UCL welcomes colleagues from the School of Architecture of Tsinghua University, China

On 4-5 April, 14 colleagues from the School of Architecture of Tsinghua University, China took part in a joint workshop and stakeholder event in London as part of the collaboration of the TOP Project (‘The Total Performance of Low Carbon Buildings in China and the UK’).

Delegates were welcomed by Prof Alan Penn, Dean of The Bartlett Faculty of the Built Environment and Prof Tadj Oreszczyn Director of The Bartlett School of Environment, Energy and Resources (BSEER). The project is jointly lead by Prof Mike Davies (UCL IEDE) and Prof Borong Lin (Tsinghua University)

An extremely stimulating and energetic series of meetings took place which aimed to promote understanding and lead to better integration of the project, which spans the multiple causes of the energy performance gap in buildings in both in China and the UK.

Joint work packages discussed included:

• Examining the contrasting context within which buildings have been designed and constructed and within which they are used and operated internationally.
• Undertaking an extensive monitoring campaign in both countries to allow comparisons between the performances of the same types of building in the two different contexts.
• Using participatory systems dynamics to consider potential unintended consequences related to the inter-linked issues of energy/indoor environmental quality (IEQ). A complex issue that is gaining increasing importance in both the UK and China.
• Effective dissemination activities

For further details on the project and the workshop presentations visit the TOP project webpage.