In these times we tend to grasp onto something, anything that relieves the feelings of being lost.
MEP calculations are still in their infancy compared with the rest of the building, meaning more research and data collection is required to create robust calculations and benchmarks.MEP has a short lifespan compared with other elements and as such it is even more important to consider the whole life impact of services, alongside the operational carbon impact..
At two thirds of the whole life carbon, embodied carbon is critically important within an office building.Decisions made during early design stages should prioritise embodied carbon alongside design, function, and aesthetics..The brainstorming sessions on how to move from the BaU scheme to a platform-led scheme (back in 2019) included embodied carbon as one of the technical indicators, giving as much weight to carbon as other metrics such as productivity, safety, and cost..
The data collected on this project is valuable, not because it shows how well the buildings perform against benchmarks, but because the data can influence future projects right now.If every project was able to reduce embodied carbon by nearly 40% it would revolutionise the industry..
The Forge stands as a beacon of what is possible when we rethink design and construction.
Its success is a collaborative triumph, and a reflection of our shared vision for a more efficient, sustainable built environment..but also in terms of development and other targets, at borough, city, county, or national level..
This is about understanding how to take information about one stage of an asset, and make it usable for another stage.Our approach will generate a density of information that we can make use of throughout the design and build process (including planning) – and then beyond construction, into the operation of buildings and ultimately their end of life.
Standardised data will vastly improve transparency and efficiency, and open up opportunities for future innovation..Enabling planning as a data-led process will unlock the value of related modern methods of construction, enabling connections with related applications such as the PRiSM app for housing.. Making processes more efficient and transparent will force the hand of the regulatory environment – as we have seen in other sectors, better technology drives the modernisation of regulations.. And, of course, the lessons learned from this project can be applied beyond planning.