Building a greener future
A research group based within the School of Architecture is at the fore-front of research into sustainable or 'green' architecture, and is making important contributions to the UK government's target for an 80% reduction in carbon emissions by 2050.
Dr Hasim Altan, Director of the Building Environments Analysis Unit (BEAU, formerly known as Building Energy Analysis Unit) at the University of Sheffield, has over 13 years of experience in the field of sustainable environmental building design. His research is contributing to the growth of knowledge in sustainable architecture, energy efficiency and building design.
Transport, and in particular air travel, is often invoked as a major contributor to global warming, but as Dr Altan points out, in the UK travel accounts for around 30% of energy use, whereas almost 50% of the energy we use can be accounted for by the buildings we live and work in: "The immediate priority should be to reduce the energy consumption of buildings. What we need to be doing is focusing on robust strategies for retrofitting our existing buildings within a short timeframe".
Dr Altan recently contributed to the Carbon Reduction in Buildings (CaRB) programme. CaRB is a major £3.2million research project funded by the EPSRC and Carbon Trust as part of Carbon Vision Buildings, which aims to reduce carbon emissions from the UK building stock. Dr Altan approached every higher education institution in the country in order to determine what interventions had been made to save on energy and carbon in the last 5 years. He also worked with Accent Homes, one of the UKs largest housing developers, on designing low energy and low carbon buildings. Dr Altan helped to develop low cost, low energy designs for housing, which were implemented in Bradford and are currently being monitored by BEAU to establish if they are in fact near zero carbon emitting.
Dr Altan explains the importance of this research: "Sustainable architecture can only mean environmentally responsive architecture. Today, we have to tackle climate change and global warming. We therefore need to be answering our sustainability agenda by addressing environmental, social and economic factors to minimise the negative environmental impact of buildings. In so doing, we will create sustainable urban environments with sustainable communities".
In the UK, the majority of the existing housing stock is in poor condition and this is a big challenge for the government to tackle in such a short timeframe. Many homes in Sheffield, for example, are approaching 200 years old. Although there are standards and practices to achieve energy efficiency in existing housing, many argue that there are no cost-effective solutions to such improvements or even financial incentives for the government to improve energy efficiency in the private housing sector.
Dr Altan again: "A key question is how to strike a balance between carbon-neutral new-build properties and energy efficient retrofitting of old properties. The legislation is clear in terms of new housing, however it is not very clear in terms of existing housing. The European Union has set definitive regulations implementing the Energy Performance Building Directive (EPBD) in most of its member states, however in the UK this is taking longer than expected due to the existing housing stock and should be given a high priority".
If the UK is to succeed in cutting carbon emissions produced by the built environment, Dr Altan is clear about the route we must take: "We need to stop using more resources than we can sustain and we have to adopt different construction methods and start reducing, recycling and reusing ('the three Rs') sustainably if we are to create low carbon impact buildings for the future. This very complex area undoubtedly requires further research and development".
For further information, please contact Dr Hasim Altan at:
email : h.altan@sheffield.ac.uk
Suggested links:
Carbon Vision Buildings research
Building Environments Analysis Unit (BEAU) at the University of Sheffield