{"id":702,"date":"2020-01-29T10:39:40","date_gmt":"2020-01-29T10:39:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/research.reading.ac.uk\/sbe-projects\/?page_id=702"},"modified":"2020-01-29T10:41:22","modified_gmt":"2020-01-29T10:41:22","slug":"sbe-projects","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/research.reading.ac.uk\/sbe-projects\/","title":{"rendered":"SBE Projects"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Urban metabolism, knowledge and applications in urban planning and design<\/a><\/h2>\n

Associated projects:<\/strong><\/p>\n

Using Urban Metabolism to analyse Fuel Poverty in Reading (2018)
\nPrincipal investigator: Daniela Perrotti, with Eugene Mohareb.
\nThe project aims to apply models for urban metabolism analysis to assess the fuel poverty issue in Reading. Reading will be used as a case study to generalise results to other small UK cities with similar demographic and socioeconomic profiles. The students will use data collected during a previous study of the metabolism of Reading, which employed the Material Flow Analysis (MFA) methodology (input-output quantification of water, energy, reused\/landfilled waste, and carbon dioxide emissions by sectors). Funded through the Undergraduate Research Opportunity Programme (UROP), University of Reading. Project link<\/p>\n

INSIGHT: Integrated strategies for inclusive growth, resource-efficiency and urban resilience (2018)
\nPrincipal investigator: Daniela Perrotti with University of Portsmouth, UK, and Xi\u2019an Jiaotong University, China
\nUK-China Urban Regeneration and Sustainable Communities Leadership Workshop (Xi\u2019an, China), sponsored by the British Council – Newton Fund. The main aim of the INSIGHT workshop is to promote the international exchange of knowledge and experiences around novel theories, strategies and methods on urban regeneration, applying integrated strategies for inclusive growth, resource-efficiency and urban resilience. The applicants are experts in the field of inclusive urban regeneration and resource efficiency. Project link.<\/p>\n

UK Cities Urban Metabolism and Energy Transitions: A taxonomy of cities (2017-2020)
\nPrincipal Investigator: Christina Bristow. PhD Co-Supervisor: Daniela Perrotti; with Dr. Eugene Mohareb and Dr. Phil Coker.
\nUK Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) Doctoral Training Partnership. This doctoral research project features an exploration of resource requirements in UK cities using urban metabolism modelling methods. Project link<\/p>\n

Quantifying Reading\u2019s Urban Metabolism (2017)
\nPrincipal investigator: Daniela Perrotti; with Dr. Eugene Mohareb
\nUndergraduate Research Opportunity Programme (UROP), University of Reading. Two students worked in collaboration with Reading Borough Council to quantify resource consumption in the local area. This project fell under the research area of “urban metabolism” which is a resource flow accounting application to quantify the needs of urban areas and explore how they can transition to more sustainable levels of resource consumption. Project link<\/p>\n

Application of energy-conscious design principles in planning and design: sustainable energy landscapes (2015 \u2013 2018)
\nPhD investigator: Roberta Pistoni, with Daniela Perrotti, Wageningen University, Landscape Architecture Chair Group, and School of Landscape Architecture of Versailles, Laboratoire de Recherche en Projet de Paysage Larep.
\nFrench Ministry for the Environment ITTECOP \/ ARENE \u00cele-de-France. A PhD research project examining the design principles that promote rational energy management, to support the planning and delivery of sustainable energy landscapes. Project link.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div><\/div>\n

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UK Cities urban metabolism<\/a><\/h2>\n

PhD researcher: Christina Bristow<\/p>\n

This doctoral research project features an exploration of resource requirements in UK cities using urban metabolism modelling methods. As such, an \u201corganism\u201d metaphor will be employed with the aim of developing a “taxonomy” of urban areas. Drivers such as urban energy, water, material and food demands and their relationship to local infrastructure will be researched, with a particular focus on urban heat.
\nSpatially and temporally explicit urban metabolic models will be developed. Considerations of taxonomy and these urban metabolism models will then be used in a group of selected UK case study cities to examine infrastructural change for low-carbon systems of the future. There will be a focus on the transition to carbon-free heating options, widening our understanding of which options are most suitable in different UK contexts. Spatially and temporally explicit urban metabolic models will be developed to aid in decision making for changing building and infrastructure stocks.<\/p>\n

The project will seek collaboration with a diverse set of UK cities and urban areas to serve as case studies for validation of the metabolic profiles developed. These will include varying metabolic needs to serve a variety of economic activities and infrastructure systems. Ultimately the exploration of the interrelationship between these and their temporal and spatial dynamics will enable new insight in planning for regional transitions to low-carbon systems.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div><\/div>\n

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Urban ecosystem services and integration in Urban Metabolism frameworks<\/a><\/h2>\n

Associated projects:<\/p>\n

Urban metabolism modelling for sustainable green infrastructure development in rapidly urbanized mid-sized cities in Brazil (2018)<\/h3>\n

Principle investigator: Daniela Perrotti <\/a>with Federal University of Mato Grosso (Brazil), University of Leeds (UK), Dr. Vincent Luo<\/a> and Dr. Eugene Mohareb<\/a>\u00a0(University of Reading)<\/em><\/p>\n

UK Global Challenge Research Fund Pump-Priming Grant.\u00a0A case study in Rondon\u00f3polis, Mato Grosso.<\/p>\n

Integrating Ecosystem Services in Urban Metabolism Frameworks for Climate-responsive and Energy-saving Green Infrastructure Design (2015)<\/h3>\n

