David Hawkins

Awarded VEIV EngD

I am researching the cases for refurbishment and replacement of existing buildings to improve whole life cycle energy consumption and reduce carbon emissions. The energy performance of an old building is typically poorer than that of newer buildings. Such buildings make up a large proportion of the existing building stock and if they remain in use without improvement will form an increasingly significant and irreducible proportion of the overall energy consumption. There is a compelling argument for replacing existing buildings with newer, more energy efficient buildings. However this should be measured against the significant energy invested in the construction of a replacement building, particularly in terms of the embodied energy of the materials used and the construction process. This is in addition to the many other implications of replacing a building.

I plan to apply Life Cycle Assessment methodology to a variety of case studies to explore the impact of refurbishment or replacement on life cycle energy and carbon emissions. My target outcome is a software tool to be used to aid decision making on refurbishment versus replacement of a building.

Primary Supervisor: Dejan Mumovic

Industry Sponsor: Feilden Clegg Bradley Studios

Dynamic Environments | Life-Cycle Building Performance