The construction sector has seen a high share of energy-related carbon emissions globally due to building operation, posing a great threat to achieving net zero carbon targets by 2050. According to the Global Status Report for Buildings and Construction, in 2021, the buildings and construction sector accounted for about 34% energy consumptions and circa 37% of energy-related carbon emissions globally [1]. The split share of operational carbon emissions from residential and non-residential buildings is around 28% (with the remaining 9% from construction industry). The operational carbon emissions of new buildings in compliance with current Building Regulations in the UK predominates the building whole life carbon (circa 2/3), using conventional passive solutions for the building envelope design. To tackle the challenges of developing near or net zero carbon buildings for environmental sustainability, it is promising to develop thermally active building envelope, which has a great potential to reduce building energy demands and operational carbon by 50% or more, respectively.

The research project aims to delve into integrated design approaches of novel thermo-active building envelope for near or net zero carbon buildings, using the iconic building Town House at Kingston University London as an archetypal building. Both passive and active solutions for energy-efficient building design will be explored and analysed based on building performance modelling and simulation (e.g. EnergyPlus, IES VE, TRNSYS). It is further expected to extract new key thermal indexes that can characterise the thermal behaviour of thermo-active building envelope in a simple way for engineering applications. Climate-responsive integrated design approaches of buildings in the UK will be ascertained, especially for commercial buildings with the archetypal building Town House.

The Town house, built in 2020 and located on the Penrhyn Road Campus at Kingston University London, is recognised as an energy-efficient building, with the features of good thermal insulation and built-in heat recovery systems, as well as rooftop solar photovoltaic, etc. Especially, a thermo-active system was embedded in the concrete slabs as part of the building envelope, allowing building mass to passively heat and cool the interior [2]. The Town House has won the 2021 Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) Stirling Prize (an indicator for Britain’s best new building), as well as 2022 EU Prize for Contemporary Architecture – Mies van der Rohe Award (recognised as the highest accolade in European architecture). It is interesting to assess the building performance of its thermo-active building envelope (or components) to inform the practical building energy efficiency and compare with the current Building Regulations for environmental sustainability assessment. In the meantime, some other novel active solutions such as thermally active insulation, pipe-embedded walls, PCM heat storage walls, façade integrated solar photovoltaic / thermal collectors, the thermoelectric battery, etc. can be integrated to improve the thermal performance of thermo-active building envelopes, further reducing the building energy demands and carbon emissions. The research will provide insights into developing near or net zero carbon buildings, in contrast to the new building design in terms of the current Building Regulation in the UK. It will have impact on addressing contemporary construction methods for architects, building engineers, and construction-related stakeholders to reference, as well as decarbonising new buildings for contribution to the net zero carbon targets in the long run.