Practices, including JTP, Tate+Co, ECD Architects, Collective Works, and Allford Hall Monaghan Morris, explain how they share research and knowledge for the benefit of society and the wider world.

Buildings.

The Delivering Net Zero in Use toolkit, part of AHMM’s Knowledge Transfer Partnership with UCLs Institute for Environmental Design and Engineering, was developed in response to a need to coordinate and visualise carbon data across all stages and disciplines of a building project.

Being a good ancestor

Part 1 of the Regenerative Architecture Index focuses on ‘being a good ancestor’. Our decisions today should consider seven generations ahead, ensuring adaptability and flexibility for the future. This requires innovative thought, as current models are rarely beneficial in the long term. Responses in this section were assessed by Architects Declare steering group members Michael Pawlyn, Alasdair Ben Dixon, Zoe Watson and Zuzana Sojkova, with expert insight from Regenerative Architecture Index ambassador, social philosopher and author Roman Krznaric. Read more about Part 1 of the RAI here. 

Practice Question 3
Does the practice share research and knowledge for the benefit of society and the wider world? For example, do you regularly carry out post occupancy evaluation and share information with others?

Answers breakdown

Front-runner

Studio Bark

  • We have been running educational live-build projects with students since 2012. The No Building As Usual program responds to the diversity and climate literacy gaps within our industry, giving students direct experience of a construction site.
  • We carry out research initiatives on live projects, for instance exploring structural uses for waste timber, or experimenting with materials and techniques such as rammed earth and rammed stone.
  • As specialists in Paragraph 84 and Paragraph 139 planning policy, we have done extensive research on how these can be applied to create beautiful, sustainable homes that sit sensitively within the landscape.
  • We are working on a carbon counting tool that will help design and architecture SMEs to measure the carbon on their projects using the latest RICS guidance.

Joint runners-up

Hawkins\Brown

  • We run an internal bursary programme. Outcomes include studies into daylighting, clean air and the Circular Economy. Knowledge is always shared via a range of forums.
  • Our Whole Life Carbon measurement tool, HB:ERT. V1 is available for free on our website for download and provides an entry level tool that plugs into Revit for simple calculations. V2 won the 2020 AJ Best Use of Technology and RIBA Research Award.
  • We regularly undertake client satisfaction surveys and POE. Our LLDC Chobham Manor POE won the AJ Sustainability Initiative award 2023 and has been widely shared to encourage others to measure qualitative design impacts alongside quantitative data.
  • We co-authored the RICS WLCA Standard 2023 updates alongside contributing to a wide range of industry groups – RIBA, RICS, UKGBC, GLA, NLA and LETI.
  • Participation in industry events, including UKReiif, Clerkenwell Design Week, hosting AJ small project awards, NextBuilt, Footprint+, and FutureBuild.

Allford Hall Monaghan Morris
We invest in various forms of research and knowledge development, sharing this where possible. Recent examples include:

  • Award-winning POE research in partnership with UCL to assess Stirling Prize winning Burntwood School. It exposed flaws in the design phase energy performance assessment.
  • A Knowledge Transfer Partnership, also with UCL, led to a guide to designing and delivering net zero carbon buildings and an Excel-based toolkit to allow the calculation and assessment of whole life carbon through novel visualisation. Both are free to download.
  • Fit Out/Rip Out’, initially an internal research piece, developed into a published thought-leadership paper. Through four case studies, we examine our industry’s approach to Cat A fit out and quantify the influence this has over life cycle carbon. We continue to lead conversations on this topic.

Ones to watch

JTP

  • We conducted in-house research on the health benefits of well-designed, walkable neighbourhoods, embedding these principles into all our projects. Founding partner Fred London’s book, released through RIBA Publishing, disseminates this research via six healthy placemaking principles.
  • We collaborated with postgraduate students at Imperial College London, exploring the health benefits of good masterplanning at Alconbury Weald, examining the frequency of visits to green space and the percentage of children walking to school. This featured as a pilot project in the Quality of Life Foundation’s recent report.
  • We are members of the Soils Task Force, in partnership with Lancaster University, promoting sustainable soil management during construction. This interdisciplinary effort involves academic researchers, councils, and professionals to safeguard and enhance soil resources – crucial for thriving communities and ecosystems.
  • We are committed to sharing our data with the RIBA on all major projects by 2025.

Tate+Co
We share the knowledge we have gained over the past fifteen-or-so years wherever and whenever we can.

