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SUMMARY:Minimizing Energy in Construction
DTSTART:20190620T120000
DTEND:20190620T124000
DTSTAMP:20260408T064424Z
UID:3d3275a3ecd106d85c952ed7d880aa6f1c91c5a6b9583272590ee6da
CATEGORIES:Conferences - Seminars
DESCRIPTION:Dr John Orr is University Lecturer in Concrete Structures and
  EPSRC Early Career Fellow in the Department Engineering at the Universi
 ty of Cambridge\, and Fellow of Magdalene College Cambridge. Dr Orr's teac
 hing and research are closely linked to sustainable construction\, and i
 mproving construction sector productivity. He works in concrete structures
 \, creating new methods for analysis\, optimisation\, and automation in co
 nstruction. Dr Orr has a funded research portfolio of £9.13M (April 2019)
 . He has built a team around his vision for the design optimisation and 
 lightweighting of existing and future infrastructure by learning from real
  performance. Before joining the University of Cambridge\, Dr Orr was Dire
 ctor of Research and Assistant Professor in Civil Engineering at the Unive
 rsity of Bath Department of Architecture and Civil Engineering.\nResearch 
 has shown that our built environment uses structural material inefficientl
 y\, with wastage in the order of 50% being common. Two plausible mechanism
 s are that some engineers hold individual misconceptions\, or that ineffic
 iency is a cultural phenomenon\, whereby engineers automatically and unque
 stioningly repeat previous methods without assessing their true suitabilit
 y. This talk will present results of a survey of structural engineering pr
 actitioners that examined both culture and practice in design relating to 
 material efficiency\, undertaken as part of the EPSRC funded project “Mi
 nimising Energy in Construction” (MEICON) led by Dr Orr. Our results rev
 eal wide variations and uncertainty in both regulated and cultural behavio
 urs. We demonstrate that embodied energy efficiency is often not a high pr
 iority\, with habitual over-design resulting in more expensive buildings t
 hat consume more of our material resource than necessary. The first MEICON
  report is the beginning of a conversation. As the construction industry i
 s poised to change significantly between now and 2025\, we invite you to j
 oin us in this conversation to discover how structural engineering can gra
 sp a significant opportunity to lead these changes. There is much that can
  be done to improve material efficiency and there is plenty of scope for c
 lients to engage actively with their engineers\, working constructively to
 gether with the ultimate aim of doing better projects\, more efficiently\,
  more valuably\, to create mutual satisfaction.
LOCATION:GC B1 10 https://plan.epfl.ch/?room=GCB110
STATUS:CONFIRMED
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