Developing adaptable buildings

Adaptable Futures envisages a step-change towards building adaptability, sustainability and life-cycle design.

This integrated project, funded by the Research Council (EPSRC) through Loughborough's Innovative Manufacturing & Construction Research Centre (IMCRC), is based on the idea that a building should be configured initially to a wide range of scenarios and should be able to change, over its lifecycle, facilitating the evolving needs of their end users.

Buildings must remain efficient places to live and work to ensure real life-cycle value. Extending a building's useable life addresses both a business and sustainability case and means an unprecedented change for UK construction.

The research focuses on adaptability – in both initial design choices and subsequent changes in use - of complex, framed, non-domestic buildings.

The team is working alongside two major industry initiatives: GlaxoSmithKline's (GSK) Newways pre-configuration strategy and 3DReid's life-cycle re-configuration concept, Multispace.

The results will be far reaching, both within the UK and beyond, with application to a wide range of buildings including offices, manufacturing facilities, schools, health and mixed use.

For more information, click here.