixon leads the input from the University and the work has used innovative urban foresight and city visioning techniques. Reading 2050 has connected to the Government Office of Science Future of Cities work and is cited in Reading Borough Council’s Local Plan. Further funding bids and research projects are being developed as a result of this research. Find out more and see past and upcoming Reading 2050 events.

CaCHE: better design in housing

Professor Flora Samuel is the research lead for the ‘Place’ strand of the UK Collaborative Housing Evidence Centre (CaCHE) – a University of Glasgow-led consortium of 13 academic and housing policy and practice partners. Over five years, CaCHE is producing evidence and new research to tackle the UK’s housing problems at a national, devolved, regional, and local level.

The importance of taking a multi-faceted approach to planning, designing and managing public places is increasingly being recognised; it can improve health, social cohesion and the economy. We know that a home is more than four walls, a roof and a temperate environment, and a home needs to be not only economically, but also environmentally and socially affordable.

The CaCHE Place team is developing evidence and methodologies that will enable government, local authorities and developers to take design value – which we define as social, environmental and economic value – into account in policy and procurement, weighing it up against other key deliverables currently being investigated across the CACHE network. Find out more.

Understanding peaks in energy demand

Professor Jacopo Torriti is leading two EPSRC-funded projects to understand peaks in residential electricity demand. Understanding these peaks opens new opportunities for flexible demand and ‘Demand Side Response’ – a process to reward those consumers who agree to shift or reduce their energy demands during peak times. 

REDPeAK (Residential Electricity Demand: Peaks, Sequences and Markov Chains) looks at which activities constitute peaks in residential electricity demand. It is investigating the part that synchronisation of activities might play in shaping electricity demand.

DEePRED (Distributional Effects of Dynamic Pricing for Responsive Electricity Demand) – analyses the effects of Time of Use tariffs on energy distribution, aiming to find clusters of users who could either benefit or lose out if demand flexibility is offered. 

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