ABOUT CEBE

In 2011 CeBE has been successful as a partner in several of the Technology Strategy Board’s Building Performance Evaluation Competition projects. These grants were awarded to the developers who co-ordinate the projects monitoring new housing developments. CeBE will be tackling the roles of post construction review investigations, including co heating and air pressurisation tests of the buildings and monitoring the in use performance of the homes. This involves:

• on completion, reviewing how the developer hands over the building to the occupant and explains the operation of its systems and services so that the occupants then understand how to use them effectively.
• detailed analyses of the energy the home buildings consume and interviews with the occupants to understand their experience of using the building.

This latest research builds on CeBE’s earlier work, analysing the energy use of homes which began in the 1990s with our links to the York Energy Demonstration project and has led onto field trials for a range of social landlords, mainstream housing developers and exemplar building contractors. We find that buildings do not perform as well as they were predicted to do in their initial design energy model calculations: there is a Performance Gap. We aim to see how construction can close this Performance Gap. We have characterised new energy loss mechanisms such as the party wall bypass heat loss and evaluated ways to reduce such energy losses. This work has led to the changes in the UK Building Regulations Part L – CeBE staff contributed to the review and strengthening of the energy performance targets in the revisions issued in 2002, 2006, 2010 and we are currently working on the forthcoming 2013 regulation changes.

Professor Chris Gorse
Head of Centre for the Built Environment
17 Queen Square
Leeds Metropolitan University
City Campus
Leeds LS2 8AG
Email: c.gorse@leedsmet.ac.uk
Tel: 0113 8121941

RESEARCH TEAM

Professor Malcolm Bell		Dominic Miles-Shenton
	Malcolm Bell is Professor of Surveying and Sustainable Housing at Leeds Metropolitan University. He has managed housing renewal and maintenance programmes in a number of local authorities and has over 20 years research experience in surveying and housing. For the last 10 years he has focused on technical and policy issues relating to the development of sustainable housing.		Dominic has been particularly involved in the analysis of the relationships between “as-designed” and “as-realised” performance of the new-build housing being constructed on this development and nationwide.
Professor Chris Gorse		Melanie Smith
	Chris Gorse is Professor of Construction and Project Management and Head of the Centre for the Built Environment at Leeds Metropolitan University. He leads projects in the areas of sustainability, low carbon and building performance and has an interest in domestic new build, commercial buildings and refurbishment. Chris is an established author and has consultancy experience in construction management and law.		Melanie’s research interests include studies of thermal insulation and condensation risks in residential properties, including work for the Part L Review. She has authored a book on Building Regulations and access requirements.
Professor John Bale		Tim South
	Emeritus Professor of Leeds Metropolitan University since 2009. Principal academic interests: corporate management in construction and construction industry policy. Author of variety of papers and articles on construction management and construction education - most recently an Inclusive Definition of Construction Management for CIOB.		Research interests: Sound insulation in buildings, hand-arm vibration exposure, whole body vibration exposure. Teaching interests: workplace noise, human vibration exposure.
Dr Arshad Ahmed		Dr Anne Stafford
	Experience in the Aerospace, Chemical, Telecoms and Construction sectors, specialising in evaluating the mechanical and physical properties of all types of commercial materials. Worked with metals, polymers, ceramics, glasses, and construction materials (blockwork, bricks, mortars, etc). Consultancy work evaluating the flexural strength of masonry panels under vertical loads.		Anne has a background in Physics and Materials, with post-doctoral research experience in a number of Renewable Energy technologies, including Solid Oxide Fuel Cells and Photovoltaics, together with experience in developing and delivering energy-related CPD training courses for SMEs, Energy Advice Centres and larger companies.
John Bradley		Professor John Sturges
	Senior Lecturer, Construction & Project Management Group. John has over 25 years experience working in a number of industrial sectors including the international oil and gas industry, distribution and logistics and healthcare.		Visiting Professor. Research interests: The Energy Efficiency of Buildings. The Environmental Impact of Materials Usage, Recycling of Construction Materials. The use of Computer-Aided Project Management methods in the UK Construction Industry.
Dr David Johnston		Dr Andrew Swan
	Research expertise is in the field of energy efficient housing, sustainability in the built environment and climate change and energy use. Work has ranged from theoretical and strategic explorations of climate change targets and their implications for the design and management of the built environment, to detailed empirical work on the potential for carbon emission reductions in new and existing housing.		Andrew is a water engineer with over 10 years of post-graduate experience, and a PhD in the field of Sustainable Drainage. He has worked in both Industry and Academia on a range of domestic and international engineering projects, including an extended VSO placement as a Water & Sanitation Engineer in Zimbabwe, Africa.
Dr Joseph Kangwa		Ian Dickinson
	Research interests: building refurbishment and conservation, building pathology, effect of macro-physical housing regeneration programmes on housing quality, skill training, impact of knowledge of building form on project management of refurbishment projects, use of agrowaste products as building materials from developing nations.		Ian develops new digital media and is doing research in e-learning. He manages the Virtual Site project - an interactive learning resource which utilises 360-degree panoramic photography to create virtual reality simulations of real construction sites.