In tiny houses, windows and doors are often some of the most expensive components. One solution is to make them and integrate them into the designs. Using standard materials improves affordability. Careful jamb, reveal and casing design, and seals can … Continue reading Reducing Costs and Improving Performance: Integrating Windows and Door Designs in Buildings
What is the role of the construction stage in a building’s lifecycle in supporting environmental, social and economic sustainability performance? Are there ways that construction can be planned and managed to reduce negative environmental impacts and increase social and economic … Continue reading Targets and Techniques for Environmental, Social and Economic Sustainability Performance in Construction
Are buildings and sites fit for purpose? Do they work well for the activities they accommodate? Do they fully comply with building regulations? Just as training to become a researcher requires critical reviews of existing work, it is valuable for … Continue reading The Critical Evaluation of Built Environments: Tools for Improved Functionality and Compliance
What is an Ecological Footprint? How does this relate to the Earth’s Carrying Capacity? What can be done to reduce Ecological Footprints? At a workshop with Claire Wagner at the University of Pretoria, we explored these questions. This included measuring … Continue reading Reducing Ecological Footprints: Living Patterns, Behaviors, Habits and Perceptions
What will the conditions be on a site you know in 2050 under climate change? What are the projected temperatures, number of very hot days, rainfall, and extreme weather events for this location? What activities happen on this site? Who … Continue reading Planning for Climate Change: Understanding Projections and Developing Adaptation Strategies
Storms, flooding and fires, exacerbated by climate change and uncontrolled growth, can destroy existing housing and infrastructure. Droughts and conflicts cause large-scale migration. Property owners and governments evict people from vacant land and abandoned buildings. The resulting displacement creates a … Continue reading Emergency Housing: Questions and Design Inputs for Rapid Assembly and Recovery
The International Residential Code defines tiny houses as accommodation that is under 37m2. However, there are mobile micro tiny houses that are smaller than 10m2. Cohousing units, which include bathrooms and kitchenettes, are 20-28m2. At a room level, 6.51 m2 … Continue reading What is a Sufficient Place to Live? Is this about Access to Opportunities, Shared Facilities and Equipment, Affordability or Private Space?
For a number of years, we have run an architectural competition on sustainable housing. As would be expected, we receive fabulous, rich graphic material from architectural students. However, we would now like to broaden the competition to all the built … Continue reading Posters, Video, Slide shows, Data Visualisation: Formats for Sharing Ideas and Research
I enjoyed speaking at Agrement South Africa’s ‘Advancing Certification of Non-Standardised Products: Driving Innovation for a Sustainable Built Environment Industry and Stakeholder Technical Forum’ in Cape Town. My presentation was on ‘Circular Built Environment in South Africa: Strategies for Technology … Continue reading Circular Built Environment in South Africa: Strategies for Technology Innovation for Resource Efficiency
The Human Settlements and the Circular Economy (HSCE) report shows how circular economy interventions could be adopted to develop more sustainable human settlements. The study compared current development pathways with circular alternatives for South African human settlements. It found that … Continue reading Developing More Circular Human Settlements through Policy, Planning, Industry, Capacity and Communities
Housing backlogs in South Africa are estimated to be at least 2.4 million. On average, South African households spend between 15 and 20% of their annual income on transport. At the same time, there are many urban sites in cities … Continue reading Kickstarting Economic Activity and Enhancing The Productivity of City Centre Sites Through Sustainable Temporary Residential Units (STRUS)
Industry sometimes complains that students coming out of university do not have the skills they need to work and be useful straight away. They may also indicate that much of the research being undertaken by universities does not address many … Continue reading Research Area Development and Sharing (RADS): Partnerships for More Responsive Research and Education
I enjoyed doing a presentation for the University of Manitoba recently. My presentation was on how human settlements in Africa are drawing on culture and tradition as well as innovative organization and technologies to become more sustainable. Aspects covered include … Continue reading Sustainable Evolution and Innovation in Human Settlements in Africa
The CIB, International Council for Research and Innovation in Building and Construction invited me to talk on “Creating Smart Cities for the SDGs”. My presentation was organized around the threads of Data, Connection, Citizen Participation, Technology, Innovation and Sustainability. I … Continue reading Creating Smart Cities for the Sustainable Development Goals
Our research report titled “Human settlements and the circular economy: Creating more resilient, liveable human settlements through a circular economy” has just been published. The research aimed to understand the implications and potential of the circular economy for human settlements … Continue reading Human Settlements and the Circular Economy: Creating More Resilient, Liveable Human Settlements Through a Circular Economy
I was invited by the CIB to present on ”Leveraging Information and Communications Technology (ICT) for the Sustainable Development Goals”. In my presentation, I covered how ICT can support transformative change and increase the rate of progress in achieving the … Continue reading Leveraging Information and Communications Technology (ICT) for the Sustainable Development Goals
In this article for The Conservation, I focused on the benefits of local content in construction. While it covers work some time ago, it is interesting to see the strong shift towards local systems, including sustainable neighborhoods, the circular economy … Continue reading Building Zambian homes with local materials delivers benefits that imports don’t: study
Inspiring, Inclusive & Incremental – Successful, Affordable, and Beautiful Housing was the theme of this year’s World Urban Forum in Cairo, Egypt. I was invited to share a short recorded contribution. For this, I shared some key questions and approaches … Continue reading Inspiring, Inclusive & Incremental – Successful Affordable, and Beautiful Housing
I enjoyed the stimulating presentations and discussions as a judge on the CIB Best Doctoral Dissertation Award 2024. The finalists were: Short introductory videos by some of the candidates here. Continue reading CIB Best Doctoral Dissertation Award 2024 presentations
I was asked to do a talk on sustainable design methodologies and tools for the DAS conference. I shared some of the work I have been doing in this area. Why do we need sustainable design methodologies and tools? Data … Continue reading Innovative Sustainable Design Methodologies for Architects
Jeremy Gibberd 