Built Environment: from decarbonisation to optimisation

Decarbonising the built environment

In response to the climate crisis, the imperative to decarbonise has become a driving force across diverse fields, permeating every corner of modern research, from public health to computational science. This presentation delves into the profound influence of decarbonisation on research within the built environment, tracing its evolution over the years in tandem with emerging social, economic, and political complexities. An exploration of new directions for built environment decarbonisation research, in particular in regard to complex and under-researched segments of the built environment, and its pivotal role in shaping our collective progress, prospects and future prosperity will be discussed.

Building digital twins: how data and digitalisation can improve energy efficiency and resilience in buildings

The digitalisation of energy efficiency is becoming an essential topic in the context of climate change and resilient building operations. The IEA Energy Efficiency Report recognises the importance of data and digitalisation to reshape the entire energy system. The presentation will reflect upon what a building digital twin is, its various manifestations, and how such digital twins can support objectives across different phases of a building’s life cycle. The presentation will present examples of digital twins for an effective operation and the technologies needed to deliver these technologies at scale. The talk will discuss how digital twins are constructed and delivered, focusing on the role of semantic web technologies and data integration platforms.

About the speakers

Rokia Raslan is Professor in Built Environment Decarbonisation at UCL Institute for Environmental Design and Engineering with expertise focused on understanding the nexus between computational analysis, policymaking, and the decarbonisation of the built environment. She trained as an architect specialising in environmental and energy efficient building design and completed a PhD degree at the Bartlett School of Graduate Studies, UCL that examined the applicability of building energy simulation in the context of legislative compliance. As a member of the multi-disciplinary Complex Built Environment Group (CBES), her research interests include the computational modelling, analysis and monitoring of the energy performance of the domestic and commercial building stock, development of building analysis models, delivery of retrofit strategies and the application of energy policy and legislation in the built environment.

Dimitrios Rovas is Professor of Building Simulation and Optimisation at UCL Institute for Environmental Design and Engineering. He received his undergraduate degree in Mechanical Engineering from the National Technical University of Athens; he received his PhD in Mechanical Engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, in the area of reduced-basis and finite-element methods, working under the supervision of Prof. Anthony T. Patera. He is currently a Lecturer in Building Simulation and Optimisation, at The Bartlett School of Environment, Energy and Resources at UCL. His research interests are in the areas of building physics, smart buildings, design and simulation of building energy management systems, building simulation, building information modelling and development of middleware and data integration platforms for data access and analytical processing of sensor information. He was the academic manager of the UK Centre for Moisture in Buildings. Currently, he is the programme leader for the MSc in Smart Buildings and Digital Engineering.

Accessibility

An access guide to Medical Sciences, A V Hill Lecture Theatre 131 can be found on AccessAble.

About UCL Institute for Environmental Design and Engineering

Our mission is to help cities and governments adapt and transform to tackle the climate crisis, and create equitable and inclusive spaces where people can live healthy and fulfilling lives.

We provide evidence and expertise to inform and support decision-making and enable transformative change.

We create a deeper understanding of the interactions between the built environment and health, human wellbeing, productivity, energy use and climate change.