SURVEYING THE SECTOR
One area where the industry has already made significant strides is in digital modelling .
environmental and ethical aspects of food and farming systems propelled me towards exploring the potential of UK-grown short-cycle biomass crops in creating sustainable homes and buildings . The dual value of addressing the housing crisis while leveraging buildings for natural carbon capture spurred the founding of Natural Building Systems back in 2019 .
Over the past five years , our focus has been on researching and prototyping a digitally designed and manufactured bio-based ‘ kit of parts .’ This system , designed for disassembly and reconfiguration , integrates digital tools to enhance design workflow efficiency and enable a distributed yet scalable manufacturing approach . can analyse and optimise diverse performance metrics ranging from energy efficiency to cost , site sequencing and safety , scheduling and build quality . Some are useful but often don ’ t go far enough , others are misleading or inaccurate because they are based on inaccurate data or user input or don ’ t account for different modalities .
For instance , conventional thermal efficiency metrics fail to accurately predict operational energy use and thermal comfort , because building physics are inherently dynamic . Fluctuating parameters relating to regional weather and occupancy patterns interact with material properties such as specific heat capacity , vapour porosity and hygroscopicity of different layers in a building ’ s thermal envelope . The outputs from dynamic hygrothermal analysis can point to very different conclusions in the design and specification of materials when compared to statutory minimum targets .
It ’ s understandably hard to justify the cost of deploying more sophisticated dynamic digital modelling tools for one-off projects . Yet , on a systems level , their utility becomes evident .
Chloe Donovan , Managing Director of Natural Building Systems and Material Research Limited
We have made significant progress and delivered a number of pilot projects , but challenges abound , particularly in integrating various digital platforms tailored to our systemised solution . Nonetheless , these hurdles provide fertile ground to push the boundaries of existing technological solutions without resorting to costly proprietary alternatives .
One area where the industry has already made significant strides is in digital modelling , which
Our work with bio-based insulation materials , particularly hemp composites , aims to benefit from their wider more subtle ( but measurable ) characteristics and performance benefits of bio-based materials such as reduced decrement factor and improved air quality , in comparison to plastic foam and mineral alternatives . We have a team of material researchers who combine physical material characterisation with dynamic thermal modelling to optimise material efficiency
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