Work Package 4:

Low Carbon Building Design Solutions

‘Design of Low/Zero Carbon Buildings’ focuses on the definitions, standards and challenges of

delivering low carbon buildings in Wales. The aim is to provide design teams involved in the delivery of

low/zero carbon buildings with clear, but non-prescriptive design guidance based on current best

practice, covering each stage of the design, construction and operation phases.

Contact Details

Wayne Forster

Welsh School of Architecture

Bute Building

King Edward VII Avenue

Cardiff

CF10 3NB

029 20 874 389

ForsterW@cardiff.ac.uk

Work Package 4 have delivered detailed case studies from around Wales, with selected examples from

the wider UK and Europe, which demonstrate exemplary standards of low carbon design and

construction in the housing and educational sectors.

‘Our research has allowed us to identify best practice

measures for the low carbon design of building fabric

and services alongside construction and procurement

methods. We have examined the impact of low carbon

design upon cost and looked to identify the further

barriers facing the construction industry within the

current economic climate.’

Amy Cowan, Work Package 4 Researcher

Work Package 4:

Low Carbon Building Design Solutions

Linking Academia and Industry

Working in collaboration with industrial partners, Work Package 4 has concentrated on housing and

educational buildings as a response to the significant changes in legislation in these sectors over the

past few years, in order to provide a clear roadmap for best practice design and procurement.

Case studies were primarily selected from our Project Partner’s active schemes, allowing an analysis at

varying stages from design to post-completion.

Project Outputs

Project outputs include best-practice case study reports ‘Dwelling’ and ‘Learning’, alongside a series

of exemplar construction details and on-going development of an exemplar housing design scheme.

Two corresponding conferences were held and attracted a varied audience of architects, policy makers,

contractors and clients.

The findings of Work Package 4 will be disseminated via the

Welsh Energy Sector Training (WEST) project. Topics covered

will include:

■ Building form and layout design for optimised energy use

■ Fabric First efficiency

■ Solar gain

■ Thermal mass

■ Natural ventilation

■ Mechanical ventilation and heat recovery

principles

■ Airtightness principles

■ Introduction to Passivhaus principles

■ Building management systems

■ User guides/soft landing approach

■ Community, social and wellbeing benefits