Dr Chengzhi Peng
BArch, DipLA, MSc, PhD
School of Architecture
Senior Lecturer in Architectural Science
Research Ethics Lead
MSc Digital Architecture and Design Co-Director


+44 114 222 0318
Full contact details
School of Architecture
- Profile
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Though much to be developed, better understood and applied responsibly, advanced data-driven computational modelling is considered by many a viable approach to addressing the challenges of sustainable, liveable and informational (smart) built environment. I lead the Bioclimatic Design Futures (BDF) research team, working computational modelling of climate-energy performance and livability (thermal comfort and air quality) of building stocks in their urban contexts over the time-frame of climate projections. The aim is to achieve improved model accuracy, transparency, agility and power of feedback on planing and design decision-making.
I provided the leadership and launched the MSc Digital Architecture and Design (DAAD) programme in 2014. Working with the DAAD teaching team over the past years, a distinctive pedagogy of digital architecture and design has emerged. DAAD students are presented with the unique opportunity of creative fusion of parametric geometry with preformative micro-kinetics in the making of prototype digital architecture. Since 2017, working intensively with the students, we have been presenting and publishing original papers at the eCAADe and CAADRIA international conferences continuously.
- Qualifications
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- PhD Architectural Computing, University of Edinburgh, 1989 – 1994
- MSc Computer-Aided Building Design, University of Strathclyde, 1988-1989
- Diploma in Landscape Studies, University of Edinburgh, 1987-1988
- Bachelor of Architecture, Tunghai University, Taiwan, 1979-1984
- Research interests
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Research Interests:
Data-driven predictive modelling for optimising planning and design of sustainable and liveable building stocks over the time frame of climate change projections
Projects:
Modelling peak cooling demand and heat stress vulnerability of a city’s dwelling stock in future climate; Towards The Formulation of an Omani Green Building Code Based on the Sustainable Principles of Vernacular Settlements; Urban morphology parameters for predicting impacts of urban neighbourhood and building design on urban microclimate; Projection of pathways towards better indoor air quality of a university's building stock.
Postgraduate Supervision Areas:
Climate-Energy Building Stock Modelling; Outdoor-Indoor Air Quality and Thermal Co-Simulation; Urban and Building Data Modelling using Machine Learning; Urban and Building Morphological Characterisation
- Publications
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Books
Journal articles
- Modelling urban dwellers’ indoor heat stress to enhance heat-health warning and planning. Building and Environment, 243.
- Evaluation of housing stock indoor air quality models : a review of data requirements and model performance. Journal of Building Engineering.
- An archetype-in-neighbourhood framework for modelling cooling energy demand of a city's housing stock. Energy and Buildings, 196, 30-45. View this article in WRRO
- Integration of agent-based modelling of social-spatial processes in architectural parametric design. Architectural Science Review. View this article in WRRO
- Influences of visual preferences expressed by participants on early stage of learning space design: an interactive parametric modelling study. Architectural Science Review, 61(6), 454-466. View this article in WRRO
- Correlating cooling energy use with urban microclimate data for projecting future peak cooling energy demands: Residential neighbourhoods in Seoul. Sustainable Cities and Society, 35, 645-659. View this article in WRRO
- View this article in WRRO
- An outdoor-indoor coupled simulation framework for Climate Change–conscious Urban Neighborhood Design. Simulation: transactions of the Society for Modeling and Simulation International, 90(8), 874-891. View this article in WRRO
- Microclimate change outdoor and indoor coupled simulation for passive building adaptation design. Procedia Computer Science, 32, 691-698. View this article in WRRO
- Climate change simulation for intelligent green building adaptation design. 2014 International Conference on Intelligent Green Building and Smart Grid (IGBSG). View this article in WRRO
- Learning from a new learning landscape: Visualisation of location sensing data in the Augustine House Experiment. British Journal of Educational Technology, 44(5), 795-809. View this article in WRRO
- Mapping Interstitial Urban Spaces through Performing the City. Leonardo: Art Science and Technology, 46(5), 491-492.
- Environmental profiling as an approach for quantifying the environmental sustainability of residential buildings in Nigeria. ICSDEC 2012: Developing the Frontier of Sustainable Design, Engineering, and Construction - Proceedings of the 2012 International Conference on Sustainable Design and Construction, 431-440.
- UCampus: Can an open source 3D interactive virtual campus modelling platform support institutional learning and innovation?. International Journal of Architectural Computing, 9(3), 303-324.
- In-situ 3D concept design with a virtual city. Design Studies, 27(4), 439-455.
- e-service as a new paradigm for interactive multidimensional city modeling. Proceedings - 2004 IEEE International Conference on e-Technology, e-Commerce and e-Service, EEE 2004, 169-172.
