The BSRIA-LSBU Innovation Centre (BLIC) intends to support building services in the construction sector by promoting collaborative research between the two organisations.
According to LSBU, its graduates account for around 60% of the UK’s professional building services engineers.
LSBU will offer BSRIA access to the university’s facilities, including:
- Reverberation and anechoic chambers
- Centre for Efficient & Renewable Energy in Buildings
- Concrete research and building materials stress laboratories
- Digital architecture robotic lab (DARLab)
- Fire safety laboratory
- Healthcare hospital wards and equipment
- 3D printing facilities
- Building information modelling with computing facilities
- General engineering labs
- Environmental chamber – a 66m3 chamber with temperature range from 5 to 45⁰C, plus humidity control
- Virtual reality suite
- Radio frequency chamber for testing and design wireless products, modules, sensors etc.
BSRIA chairman Tom Smith said: “BSRIA is delighted to be linking its expertise and reach to that of LSBU and views this collaboration as part of the drive to not only pool the expertise and knowledge of both organisations, but to create new opportunities and ideas for the sector while meeting the challenge of climate change.”
Professor George Ofori, dean of LSBU’s School of Architecture & Built Environment, said: “Around 80% of the UK’s existing real estate accounts for more than 40% of UK carbon emissions. In order to meet the UK’s future obligation to reduce carbon emissions by 80%, we must first focus on developing research and innovation to help improve the quality of existing buildings, which are often neglected.
“The challenges associated with retrofitting existing housing estates have been highlighted with the tragic events of Grenfell Tower, but there are other challenges facing the construction industry, associated with fuel poverty, air quality, uptake of technology, performance of existing technology and user experience. The new BSRIA research centre will focus on finding innovative solutions to these problems, while providing leadership to deliver safe, affordable and sustainable domestic environments for communities in the UK and globally.”
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