Skip to main content
Navigate back to homepage
Open search bar.
Open main navigation menu

Main navigation

  • Study
    UCL Portico statue
    Study at UCL

    Being a student at UCL is about so much more than just acquiring knowledge. Studying here gives you the opportunity to realise your potential as an individual, and the skills and tools to thrive.

    • Undergraduate courses
    • Graduate courses
    • Short courses
    • Study abroad
    • Centre for Languages & International Education
  • Research
    Tree-of-Life-MehmetDavrandi-UCL-EastmanDentalInstitute-042_2017-18-800x500-withborder (1)
    Research at UCL

    Find out more about what makes UCL research world-leading, how to access UCL expertise, and teams in the Office of the Vice-Provost (Research, Innovation and Global Engagement).

    • Engage with us
    • Explore our Research
    • Initiatives and networks
    • Research news
  • Engage
    UCL Print room
    Engage with UCL

    Discover the many ways you can connect with UCL, and how we work with industry, government and not-for-profit organisations to tackle tough challenges.

    • Alumni
    • Business partnerships and collaboration
    • Global engagement
    • News and Media relations
    • Public Policy
    • Schools and priority groups
    • Visit us
  • About
    UCL welcome quad
    About UCL

    Founded in 1826 in the heart of London, UCL is London's leading multidisciplinary university, with more than 16,000 staff and 50,000 students from 150 different countries.

    • Who we are
    • Faculties
    • Governance
    • President and Provost
    • Strategy
  • Active parent page: The Bartlett Faculty of the Built Environment
    • Study
    • Research
    • Our schools and institutes
    • People
    • Ideas
    • Engage
    • Active parent page: News and Events
    • About

The '3DStock' model

Non domestic buildings

Breadcrumb trail

  • The Bartlett Faculty of the Built Environment
  • News and Events

Faculty menu

  • Current page: News
  • Events

A team at UCL-Energy has been developing a new kind of 3D model of the UK non-domestic building stock. The model’s purpose is to assess energy use in buildings, and study conservation options. Other applications are possible. The techniques have been trialled successfully in the London Borough of Camden and the cities of Leicester and Tamworth. The team is now working on extending the model to large parts of England and Wales. Inclusion of the domestic stock is envisaged.

This ‘3DStock’ model is built by bringing together two data sets: Ordnance Survey (OS) digital maps, and commercial rating (property taxation) data from the Valuation Office Agency (VOA) of HM Revenue and Customs. The OS maps give footprints of all buildings. The Valuation Office data give floor areas by floor level for the majority of non-domestic premises. The two data sets are matched together by addresses, using Ordnance Survey Address Base, and 3D models are created by piling the floor areas up on the footprints. Building heights are obtained from LiDAR (laser measurements made from overflying aircraft). For certain activities, the VOA does not give floor areas and these must be obtained from other sources.

The Valuation Office classifies premises by their overall or primary activity, and breaks down total areas by sub-activities on the different floors. Thus ‘Office’ premises might be sub-divided into areas devoted to office work, kitchens, storage, canteens, computer rooms etc.

The 3DStock model differs therefore from previous models of the non-domestic stock, by combining representations of the 3D geometry and the geography of buildings with details of activities on each of their floors.

3DStock does not however take ‘buildings’ as its basic units, but instead defines ‘self-contained units’ (SCUs), each of which may correspond to several buildings and may contain one or more premises. The virtue of the SCU as a unit is that it does not break premises into parts; it has a well-defined envelope of walls and roof through which heat is lost and gained; and it is (in general) possible to determine the quantities of electricity and gas supplied to the SCU – something that is not always possible with premises or buildings.

The self-contained units are measured to give volumes, exposed wall areas, roof areas and plan depths. For the Camden case study, data are attached giving building age, structural system and materials of walls and roof. Data collected in energy surveys made by Sheffield Hallam University in the 1990s (with some updating) have been used to develop typical schedules of equipment associated with each of the VOA’s sub-activities, and to build a model of electricity use by appliances and lighting. This has been calibrated against figures for aggregate electricity use published by DECC. For many public buildings actual gas and electricity use are available from Display Energy Certificates.

The geometrical descriptions of self-contained units and their material properties are passed to a specially customised version of the EnergyPlus simulation tool, called SimStock. This tool builds energy models, covering heating and cooling uses as well as appliances, for large numbers of SCUs; and tests out scenarios for future conservation options and new supply and servicing technologies.

More information

Please contact:

  • Philip Steadman
  • Rob Liddiard
  • Steve Evans

See also journal paper 3DStock: A new kind of three-dimensional model of the building stock of England and Wales, for use in energy analysis (June 2016)

Content is empty

UCL footer

Visit

  • Bloomsbury Theatre and Studio
  • Library, Museums and Collections
  • UCL Maps
  • UCL Shop
  • Contact UCL

Students

  • Accommodation
  • Current Students
  • Moodle
  • Students' Union

Staff

  • Inside UCL
  • Staff Intranet
  • Work at UCL
  • Human Resources

UCL social media menu

  • Link to Soundcloud
  • Link to Flickr
  • Link to TikTok
  • Link to Youtube
  • Link to Instagram
  • Link to Facebook
  • Link to Twitter

University College London, Gower Street, London, WC1E 6BT

Tel: +44 (0) 20 7679 2000

© 2025 UCL

Essential

  • Disclaimer
  • Freedom of Information
  • Accessibility
  • Cookies
  • Privacy
  • Slavery statement
  • Log in