The case for Centres of Excellence in sustainable building design

Appendix 1
an architecture department might not even be in the same university or the same
city, provided that a suitable modus operandi can be found.
A broad geographic spread of the centres will allow a far greater proportion of
the UK construction industry to benefit from them. The work of the Centres is
expected to have international significance, and to draw on the experiences
of different countries in addressing environmental problems arising from the
climates they experience. This will inform the thinking about how building design
may address the needs of future climate in the United Kingdom.
A number of different centres can allow different ‘flavours’ to emerge – even if
centres are looking at the same issues, rapid progress is more likely if different
approaches are explored. Different styles of leadership have advantages
and disadvantages, and having leaders from different centres in dialogue is
stimulating. The potential for personnel moving between centres as their careers
progress strengthens cross-fertilisation. The panel overseeing the operation of all
the Centres can help ensure that maximum benefit is obtained from this mix.
However, the most significant advantage of a geographical spread for the centres
is simply in terms of catching more of the students who have the right abilities.
Educational provision
The precise details of the enhancements to engineering and architectural
education provided by the Centres will vary according to what already takes place
in the host institutions, but it is necessary to indicate core principles to meet the
aims of the Centres.
A distinction can be made between what is provided to make graduates ‘carbonliterate’
or merely ‘carbon-aware’. The ‘carbon literate’ graduate will be an engineer
with a particular understanding of building physics and environmental design,
and hence able to carry out or direct the range of design investigations needed to
produce buildings which are genuinely sustainable. The ‘carbon-aware’ graduate
(most likely architects or planners) will have sufficient knowledge of the issues to
appreciate how the work led by the ‘carbon-literate’ graduate must be integrated
into the design process.
The two types of graduate need to have some commonality in their education,
and to have opportunities to carry out design project work together, in order to
obtain insights into how the necessary integration can be achieved, and to have
the necessary understanding of and respect for what the other disciplines bring
to the design process. In practice, the greatest advances will be made when all
the main professionals involved in the design of a building project are at least
carbon aware, and engineers are engaged who are fully carbon literate.
It is normal for degree programmes in construction to be very crowded, as
the views of a wide range of individuals on what is ‘essential’ are conflated and
imposed on staff and students. Accrediting bodies are aware of this danger, and
have been working for a number of years to ensure that individual institutions
have flexibility to design their provision to reflect their particular strengths,
leading to a healthy variety of courses. The fact remains that if appropriate new
provision is to be made to meet the requirements of Centres of Excellence,
then some other material or activities will need to be dropped. This may call for
innovations to be made in the way in which some subjects are taught. It is to be
expected that potential hosts for Centres of Excellence are already engaged in
such innovations, and can adapt to achieve new goals. Accrediting bodies will
need to recognise the importance of these goals.
The case for Centres of Excellence in sustainable building design 43