Output details
16 - Architecture, Built Environment and Planning
Cardiff University : B - Architecture
Low carbon retrofit: Solutions for a Holistic Optimal Retrofit (SHOR) - 1980s urban semi-detached house
Aims and objectives
The brief was that each of the low carbon refits of existing low-rise social housing would meet the UK government’s target for reducing greenhouse gas emissions of 80% by 2050, while also cutting energy use dramatically.
Programme applicants were asked to develop whole house retrofit solutions that would result in deep cuts to CO₂emissions whilst also significantly improving energy performance. Applicants were required to consider a household’s energy needs and CO₂ impacts as a whole, and to establish a comprehensive package of measures to reduce them.
The team set out to achieve a successful retrofit scheme which was innovative through an integrative, technologically robust, holistic, people-focused approach to achieving carbon savings.
Methodology
The scheme involved close collaborative working with a team located within the Welsh School of Architecture including architects, environmental specialists and sustainable design specialists with particular expertise in human factors, as well as the Social Housing Provider – Charter Housing Association’s tenant satisfaction and maintenance team, and their supply chain. To achieve the objectives a decision-making matrix was developed and used by the project team during regular meetings to identify the optimal, practical and replicable low carbon solution for this property. Property survey and analysis, modelling, and design and expertise of the various team members all contributed to this collaborative process.
The property’s form, fabric, appliances and systems were considered in terms of carbon savings, whole-life costs, buildability, replicability and comfort conditions.
Dissemination
This has taken placevia demonstration through construction and post-occupancy, through the Technology Strategy Board Retrofit for the Future programme websites and through RIBA publication in a forthcoming book on best practice in low carbon retrofit 2013.
