netMAGmedia, which publishes a range of media brands for the construction industry, recently held its inaugural Building Insights LIVE round table at the Building Centre in London, bringing specifiers and suppliers together to discuss their key topics.
The event was titled ‘Solutions for Compliance: Part L and beyond,’ and included leading architects, housebuilders, and product manufacturers, who shared their insights and experiences in addressing compliance challenges around the recently updated Part L, as well as the new O Building Regulations, and looked forward to the impending Future Homes Standard in 2025.
The round table was held a month before the deadline for all new homes to meet the updated Part L and reduce carbon emissions by 31%, as well as demanding new performance standards in ventilation (Part F), and the new Part O on overheating.
Three architects from well-regarded practices working in different streams of residential construction were in attendance. Shikha Bhardwaj, lead sustainability designer at Hawkins\Brown, brought a holistic perspective, emphasising how compliance could itself be used as a design tool.
Tzeh Bin Cheong, technical director and residential lead at Shepheard Epstein Hunter Architects, shed light on the challenges faced in the medium-rise urban residential sector. He revealed that projects underway pre-Part L have had to be revisited to identify how the thermal requirements of Part L can be squared with Part O’s stipulations on overheating, and this was no easy task. Chris Perry, senior architect, TODD Architects, gave the group a range of insights, such as how Building Information Modelling could be usefully applied digitally onsite to help contractors close the performance gap.
Chris Carr, housebuilder and vice president of the Federation of Master Builders, candidly expressed his reservations about the 2025 deadline for the Future Homes Standard, and the likely cost implications of the FHS and Part L. He proposed that Building Control should sit on planning teams, and expressed a need for more exemplar projects.
The event also featured perspectives from the sponsors; David Clarke of IDSystems discussed the practical aspects of elevating product performance, Bill Hayward of Schock highlighted the lack of clarity regarding build costs post-Part L, and Simon Blackham of Recticel emphasised the need for specifiers to provide clearer requirements on embodied carbon data.
James Parker, managing editor at netMAGmedia and event chair, commented: “The event went even better than we could have hoped – with the support of our sponsors, all of whom provided insightful views of their own to bring a ‘real world’ focus to our discussion.”
Over the past few years, netMAGmedia has been actively producing reader research reports under its Industry Viewfinder banner and hosting a range of Building Insights podcasts. The round table represents a significant extension of the Building Insights brand into live cross-disciplinary discussions, and is the first of what will hopefully be many more.
Comprehensive coverage of Building Insights LIVE will be featured in the upcoming issue of Architects’ Datafile and Housebuilder & Developer.
About netMAGmedia:
netMAGmedia is a publishing company based in East Sussex, well established and respected in a range of construction sectors for its in-depth business-to-business publications, business-to-consumer titles, research projects and marketing platforms.