The case for Centres of Excellence in sustainable building design

Appendix 1
parties, should not be directly involved in the management panels, though they
could usefully have affiliation with the Centres. Policymakers must see the Centres
as the trusted friends who will tell them the uncomfortable truths that they
would rather not hear. To that end, it may be helpful to have an appropriate civil
servant on the overview panel. Policymakers must see the Centres as providers of
solutions, not as lobbying organisations.
The failures referred to in this report have generally arisen from ignorance, in spite
of a strong will to do well. Leading designers are expected to advise their clients
taking into account the long term concerns of both client and society. Their
reputations and their future business rest on how well their buildings meet these
needs; they are not dependent for their profits on selling devices, and have no
interest in offering solutions with either high upfront or operating costs.
Their vested interests only lie in the Centres producing the graduates who can
support them in achieving these aims. Their mission is therefore compatible with
that of the Centres, and they should have strong involvement in the running of
the Centres.
Research
A Centre of Excellence should be engaged in fundamental research into such
things as the properties of materials, the behaviour of fluids or of people, the
transportation, transformation and storage of energy, or any number of other
fundamental aspects that influence the design of sustainable buildings. A Centre
should also be engaged in the assessment of existing buildings, the collation and
interpretation of those findings, developing understanding, and communicating
that enhanced understanding to practitioners and to its own undergraduates.
Centres would also usefully have direct engagement with designers, advising on
particular problems, and carrying out the research needed to support innovative
design ideas. Their research may also have contributions from psychology and
social science in relation to the human elements of the whole complex system
controlling energy use in a building.
Research in the built environment is typically supported by the Engineering and
Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) for pure research and the Technology
Strategy Board (TSB) for ‘year to market’ technologies, often involving close links
to commercial organisations. The bulk of the output of existing research centres
is of a traditional academic form and rarely responds to the needs or timescales
of industries such as the construction industry. A research programme will
typically have a duration of two or three years following a year or more of work
to obtain funding. Writing up, peer review and publication of the results may
delay dissemination for a further year or two. In the face of a very urgent need for
buildings to consume less energy and generate less CO2, this is far too slow to be
of use to the construction industry.
Other forms of output may be unpublished reports written for commercial
organisations, usually for a very narrowly defined purpose where a centre has
specific expertise. These research programmes are much faster, being driven by
the commercial demand of a single organisation, but have very limited impact.
A number of research centres exist which have building science as part of their
remit, while many universities have centres in ‘sustainability’ or ‘low carbon’,
and others have taken the Low Carbon proposition on a systems engineering
approach. However, what is clear is that the balance between broad academic
and teaching staff and purely research staff varies considerably between these
research centres. Most centres are involved in the delivery of taught postgraduate
The case for Centres of Excellence in sustainable building design 41