Principle investigator: Daniela Perrotti<\/a> with\u00a0Wageningen University and Research Centre, Landscape Architecture Chair Group, The Netherlands.<\/em><\/p>\n

WIMEK Senior Research Grant, Wageningen Institute for Environment and Climate Research.<\/p>\n

Landscape Design and Sustainable Energy Transition in Peri-Urban Areas (2012-2014)<\/h3>\n

Principle investigator: Daniela Perrotti <\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

Research Fellowship, Research Network on Sustainable Development R2DS Ile-de-France, France. Academic affiliation: Dept. Science for Action and Sustainable Development (SAD-APT), National Institute for Agricultural Research INRA Versailles-Grignon, France<\/p>\n

Interdisciplinary Action research Landscapes Design & Energy Transition (2012-2013)<\/h3>\n

Principle investigator: Daniela Perrotti<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

National Institute for Agricultural Research INRA Versailles-Grignon.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div><\/div>\n

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The Library: physicality and enactment (PhD Thesis)<\/a><\/h2>\n

Lead investigator: Hiral Patel<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

The purpose of the PhD research was to study adaptations of a building after it was constructed, and, in doing so, to explicate a novel conception of what a building is. Moving beyond the conception of buildings as fixed physical objects, a practice-based approach is adopted to conceptualise a building as a series of enactments. The practices of enacting a building illustrate how overly simplified design speculations are defied. Design strategies for adaptability of buildings often assume that adaptability resides in the physicality of the building. Instead, this research suggests that adaptability resides in the relations of the physical building with heterogonous entities. The building is, thus, a fluid object. The fluidity of buildings challenge scalar differentiations, and in turn reveal how a desk in the library is connected to the wider urban environment of the campus. Moreover, multiple versions of the library co-exist. Adaptations of a building are imbued with the \u2018politics-of-what\u2019 in prioritising one version of the library over other versions. The physicality of the building is manipulated in such politics. This has implications for renewal of building design practices to become sensitive to the ways in which multiple versions of a building may be politicised.<\/p>\n

Exhibition<\/em><\/p>\n

\u2018Enactments of the Library\u2019, curated in the Library Building, University of Reading in November 2014 to mark the celebration of 50th anniversary of the building. The exhibition was part of University of Reading Alumni event. The exhibition provided an opportunity to actively participate in the community being researched. In making the exhibition and transgressing my identity from \u2018observer\u2019 to \u2018participant\u2019, I was able to gain new access to people, places and artefacts in the field. The exhibition provided an example of simultaneity of data collection, data analysis and demonstrating research output.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div><\/div>\n

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The DEGW Archive, 2016-present<\/a><\/h2>\n

Lead Investigator:\u00a0Hiral Patel<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

The \u00a0research project focuses on the DEGW<\/a> archive, capturing the first 25 years of the work of the spatial and architectural consultancy DEGW. The research mobilises the concept of a \u2018living archive\u2019 through curatorial methodology.\u00a0 The archive is continuously enriched by curating exhibitions and events, often crafted in collaboration with members of the DEGW diaspora.\u00a0 The exhibitions and events create space to reflect on current issues relating to the design and research of the built environment in light of the lessons learnt from the archive.<\/p>\n

Click here for more information.\u00a0<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div><\/div><\/div>\n

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Sustainable Neighbourhood Masterplans<\/a><\/h2>\n

Examining the role of BREEAM Communities in green infrastructure evaluation<\/h2>\n

Lead investigator: Rosalie Callway<\/a>, with Tim Dixon<\/a> and Dragana Nikolic<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

Evaluation of Green infrastructure (GI) is reported to improve decision-making and outcomes in neighbourhood design, but there is little research that examines the links between GI evaluation and masterplan outcomes. An empirical study of six English master planned residential sites was carried out of three broad types of neighbourhood development (estate regeneration, urban infill, and rural-urban extension). In each of the three types two pairs of sties were studied, one site which adopted BREEAM Communities (BC) and one had not. This supported an examination of whether BC affected GI evaluative practice and masterplan decisions. A series of ‘evaluative episodes’ were studied across the six sites, using a Strategy-as-Practice framework to trace how different actors viewed specific types of GI (e.g. street trees, green roofs, soft Sustainable Drainage Systems (SUDS)), how the GI was formally evaluated in the course of the episodes and whether the application of BC affected that evaluation. Potential ways to enhance GI evaluative embeddedness in masterplan processes were also reviewed as a part of the study.<\/p>\n

Associated publications<\/h3>\n

Callway, R., Dixon, T. and Nikolic, D. (2016) BREEAM Communities: Challenges for Sustainable Neighbourhood Evaluation<\/a><\/em>, RICS COBRA September 2016.<\/p>\n

Callway, R., Dixon, T. and Nikolic, D. (2017) Embedded evaluation? Examining green infrastructure evaluation in\u00a0 the neighbourhood masterplan journey<\/em><\/a>. ARCOM, September 2017<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div><\/div>\n

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Social Sustainability and Social Value in UK Housebuilding<\/a><\/h2>\n

Building on previous work led by Tim Dixon for the European Investment Bank on social sustainability in urban regeneration, this work has developed (with Social Life) a social sustainability assessment framework for UK housing projects. This uses national datasets and survey work to assess four main dimensions: \u2018amenities and infrastructure\u2019; \u2018social and cultural life\u2019; and \u2018voice and influence\u2019. The framework has been applied in a range of new housing developments for Berkeley Group and Countryside properties, and the work has also helped inform recent practice guidance on social value for the UK Green Building Council.<\/p>\n