There are limitations with these carbon capture methods, however, as CCS by itself isn’t enough to bring us to the designated targets for the industry.
In November 2018, the Infrastructure and Projects Authority (IPA) launched its call for evidence, ‘Proposal for a New Approach to Building,’ calling for the adoption of Platforms.At the same time, the Construction Innovation Hub (CIH) was announced, partly to accelerate the design and development of Platforms.. Also in 2018, The UKRI backing of Demonstrator projects, such as SEISMIC, opened the door to even greater collaboration between Bryden Wood and others, resulting not only in a digital configurator for designing schools, but also a collaboration between two of the industry’s leading modular competitors, Elliot and McAvoy, resulting in a standard modular connector..
In 2019, with Landsec and Easi-Space, we were successful in bidding for funding from UKRI to support a collaborative project to research and test automation in construction.This is our work on Platforms for offices and commercial developments..This work is now a key focus for the CIH, and it is the heart of the demonstrator project that has won this latest funding from UKRI.
The close collaboration between Landsec, Easi-Space, the Bryden Wood design team and a new supply chain, is now applying the P-DfMA design and prototype learnings to a live Landsec project in Sumner Street, central London..This development will be two office buildings around an internal courtyard, rising to nine storeys and covering a total of 135,000 sq ft.
It is designed to a ‘zero carbon in use’ strategy, and the efficiencies and innovations inherent to P-DfMA are already achieving remarkable gains: 40% reduction in steel used; a forecast 19.4% reduction in embodied carbon per square metre, a 36.4% carbon reduction in the substructure and 20.2% in the superstructure and façade.. Sumner Street is a game changer for construction.
But it’s important to see that it has not come in isolation.This helps optimise the process and allows architects to test options that may reduce the building footprint and massing..
External CFD is also a great tool for site-agnostic design.The same design can be tested across a range of weather conditions and orientations, with the risks and benefits of each highlighted.
This insight at the early design stage is extremely valuable, for example the impact on plant and building layouts can be optimised when considering the prevailing wind direction..It is important to highlight that we don’t only simulate building operation, but also interpret analysis results comprehensively, focusing on the average uplift across all the heat rejection plant, generators and building ventilation intakes rather than solely on the worst-affected equipment.