DMU leads British Council work into sustainable housing

DMU's Professor Mark Lemon has won a £30,000 grant to fund research into tackling challenges facing social housing projects in Peru. The award, from the British Council Initial Institutional Collaboration Grant, is for a project called Co-design for new and refurbished sustainable low cost and low energy housing in Peru.

Prof Lemon, of DMU’s Institute of Engineering and Sustainable Development (IESD) will lead this collaborative project between DMU, Studio Urban Area LLP and the Pontifical Catholic University of Peru (PCUP).

Residents in Lima have been consulted about their housing needs

The project aims to develop a generic approach to one of the key challenges facing social housing globally – achieving low-cost, low energy homes. It has a blog which can be read here

It will combine technical, design and stakeholder engagement expertise from the partners. This will incorporate DMU’s ongoing work with social housing associations in retrofitting properties to meet cost-effective low energy standards in the UK and PCUP’s background in working with innovative and informal housing developments in Lima.

Co-design involves wide consultation with stakeholders at each stage of the development and or refurbishment process – concept, design, construction and management and maintenance. To this end, a key element will involve consulting with residents in Peru to gain a better understand how homes are used. The project will focus on the innovative Previ project in Peru and similar low cost projects in Leeds and Newcastle in the UK.
 
A series of generic process maps will be generated to characterize each of the four stages; these will then be populated by the case study materials with an intended audience of policymakers, the construction industry, social housing providers, community groups and training organisations.