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The Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development of China, the Architectural Society of China and the Department for International Trade of the United Kingdom jointly held the "China-UK Joint Innovation, Jointly Expanding the Future of Low-Carbon Buildings Seminar" on the 23rd. During the meeting, experts in the field of construction from China and the UK will gather together to share their practice and thinking in the fields of low-carbon buildings, building energy efficiency, and green building design and R&D innovation, and discuss how China and the UK can work together to innovate in the context of "dual carbon". Jointly develop the future of low-carbon buildings.

UK helps world reduce carbon emissions

Gillian Charlesworth, executive director of the British Building Research Institute Group, said that climate change has become the biggest challenge facing the current era. In order to cope with global warming, a series of carbon emission reduction measures have been implemented around the world. "Actually, carbon reduction is not limited to the automotive and power industries, but the construction industry also has great potential in this area."

According to Shamil Gorma, the key to achieving the carbon peak is to complete the carbon budget goal, so they have launched the world's first sustainable development evaluation guide for the construction industry based on the construction vision of zero carbon emissions. This provides a sustainable foundation for the UK construction industry.

Not only that, Shamil Gorma also pointed out that they also often share their experiences with others. "Because we can also learn about the experiences of many different countries through sharing and exchanges. The process of learning and understanding each other can help the concept of zero-carbon buildings to be further realized globally."

China advances and retreats with the world's carbon emission reduction

Xu Wei, chairman of Jianke Environmental Energy Technology Co., Ltd., said that from the early 1980s to today, China has explored an ultra-low and near-zero energy consumption development with Chinese characteristics in the construction industry for more than 30 years. The road, from the initial building energy saving to today's "carbon dual control".

In Xu Wei's view, China's zero-emission expression is the same as that of international practice. It not only counts major global standards, but also adjusts the heating during the construction and operation stages of building materials and the later demolition of the building's life cycle. Zero-carbon buildings are gradually realized in the whole process from the production and manufacture of building materials to construction, to operation and demolition.

"China has now moved from building energy conservation to the dual control stage of energy and carbon emissions. We have established a green model for mid- and long-term energy consumption and carbon emissions in the building sector based on the population urbanization rate, per capita area and energy intensity. Building energy efficiency and grid zero emissions, in order to achieve carbon neutrality goals for buildings by 2060,” said Wei Xu.

The practice of net zero consumption in the field of design by British enterprises

During the event, the British Royal Registered Architect Bill Dunster mentioned that building energy efficiency not only requires a substantial investment in reducing carbon emissions in the later stage, but more importantly, it is necessary to do a synchronous low-carbon design when designing buildings.

"In 1992, we designed a building that conforms to the concept of low-carbon development. With the implementation of construction projects, we have been accumulating experience, and we are also constantly learning, improving and developing. Now we can use 3D and other technologies to simulate carbon footprints. The impact on the environment, and even use some technologies to predict the construction cycle, understand the carbon emissions of the construction process, and measure the details and information of the construction in all aspects of carbon emissions." Bill Dunst said.

He believes that it is particularly important to do a good job of low-carbon design at the beginning of the building, and at the same time, attention should also be paid to integrating a low-carbon lifestyle into the building. This is not only a cultural change, but a way to truly embrace the future. In the future, he looks forward to more cooperation with China, and also hopes that China can provide more low-carbon products that meet the needs of the global market.

The practice of sustainable development by Chinese construction enterprises

At the event, Lu Fei, Assistant General Manager of China Property Development and Investment of Hongkong Land Group, introduced that Hongkong Land has actively explored in the field of green buildings, by improving maintenance structure, strengthening air tightness, photovoltaic power generation and electromechanical energy efficiency improvement, heat recovery, etc. This means that the Shanghai Xuhui Binjiang E-land office building has become the first ultra-low energy public building in Shanghai to receive a 3% floor area ratio award. At the same time, Chongqing Halo roof solar photovoltaic system and Wuhan residential roof solar photovoltaic system were also developed to integrate renewable energy into building projects.

In Lu Fei's view, carbon emissions must be reduced in response to climate change. At the same time, climate change itself will also have a huge impact on buildings. Therefore, in the project, she advocated improving the building's resilience, and made adjustments to the curtain wall, air conditioning equipment and garage drainage that can adapt to climate change.

She also emphasized that local culture has a profound impact on architecture. Therefore, while devoting to building energy conservation, we should also pay attention to the preservation of local culture and respect the historical memory of each city.

"Wuhan is the birthplace of Jingchu culture, so in the construction project in Wuhan, we studied the cultural epitome of Hankou and the urban space of Jingchu dwellings, and combined them with architectural planning to create space nodes of different scales." She added.