  • The most accessible example of this is the Knowledge Hub on our website – tateandco.com/knowledge-hub/ where the entire team is involved in addressing the questions we receive on sustainability.
  • We also deliver talks and participate in panel discussions and seminars that consider how we, as an industry, can improve our approach to regenerative design. This includes our own ‘In the City’ events where we ask thought leaders from diverse disciplines to consider how key, positive outcomes can be achieved within the urban environment.
  • Jerry Tate has taught at UCL and Kansas State University. His work focused on how to build using sustainable natural materials. His work also included a series of student building projects for the Dartmoor Arts Week.

ECD Architects
We have many examples of monitoring of projects’ actual performance. For example, the Wilmcote House project had monitoring and resident surveys done before, during and after the retrofit, partnering with the LSE and the University of Southampton. These research projects were based on quantitative energy and environmental measurements and qualitative surveys on the social, financial and health implications of the retrofit, as many of the residents were previously in fuel poverty and unable to heat their homes. We went back five years after completion to undertake further BPE. We have shared this research via talks at conferences and industry events, and by writing case studies for publications, such as EnerPHit: a step-by-step guide to low energy retrofit, written by our managing director, LETI Climate Emergency Retrofit Guide, LSE’s Retrofit to the Rescue report, CIBSE’s Retrofit Revisit publication, and articles in magazines, such as Passive House Plus and Building Magazine.

Collective Works
We know that small projects will have limited impact, so beyond the practice we call for collective action. We share project outcomes through our insights page, in the press, and at conferences. We are currently publishing Mid Terrace Dream, a sustainable retrofit in north London and have commissioned a short film to inspire others and attract like-minded clients. We carry out POE on a selection of projects from each sector and have contributed learnings to the RIBA’s Social Value Toolkit.

Three PHD students are gathering knowledge at our Flourish Wellbeing Hub in Liverpool on how clustering community services improves outcomes locally. We contribute to a body of knowledge within the profession through RIBA publishing, delivering CPD and teaching. We co-authored RIBA’s Ethical Practice Guide, which combines some of our experiences as a practice with a wealth of expert views and frameworks.

Marks Barfield Architects
We have undergone pro bono post occupancy evaluations on a number of our buildings for charities and social enterprises, including a research Program ‘Measuring Mass Timber’ with dRMM, Quality of Life Foundation, and Edinburgh Napier University involving the Cambridge Central Mosque. We undergo Whole Life Carbon assessments, material audits and material passports on our buildings and have collaborated and shared this with the wider industry. We have undergone extensive cross- industry collaboration and knowledge sharing talks and workshops with clients, contractors (including deconstruction/ demolition contractors), fellow architects, engineers and expert consultants to explain our circular practice approach, garnering and giving feedback. We are currently seeking funding for a deconstruction handbook we are writing, which will be available to the wider industry summarising our learnings on reuse.

AEW Architects
We use a knowledge share external CPD programme to upskill clients on net
zero carbon, Passivhaus and retrofit, sharing experience and analysis to influence future projects to move beyond minimising harm, towards having a positive environmental impact. We help to upskill and educate tomorrow’s industry professionals through our support of Design Engineer Construct!
at a local school, where we have contributed 700 learning hours to support 35 students, and have also supported 13 work experience students, and are mentoring four apprentices. We have launched a process to formalise ad hoc post occupation evaluation activities, including reporting feedback from management forums and recording occupant satisfaction.

Perkins&Will
As part of our Living Design process, project- specific questions are identified early and resolved through various methodologies. Research is conducted and collated on a global database allowing lessons to be shared across the practice. Post-project reviews with clients are standard, though full POE isn’t always possible due to contract restrictions. Our Innovation Incubator program, launched in 2010, offers micro- grants for staff-led explorations four times a year, with more than 700 entries worldwide. This promotes the development of ideas that improve our design work and stretch our collective creativity, with the findings published to contribute to the knowledge base of our industry. Additionally, our firm actively participates in specialist conferences and publishes insights in peer-reviewed journals. This holistic approach ensures continual improvement and knowledge dissemination within our practice.

We Made That
We publish annual impact reports and commit resources to improving the sector. We are founding members of the London Practice Forum (LPF), a group of practices who champion high ethical and sustainable standards, and promote best practice in the built environment. The LPF serves as an important knowledge sharing platform and advocates for positive change within the profession, including as participating employer partners in the RE–SET–GO programme. Through the award of an Innovation Scholar research grant from the Arts and Humanities Research Council UK, we’re working with Dr Clare Rishbeth, a senior lecturer in landscape architecture at the University of Sheffield with research expertise in migration, inclusion and outdoor public spaces, on a year-long exploration of participatory methods used in urban design practice.

