PTE has been appointed as part of the team headed by AECOM to support the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS) in delivering a ground-breaking research project relating to low cost, low carbon new build housing: Building for 2050.

PTE are the architect consultant and the communications lead for this project that has just been launched by the government. PTE’s role will be to lead the stakeholder interviews, design and site reviews of selected housing developments and to ensure successful dissemination of conclusions throughout the project. PTE will be working with AECOM and other consultants Fourwalls and Delta Energy & Environment to ensure a thorough industry wide review into the homes of the future.

The project will examine the drivers, attitudes, barriers and challenges relating to low cost, low carbon housing. It will consider both the market pull and the push from some developers. Increasing the uptake of such homes will contribute to the UK’s climate change mitigation strategy and reduce energy use and bills for residents, whilst delivering attractive and comfortable homes. There will also be a significant social research element to gather all stakeholder views including residents’ attitudes and expectations. To provide context, views will be sought from wider stakeholders – both professionals and consumers.

Observations from the design and construction stages and analysis of the performance will inform the steps required to accelerate the uptake of low cost, low carbon homes. The conclusions from the Building for 2050 project will be disseminated in a variety of ways and inform future government policy.

Tom Dollard, Head of Sustainable Design at Pollard Thomas Edwards, will be leading the design and site reviews, and says: “Building for 2050 is a new government led research project that will review housebuilding activities in England and Wales, focussing on the challenges to delivering low carbon, affordable homes. Our involvement as architects is to canvass industry wide opinion and lead the design and site reviews of some of the most ground-breaking housing developments in the UK. Our communications team will help ensure lessons learnt are distributed widely across all stakeholders in a range of formats.”

The Research Team comprises:

• AECOM (Technical lead, Social and Market research lead, Project Manager)
• Pollard Thomas Edwards (Architect and Communications)
• Fourwalls (Building Performance Evaluation lead)
• Delta-ee (Low Carbon Technology specialist)

For more information please visit the project website www.buildingfor2050.co.uk