We are often asked what ‘Chip’ stands for.
2 (2018).. To learn more about our Design to Value approach to design and construction, sign up for our monthly newsletter here:.http://bit.ly/BWNewsUpdatesReusing buildings and achieving Net Zero.
The UK government has committed to reducing carbon emissions by 78% by 2035, and to become Net Zero Carbon by 2050.This means that all industries, including construction – estimated to produce around 40% of total UK carbon emissions – will need to make a big effort to reduce their environmental impact.Due to the many benefits offered by adaptive reuse architecture, the practice should be embraced as part of the industry’s shift towards more sustainable design.. Over the last few years, the construction industry has focused on the improvement of Building Regulations (including planned changes in Part-L in 2022 and 2025) and the adoption of more ambitious standards and carbon targets for new construction, following initiatives from LETI, RIBA and UKGBC.
The impact of existing buildings, however, has been left unattended.New initiatives, however, are highlighting the importance of adaptive reuse, which focuses on the refurbishment.
of existing buildings (retrofitting) in order to help the UK meet its carbon targets.. To give a sense of the scale of the importance of adaptive reuse: according to LETI’s analysis, 80% of residential buildings that will exist in 2050 have already been built; and most of the buildings currently under construction will need to be partially or totally retrofitted before 2050.. A substantial proportion of the carbon emissions from existing buildings can be reduced by adopting simple retrofit measures, which could potentially be subsidised by the government.
These would include: adding thermal insulation, upgrading windows or exchanging gas boilers for electric heaters and air source heat pumps..Describing the process of layout design for the hospital, Wood notes that the more Bryden Wood understood about the hospital and its patients, the more they were able to ‘codify their operations, their adjacencies and their spaces…’ He discusses the fact that Bryden Wood were able to benefit from a considerable amount of consultation and direct input from the professionals who were actually going to be using the facility.
All of that knowledge was then enshrined into a three dimensional design tool, he says, which became like a ‘vocabulary of spaces…’.Wood also describes how such a level of understanding about the function of the building, led logically to the next step of applying a level of systemization to its construction, in order to underpin it and make construction more efficient.
‘We understood...the scale and the spans that the structure would require’ he says.This enabled the development of a system which is ‘a hybrid, precast concrete and steel system specifically for Circle,’ one which follows the ‘grain’ and ‘functional requirements,’ of all the spaces to be contained within the building.