guiding housing and human settlement investment - CSIR
guiding housing and human settlement investment - CSIR
guiding housing and human settlement investment - CSIR
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| H U M A N S E T T L E M E N T S | C O N S T R U C T I O N | B U I L D I N G S |<br />
BUILDING PERFORMANCE LAB<br />
LOOKS AT SCIENCE BEHIND<br />
DESIGNING FUTURE BUILDINGS<br />
The South African architecture sector could be in for an innovative <strong>and</strong><br />
scientific overhauling following the establishment of a building<br />
performance laboratory (BPL) at the <strong>CSIR</strong>. The aim of the BPL is to<br />
assist the professional design <strong>and</strong> building sectors to generate<br />
new concepts <strong>and</strong> to prototype <strong>and</strong> test new integrated assemblies to<br />
support long-term performance of buildings.<br />
According to <strong>CSIR</strong> senior researcher <strong>and</strong> project<br />
leader Dr Dirk Conradie, the intention<br />
with such a lab is to make future buildings<br />
inter alia more efficient <strong>and</strong> environmentally<br />
friendly. “Moreover, we have established the<br />
BPL both to deepen the analytical simulation<br />
capabilities in the design of buildings for<br />
research purposes as well as to provide a<br />
service for building design professionals in<br />
South Africa,” he says. “By means of prediction<br />
<strong>and</strong> simulation, we would be able to<br />
determine how a new building will perform,<br />
in terms of natural ventilation, lighting <strong>and</strong><br />
other performance aspects,” he says.<br />
He adds that the <strong>CSIR</strong> group intends to use<br />
the team’s skills <strong>and</strong> range of software to<br />
model buildings including offices, lecture<br />
venues <strong>and</strong> healthcare facilities such as<br />
clinics to avoid cross-infection of tuberculosis<br />
<strong>and</strong> other communicable diseases.<br />
Recently, Conradie <strong>and</strong> his <strong>CSIR</strong> colleagues<br />
Dr Sidney Parsons, Geoff Abbott, Sheldon<br />
Bole, Peta de Jager, Faatiema Salie, Luke<br />
Osburn <strong>and</strong> Lorato Motsatsi performed their<br />
first advanced predictive simulation when<br />
they conducted a pilot project in a proposed<br />
new lecture building in East London for<br />
the University of Fort Hare (UFH).<br />
Dr Dirk Conradie<br />
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