UCL Guidelines Win CIBSE Award 

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26 February 2021 | Updated 01 March 2021

University College London in collaboration with Buro Happold has won the “Learning and Development” award at the 2021 CIBSE Building Performance Awards.

University College London (UCL) has committed to achieve net-zero carbon buildings by 2024 and to be a net-zero carbon institution by 2030. As part of their commitment to sustainability and continuous improvement, UCL has now launched “Post Project Review” (PPR) guidelines developed in collaboration with Buro Happold and Alexi Marmot Associates.

The PPR guidelines aim to ensure that buildings are performing as intended and that lessons learnt are documented so that learning can be applied to future UCL projects. The PPR includes a Project Implementation Review (PIR) to evaluate how effectively the process of conceptualising and delivering the project was carried out.

For projects over £10m or business-critical, a full Post Occupancy Evaluation (POE) is also carried out. Lessons learned are held in a central database and made available to all designers.

£1.25bn Capital Programme

UCL are currently in year six of a ten year £1.25bn Capital Programme with 14 projects on-site and 177 projects completed and in operation. In its first two years of adoption, the post-project review process has been applied to ten major projects (Student Centre, 22 Gordon Street, Bentham House, Kathleen Lonsdale, Wilkins, Solar House, Here East 1 & 2, Institute of Education and Bloomsbury Theatre) formally capturing lessons learned. Running alongside these activities, two-three year post-occupancy evaluations are also underway for the Student Centre, Bloomsbury Theatre, Kathleen Lonsdale, Astor College and Institute of Education.

“A client-led, collaborative process, with clear impact and tangible outcomes”. These were the characteristics noted by the judges that helped UCL’s post-project review guidelines to win the Learning and Development Award. The judges were impressed by the initiative’s well thought through approach to post-occupancy evaluation (POE), as well as the standardisation and clear application of a difficult process that is often hard to implement effectively.

Ben Stubbs, Senior Sustainability Manager at UCL commented: 

“Buro Happold have helped us to develop a robust system for managing our post-project review process, helping to deliver on our commitment to close the performance gap on projects. Their detailed focus on energy, comfort and wellbeing reflects key strands of UCL’s Sustainability Strategy.”

Mark Dowson, Associate Director, Building Performance at Buro Happold added:

“UCL’s Post Project Review guidelines are a fantastic initiative to continually strive for excellence in the path to net-zero. The CIBSE Building Performance Awards are the only awards put real performance at the heart of the judging criteria, rather than focusing solely on design intent. In our sector, this is critical to truly decarbonise the built environment!”

Picture: a photograph of the exterior of UCL. Image Credit: UCL

Article written by Ella Tansley | Published 26 February 2021

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