The Entopia building exemplifies the process of extending the life and enhancing the value of an ordinary office building through a refurbishment promoting ambitious - and measured - energy, carbon and wellbeing outcomes. The talk will explain the initial vision, the design and construction challenges, and summarise the learning and insight that has been gained through the project.

The Passivhaus standard, with its stringent and demanding requirements of air tightness, mechanical ventilation and heat recovery, is just about as good as it gets when it comes to delivering high-comfort, low-energy buildings. But it pays no attention to embodied carbon. A highly successful and certifiable Passivhaus building can be made entirely from concrete – and it can be expensive, if the architecture is not attuned to Passivhaus principles from the very start. Do we need a separate building standard to set embodied carbon targets, or can we add them to Passivhaus? And how much more regulation does the industry need?

The percentage of dwellings using Modern Methods of Construction (MMC), including full-blown factory-made volumetric units, prefabricated components or panelised systems, has not grown significantly in the UK for a generation. Given its manifest advantages in speed, efficiency, build quality and energy performance, why is MMC not gaining ground in response to the acute housing shortage? Shortages of accurate and easily accessible data, a high overhead barrier for manufacturers and ingrained social attitudes that hark back to the prefabs of the 1950s all play their part. The expert panel proposes a way forward.

Discussions on how zero carbon design can be incorporated into the design process. Exploring the design pressures and methods to increase the NZC awareness and decision making. 

Battling climate change and moving the property and construction industry towards a zero carbon, zero waste ideal is fraught with entrenched vested interests, conflicting priorities and even basic disagreements about what should be measured, calculated and reported on, and how. From central government’s building regulations to local authorities’ policies and design guidelines, to developers trying to make a profit while committing to sustainability, to pressure groups and advisory bodies, to architects, engineers, specifiers and contractors squeezed at the end of the food chain, the complex landscape seems to consist of nothing but silos. How can the industry arrive at a useful collaborative model that guarantees efficiency and the best possible outcome for a truly sustainable future?

Our cultural buildings  are custodians of our heritage. How do designers and building manager balance energy reduction with providing environments to preserve the artefacts they house?

The Goldsmith Street Stirling prize-winning affordable housing scheme in Norwich by Mikhail Riches and the government’s ‘Planning for the Future’ white paper bring into sharp relief the issues facing housing development in the quest for Net Zero Carbon. Passivhaus principles, for instance, push the envelope of ‘affordable’, while social sustainability jostles the need for a new aesthetic and a strict prioritisation of carbon-cutting design moves. What is best practice, and how can the planning system be managed to support development at the pace we need while ensuring low- or no-carbon homes?