- Case studies
- Projects seeking partners
- Lessons learnt
- Best practice today
- Life-cycle costing made simple
- Sustainable refurbishment
Lessons learnt
We aim to draw out specific learning points that have been identified from real-life construction projects, so that people involved in later schemes can learn from the previous experience of others. We will continue to develop the learning points as our library of case studies expands.
Refurbishment/regeneration:
- Community engagement is essential for a project to be truly successful see Augustenborg case study
- Energy efficiency should be a key priority, whether in refurbishment or new-build schemes: the operational cost of buildings over their life-cycle far outweighs the construction costs see Augustenborg case study; Gardsten case study
- Renewable energy technologies can be successfully integrated into refurbishment schemes see Augustenborg case study; Gardsten case study
New-build construction schemes:
- Energy efficiency should be a key priority, whether in refurbishment or new-build schemes: the operational cost of buildings over their life-cycle far outweighs the construction costs see Landskrona case study;
- Renewable energy solutions can offer lower operational costs and construction costs need not be higher than with traditional solutions see Lindas case study; Dunston Innovation Centre
- Integrated ventilation strategies are essential to deliver good indoor air quality see Lindas case study
Water management:
- Traditional and Sustainable Urban Drainage Schemes (SUDS) can be integrated successfully see Henry Box case study. Learning points, according to the project team, are:
- Sites such as this are likely to become increasingly common
- Drainage is always a critical issue
- Solutions can be found by integrating apparently disparate methods
- Positive and sustainable methodologies can complement one another
- Establishing multi-party dialogue early in the design process contributes enormously to success
- Green roofs can make a very significant contribution to stormwater management and reduction of flooding incidents see Augustenborg case study
- Simple water efficiency measures can dramatically reduce water consumption at very little cost, without requiring major behavioural changes see Gallions Ecopark case study.