CIBSE’s 6th annual Technical Symposium, which took place on 14 and 15 April at Heriott-Watt University in Edinburgh, was dominated on the first day by the need for engineers to work together in order to drive building performance.

A sold out audience of industry professionals convened at Edinburgh's Heriot-Watt University, where 51 speakers presented sessions on a range of topics, from case studies to academic papers, on the theme of 'Integration for whole life building performance'.

A number of speakers demonstrated the benefits of collaboration, from improving the process of design, to shaping the environmental policies of whole countries. The opening keynote speech given by Wim Zeiler, of Eindhoven University of Technology, challenged delegates to think ‘inside the box’ and described how engineers can balance the creative design process with structure by working more closely with architects.

Later presentations extended the aims of collaboration to working with occupants and the natural world. William Wright of BRE noted the potential of consulting occupants from early design to the end of a building's life, incorporating occupant behaviour into the design in order to boost efficiency. This was coupled with a greater appreciation for the role of natural means to cool buildings, working with other professions to use trees and bodies of water to mitigate heat islands.

CIBSE president Nick Mead said: 'The Technical Symposium is our chance to think big as engineers, pose the difficult questions and make radical proposals. That's what makes it such an exciting event to attend, both as a speaker and as a delegate, and so valuable for the industry.”

He continued: 'What we heard today was particularly exciting because it's change brewing from within, not a new idea or technology from outside. By committing to working together both in terms of practical projects and sharing knowledge, we are tapping into unused potential that has the ability to bring building performance forward in leaps and bounds.'

As well as the sessions listed, the Symposium also included Jonathan Hines of Architype introducing a series of case studies that demonstrated the effectiveness of Passivhaus in reducing the energy usage of a number of schools by as much as 70%.

There was also a lively debate between panellists including former CIBSE president George Adams on the topic: ‘Putting our head above the parapet is impossible with the present industry structure’.

In addition, Ian Van Eerden of Northrop Consulting Engineers and Paul Angus of Erbas gave a presentation on the Australian building performance scheme, NABERS, demonstrating how it works and how its lessons could be applied to improve operational building performance in the UK.

BSRIA also fielded three speakers at the event: Dr Sarah Birchall, sustainability engineer; Roderic Bunn, BSRIA soft landings and building performance analyst; and Colin Pearson, head of building performance, Sustainable Construction Group. Sarah covered future practice in the built environment industry; Roderic looked at occupant satisfaction signatures – longitudinal studies of changing comfort perceptions in low non-domestic buildings and Colin outlined the use of low cost infrared cameras for checking thermal insulation and other building services applications. 

Selected papers from the Symposium are available to download from www.cibse.org/symposium