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Five ways drones will change the way buildings are designed Authors Paul Cureton Senior Lecturer in Design (People, Places, Products), Lancaster University Ole B. Jensen Professor of Urban Theory and Urban Design, Aalborg University Drones are already shaping the face of our cities – used for building planning, heritage, construction and safety enhancement. But, as studies by the UK’s Department of Transport have found, swathes of the public have a limited understanding of how drones might be practically applied. It’s crucial that the ways drones are affecting our future are understood by the majority of people. As experts in design futures...

Cooling buildings by nearly 5ºC possible thanks to new whiter-than-white paint Author Andrew Parnell Research Fellow in Physics and Astronomy, University of Sheffield From icy tundras to billowing clouds, the colour white crops up repeatedly in our planet’s palette. This colour provides a natural way for light from the sun to reflect back from the Earth’s surface and into space. This effect – known as the planet’s albedo – has a huge impact on average global temperature. Imagine a world covered entirely with oceans. Although the idea might evoke a refreshing sense of coolness, the absence of reflective white areas...

Ecomimicry: the nature-inspired approach to design that could be the antidote to urban ‘blandscapes’ Published: June 29, 2021 2.42pm BST Authors Stuart Connop Senior Research Fellow, University of East London Caroline Nash Research Fellow in Biodiversity Conservation, University of East London With skyscrapers climbing ever higher and unoccupied city areas increasingly scarce, demands on urban space are increasing. Making the most out of this space requires a careful balancing act between short-term human needs and long-term planetary benefits. All too often, attempting this balancing act ends up in “blandscaping”. Blandscaping is the practice of creating virtually uniform green spaces that are...

Wooden housing boom needed to boost climate goals, says new study – but is it possible? Author Ljubomir Jankovic Professor of Advanced Building Design, University of Hertfordshire Housing 90% of people moving to cities in mid-rise buildings made from engineered wood could save the construction industry 106 billion tonnes of CO₂ by 2100, according to a new study. This, the researchers argued, would rein in the industry’s total emissions, which threaten to consume between 35% and 60% of the remaining carbon budget for halting global heating at 2°C with the continued use of cement and steel. I did not contribute to...

CCTech’s HVAC-Twin is Powered by iTwin The HVAC-Twin cloud-based platform transforms the HVAC design process   Pune, India – 2022 – CCTech is pleased to announce the addition of HVAC-Twin to Bentley Systems’ powered by iTwin program. HVAC-Twin enables quick turnaround between HVAC design iterations—leading to energy and cost-efficient HVAC designs. Designers and engineers can add sensor data, make connections, and start visualizing data such as temperature, occupancy, and CO2 levels—to diagnose and improve the performance of HVAC systems. HVAC-Twin is a web-based, physics-informed 3D digital twin that is built for easy accessibility and enhanced collaboration, providing quick turnaround between...