- Reconstructing urban contexts online for interactive urban designs. Design Studies, 25(2), 175-192.
- Exploring urban history and space online: Design of the virtual Sheffield application. Design Studies, 23(5), 437-453.
- On an alternative framework for building virtual cities: Supporting urban contextual modelling on demand. Environment and Planning B: Planning and Design, 29(1), 87-103.
- Flexible generic frameworks and multidisciplinary synthesis of built form. Design Studies, 20(6), 537-551.
- Exploring communication in collaborative design: co-operative architectural modelling. Design Studies, 15(1), 19-44.
Chapters
- Designing Innovative Learning Spaces in Higher Education at a Turning Point: Institutional Identities, Pervasive Smart Technologies and Organizational Learning In Baskerville R, De Marco M & Spagnoletti P (Ed.), Designing Organizational Systems: An Interdisciplinary Discourse (pp. 217-244). Berlin Heidelberg: Springer.
- Capturing Histories of Design Processes for Collaborative Building Design Development, Computer Aided Architectural Design Futures 2001 (pp. 427-437). Springer Netherlands
- Dynamic Retrieval in an Urban Contextual Databank System using Java-CGI Communications, Computer Aided Architectural Design Futures 2001 (pp. 89-102). Springer Netherlands
Conference proceedings papers
- Understanding occupant behaviour in Islamic homes to close the gap in building performance simulation: A case study of houses in Riyadh. Proceedings of the 16th IBPSA Conference (pp 2107-2114). Rome, Italy, 2 September 2019 - 4 September 2019.
- View this article in WRRO
- View this article in WRRO
- Singing Cans Prototyping an experimental wind instrument through parametric design integrated with field experiments. Proceedings of the International Conference on Education and Research in Computer Aided Architectural Design in Europe, Vol. 1 (pp 703-710)
- View this article in WRRO
- View this article in WRRO
- View this article in WRRO
- View this article in WRRO
Software / Code
- http://www.jisc.ac.uk/whatwedo/programmes/institutionalinnovation/wecamp.aspx
- Modelling urban dwellers’ indoor heat stress to enhance heat-health warning and planning. Building and Environment, 243.
- Research group
- Grants
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Thermal Stress Vulnerability and Resilience: Housing Stock Transformation fit for an Ageing Society in Future Climate, with Dr Choo Yoon Yi, ESRC Postdoctoral Fellowships, starting 01/10/2020, 12 months.
Future Climate and Change in Livability of a City’s Housing Environment. ESRC White Rose Social Sciences DTP Collaborative Award, in collaboration with John Clephan (Sheffield Housing Company), Prof Edward Ferrari (Centre for Regional Economic and Social Research, Sheffield Hallam University, 01/10/2018 - 30/09/2022.
Characterising Uncertainty in Complex Environmental Simulations for Public Engagement with Climate Change Conscious Sustainable Planning and Design. Grantham Foundation, Grantham Centre for Sustainable Futures Grantham Scholars Programme 2016. In collaboration with Prof Richard Wilkinson (School of Mathematics and Statistics), 01/10/2016 – 30/09/2020.
Transcultural Understanding of Designing with Climate Change: A Joint Design Research Studio Approach. In collaboration with Ranald Lawrence (University of Sheffield), Kevin Fellingham (University of cape Town), Edward Ng (Chinese University of Hong Kong), Yang Liu & Liming Kong (Xi’an University of Architecture and Technology), Kun Li (Wuhan University). Worldwide Universities Network (WUN) Research and Development Scheme 2014, 01/01 2015 – 30/06/2016.
- Teaching interests
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- Urban microclimate modelling
- Building information modelling
- Computational design; digital design studio
- Dissertation/thesis projects
- Teaching activities
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- ARC 322 Special Study
- ARC556 MArch Dissertation
- ARC6808 Advanced Simulation for Modelling Adaptive Architecture
- ARC6809 MSc DAAD Thesis Project
- ARC6814 Critical Applications of BIM
- ARC6815 DAAD StudioMAKE
- ARC6819 Elements of Computational Design 2
- ARC6990 SAS Dissertation Project
- ARC6731 Doctoral Training in Architecture
- Professional activities and memberships
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- Member of Editorial Board, ArchNet-IJAR, International Journal of Architectural Research, Emerald Publishing
- Appointed Peer Reviewer, Qatar National Research Fund, Qatar Foundation
- Member of Scientific Committee - eCAADe, CAADRIA, CAAD Futures
- PhD External Examiners at University of Edinburgh, University of Nottingham, Manchester Metropolitan University, University of Huddersfield
- Visiting Associate Professor, Department of Architecture, National Taiwan University of Science and Technology, Taiwan