Category: News

A new report, Re-energising the Green Agenda, presents the findings of the Commission of Inquiry of the All Party Parliamentary Group for Excellence in the Built Environment. While it supports the Green Deal, it argues it urgently needs improvements to make it more financially attractive.

It also suggests that the Government needs to give clearer signals that the Green Agenda is a priority, including commitment to revising building regulations, to build confidence in the construction sector.

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To celebrate the publication of Building Research and Information journal’s special issue on Urban Retrofitting, there will be a launch event between 12.30pm and 1.30pm on Wednesday 2 October at the BRE INSITE Conference at BRE Watford. The event will be hosted by Richard Lorch (Editor in Chief of Building Research and Information), Professor Tim Dixon (University of Reading), and Professor Malcolm Eames (University of Cardiff). There will be a discussion on the special issue and the chance to hear more about the related EPSRC Retrofit 2050 programme of research.

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A special issue of the Building Research and Information journal, drawn together by the Retrofit 2050 project, explores issues around retrofitting cities for climate change. Including papers from the expert reviews commissioned by the project and editorial by the project team, the journal explore issues such as:

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Call for abstracts

On Wednesday 16th October, the Retrofit 2050 project will be holding a doctoral research workshop on Sustainable Urban Retrofit.The workshop is intended to provide an opportunity for PhD students working on retrofit related issues within the six Retrofit 2050 project team universities to share theoretical and empirical insights on sustainable urban retrofit research.

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A new report presenting the Retrofit 2050 visions has been published, describing the three city visions developed as part of the Urban Foresight Panel workshops that took place over 2011 and 2012. Retrofit City Futures: Visions for Urban Sustainability sets out three contrasting long term visions for retrofit city-regional futures.

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Members of the Retrofit 2050 team will be holding two half day workshops in order to explore challenges, opportunities and approaches to modelling urban infrastructures in an integrated way. The workshops will explore:

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Over the past month, different members of the team have been busy disseminating insights from across the project at a range of different events. In February 2013, Malcolm Eames and Tim Dixon were invited to present the project at HM Treasury to an audience of policy advisors and senior civil servants. Peter Guthrie, Tim Dixon, Malcolm Eames and Carla de Laurentis presented at the Ecobuild conference and exhibition held at London’s ExCel Centre between 5th and 7th March along with Chris Jofeh of Arup, part of the project’s non-advisory group.

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Call For Papers: Modelling Sustainable Urban Transition Dynamics
International Symposium, 3rd-4th July 2013, Cardiff UK

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Building on his work on the RICS ‘Hotting Up’ report, Tim Dixon has written on the state of low carbon plans in UK cities as part of the Future Cities Special Interest Group. Arguing that the battle against climate change and resource depletion will be won or lost in the world’s cities, he reflects on Carbon Reduction plans in UK cities, characteristics of successful plans and the challenges they face in a changed political and fiscal landscape.

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Judith Britnell gave a presentation of the work of the Retrofit 2050 programme at the Infrastructure Transitions Research Consortium (ITRC) Early Career Researcher (ERC) conference held at Clare College, Cambridge in November 2012. The ITRC programme is developing simulation models and tools to inform the analysis, planning and design of national infrastructure.

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