Minimising energy in construction: practitioners’ views on material efficiency

The built environment accounts for 39% of global energy related CO2 emissions, and construction generates 13% of global GDP. Recent success in reducing operational energy and the introduction of strict targets for near-zero energy buildings mean that embodied energy is becoming the dominant component of whole life energy consumption in buildings. One strategy that may be key to achieving emissions reductions is to use materials as efficiently as possible. Yet research has shown that real buildings use structural material inefficiently, with wastage in the order of 50% being common. Two plausible mechanisms are 1) that some engineers hold individual misconceptions, or 2) that inefficiency is a cultural phenomenon, whereby engineers automatically and unquestioningly repeat previous methods without assessing their true suitability. This paper presents a survey of 129 engineering practitioners that examined both culture and practice in design relating to material efficiency. The results reveal wide variations and uncertainty in both regulated and cultural behaviours. For the first time, we demonstrate that embodied energy efficiency is not a high priority, with habitual over-design resulting in more expensive buildings that consume more of our material resource than necessary. We show wide variability in measures that engineers should agree on and propose research through which these culture and individual issues might fruitfully be tackled within the timeframes required by climate science.EPSR

Talk the Talk and Walk the Walk: Are Career Academics Gatekeepers to Students’ Tacit Knowledge?

An opinion piece that argues for a more balanced portfolio of academic staff within faculty, whereby pracademics are ‘pivotal’ academic staff who can ‘talk the talk and walk the walk’ with students who have industrial placement experience

The fall and rise of experiential construction and engineering education: decoupling and recoupling practice and theory

From the mid-20th C., construction and engineering pedagogy and curricula have moved from long-held traditional experiential apprenticeship approaches to one ostensibly decoupling practice and theory. This paper traces this decoupling and explores modern-day opportunities and challenges for recoupling university education with industry practice. Within this context the UK Government funds Graduate Level Apprenticeships (GLA) and introduces the Teaching Excellence Framework (TEF), arguably signalling a desire to recouple. Nevertheless, many challenges from following previous UK Government policy prioritizing research remain, particularly for post-1992 institutions. Arguably, Higher Education Institutions (HEI’s) are at a pedagogical crossroads, considering whether to choose REF-ville, TEF-ville, and/or Apprentice Township. Do HEI’s continue their increasingly decontextualized theoretical approach, or re-embrace construction and engineering education’s experiential roots? We present and discuss opportunities and challenges currently facing HEI’s, aiming to help inform decisions regarding recoupling theory and practice in construction and engineering teaching and learning, but potentially also other fields

Understanding material and supplier networks in the construction of disaster-relief shelters: the feasibility of using social network analysis as a decision-making tool

Purpose: Understanding the supply network of construction materials used to construct shelters in refugee camps, or during the reconstruction of communities, is important as it can reveal the intricate links between different stakeholders and the volumes and speeds of material flows to the end-user. Using social network analysis (SNA) enables another dimension to be analysed – the role of commonalities. This is likely to be particularly important when attempting to replace vernacular materials with higher-performing alternatives or when encouraging the use of non-vernacular methods. This paper aims to analyse the supply networks of four different disaster-relief situations. Design/methodology/approach: Data were collected from interviews with 272 displaced (or formally displaced) families in Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Nepal and Turkey, often in difficult conditions. Findings: The results show that the form of the supply networks was highly influenced by the nature/cause of the initial displacement, the geographical location, the local availability of materials and the degree of support/advice given by aid agencies and or governments. In addition, it was found that SNA could be used to indicate which strategies might work in a particular context and which might not, thereby potentially speeding up the delivery of novel solutions. Research limitations/implications: This study represents the first attempt in theorising and empirically investigating supply networks using SNA in a post-disaster reconstruction context. It is suggested that future studies might map the up-stream supply chain to include manufacturers and higher-order, out of country, suppliers. This would provide a complete picture of the origins of all materials and components in the supply network. Originality/value: This is original research, and it aims to produce new knowledge

Research data supporting the Report Survey of Structural Engineering Practice

Anonymised survey data for the Initial Findings of Survey of Structural Engineering Practice and associated publications from EP/P033679/2EPSRC EP/P033679/

MEICON: Minimising Energy in Construction Survey of Structural Engineering Practice Report

This report presents preliminary findings arising from work undertaken as part of the research project Minimising Energy in Construction (MEICON) . The long-term vision of MEICON is for the built environment to be designed cost-effectively, based on whole life cycle energy consumption using minimum material resource for appropriate performance. Our immediate ambition is to use feasibility studies to identify and address sources of wasted embodied energy, value-less cost, and performance over-design in the construction industry to transform sector wide design practice and define the research areas that will underpin this transformation. As a first step, an online survey was undertaken to examine current culture and practice in structural engineering design as it relates to embodied energy. This report combines analysis of these survey responses with initial explorations of some of the issues that surround the minimisation of embodied energy. Chapter 1 provides the highest-level outcomes in a condensed format. Chapter 2 provides the underlying data and analysis. The results of the survey reveal wide variations and uncertainty in both regulated and cultural behaviours. We find that embodied energy efficiency is not yet a high priority in design, resulting in buildings that consume more of our material resource than may be necessary. The wide spread of responses to the majority of questions demonstrates a lack of consensus across the sector when considering questions of material efficiency, illustrating both the scale and potential opportunity for the sector to lead in solving the challenges ahead. Our findings are supplemented throughout the report by new questions that have arisen during this initial study. These are grouped into eighteen “Industry Questions” and twenty-one “Research Questions”, each of which will require a collaborative, sector-wide effort to solve. We therefore call upon you to join us and help us to solve these challenges as we move towards minimal energy construction. Visit www.meicon.net/survey2018 to find out how you can help

Research data supporting: Minimising energy in construction: practitioners’ views on material efficiency

Data is from an online survey (hosted using Google Surveys). The data was generated by the users filling in the questions (36 questions for the survey and 9 about their background). Data was collected between 29 June and 10 October 2017

Heterozygous mutation to Chd8 causes macrocephaly and widespread alteration of neurodevelopmental transcriptional networks in mouse

Summary The chromatin remodeling gene CHD8 represents a central node in early neurodevelopmental gene networks implicated in autism. We examined the impact of heterozygous germline Chd8 mutation on neurodevelopment in mice. Network analysis of neurodevelopmental gene expression revealed subtle yet strongly significant widespread transcriptional changes in Chd8 +/− mice across autism-relevant networks from neurogenesis to synapse function. Chd8 +/− expression signatures included enrichment of RNA processing genes and a Chd8-regulated module featuring altered transcription of chromatin remodeling, splicing, and cell cycle genes. Chd8 +/− mice exhibited increased proliferation during brain development and neonatal increase in cortical length and volume. Structural MRI confirmed regional brain volume increase in adult Chd8 +/− mice, consistent with clinical macrocephaly. Adult Chd8 +/− mice displayed normal social interactions, and repetitive behaviors were not evident. Our results show that Chd8 +/− mice exhibit neurodevelopmental changes paralleling CHD8 +/− humans and show that Chd8 is a global genomic regulator of pathways disrupted in neurodevelopmental disorders