The impact of building design on the energy efficiency of social care facilities is being researched by academics at the University of Hertfordshire.

The university’s Computational Design Unit has been considering how a new design approach for care homes could help to improve the experience of residents and staff while simultaneously meeting the country’s challenging net-zero targets. 

The main areas of investigations are manufacturing, craft, data and digital design, fashion, spatial analyses, real-time interaction design, visual communication, user experience, and the socio-politics of the built environment.

Researchers collected and combined data from a range of therapeutic environments, net-zero strategies, and feedback from care home users to investigate how to improve building standards in a way that prioritises the experiences of those who use them as well as improving energy consumption of the building and its overall carbon footprint.

And the resulting app is designed for care home managers who can use it to generate tailored solutions for their building.

 Maximising efficiency

The software uses an innovative system of data weighting to analyse the spatial configurations and building qualities of the home and visualise possible options for retrofitting.  

The methods take into account organisations’ net-zero strategies, the care needs of residents, the day-to-day requirements of staff, and the economic efficiency of the home.  

Our work is intended to balance all needs equally – creating more-energy-efficient buildings that save money and carbon emissions, but also improve the quality of care for residents

The app operates as a step-by-step survey which guides the user through sets of questions about different features of the care home – comprising details about the building, rooms, communal spaces, and outdoor areas.

The algorithm then produces a final ranking result, with specific recommendations for potential improvements. 

Dr Silvio Carta, who led the project, said: “There are many thousands of buildings across our region that will require creative retrofitting if we are to meeting net-zero targets.

“Care homes have very-specific requirements and it’s vital that residents’ needs aren’t overlooked in the race to reduce carbon footprints.   

Reducing carbon emissions

“Our work is intended to balance all needs equally – creating more-energy-efficient buildings that save money and carbon emissions, but also improve the quality of care for residents.

“The platform also means care home managers can take ownership of the improvements to their buildings with tailored solutions, rather than trying to take a ‘one size fits all’ approach that could jeopardise rather than improve the care that is offered.” 

The team has presented its findings to organisations including Healthwatch Hertfordshire and Herts Valleys Clinical Commissioning Group.

In the future the researchers aim to incorporate artificial intelligence algorithms to further maximise improvements, while reducing costs and increasing the quality of living space for care home residents and staff.