Orms
As members of the Architects’ Mental Wellbeing Forum, Sustainability Leads, and Technical Leads peer groups for London practices, we continually share our knowledge and experience with others.

Additionally, we lead a materials passports working group for the UK and beyond. This is hosted as a hybrid session to make it accessible, with an aim to share approaches and build confidence in the adoption of materials passports. In 2021, we funded the UKGBC Circular Economy to produce two reports that have been published for use by the industry. We continue to participate in UKGBC and LETI research groups.

A team member is currently on secondment to the Net Zero Carbon Building Standard, having previously volunteered as a lead for a working group. Our team regularly speak at conferences, universities and schools. We also participate in the Open City programmes and volunteer for Open House, and Architecture in Schools each year.

Buildings.

Orms collaborated with Lancaster University to produce a policy paper with recommendations on Material Passports as part of a broader ambition to develop a clear, simple, cost effective process to enable meaningful material reuse.

Grain Architecture
We work extensively on sharing knowledge and building a supportive network for change within the industry. One of our directors, Janna, co-founded NBUK (Natural Building UK), bringing together natural building industry experts to present and demonstrate at large events like Futurebuild. She went on to found and coordinate the Natural Materials group within ACAN (Architects Climate Action Network), creating a group who facilitate regular educational online events and a network of more than 500 people. Our other director, Andy, has also been a coordinator of this group, working hard to create a resource for detailing natural building materials and an accessible retrofit guide. We have also given talks and demonstrations to multiple architecture practices, including through the RIBA, and at many events, all on a voluntary basis, as well as some tutoring at universities and upcoming workshops at schools.

Gale & Snowden Architects
We have undertaken three projects under the Technology Strategy Board Climate Change Adaptation of buildings programme, becoming experts in future climate resilience in modelling buildings with future weather files (Prometheus files 2030, 2050 and 2080) using IES building physics software. From this research David Gale became a member of the Expert Panel and contributed to the IPCC AR5 synthesis report and IPCC AR6 Working Group II and III. The practice undertakes numerous presentations on integrated and regenerative design, including Passivhaus, building biology and future climate resilience design under the practice ethos of Permaculture Design. The practice has been involved in other dissemination of publications, such as the BRE/Carbon Trust Good practice Guide 293 for External Wall Insulation, as well as refurbishment guides for Westminster City and others.

We regularly monitor our buildings, including with the Passivhaus Institute (Germany), and have undertaken post occupancy monitoring research projects with TSB on a number of our Passivhaus flats, as part of addressing the performance gap. Our practice holds CPD design courses on permaculture, building biology and Passivhaus for staff and clients. This has allowed us to encourage local authorities, such as Exeter City Council, to commission Passivhaus and future climate resilient buildings. Over the years we have attended green building fairs, self-build exhibitions, and other construction exhibitions promoting ecological design (EDA) and healthy building (BBA – Building Biology Association).

The practice set up the Building Biology Association in 2014, a not-for- profit organisation to promote education, design, construction and maintenance of healthy buildings.

AWW
We researched, wrote and published Structural Carbon Tool, a design tool for assessing embodied carbon, which was donated to the IStructE free of charge. This has been downloaded by businesses and individuals over 6000 times and adopted for use in other countries. A staff member was the lead author of the Circular economy and reuse guide for the IStructE. We have contributed significant staff time to the UK Net Zero Carbon Building Standard initiative.We are also currently leading a consortium of technical and design experts, insurance experts and most of the UK’s largest commercial developers to produce a technical guidebook that fosters cross- sector industry alignment and ensures the widespread adoption of large-scale mass timber offices.

AWW has also developed a building information sharing platform, The Building Archives, that is an open-to-all resource for detailed information on existing buildings.

Studio 8FOLD
Founded by two South Africans, both part of the founding cohort of the London School of Architecture, it is a core belief to ‘walk the earth’ and work between academia and practice. We have been teaching the design/ build unit at University of Nottingham for more than five years, and, working with local NGO the Thusanang Trust, we have completed three Early Childhood Development centres in rural regions of Limpopo, South Africa. This project bridges between academia, construction, and the cross-pollination of cultures. Each year we visit the previous build to analyse what has worked and where lessons are to be learnt, sharing this knowledge with everyone involved.

The practice has also been involved in putting forward innovative ideas in tackling waste through invited exhibitions and competitions, from proposing a decentralised data-collecting waste system across London boroughs, to a competition for a centre designed to mine a landfill in Germany.