Habitat Research at CARBSE

Energy efficiency and energy resource management for residential and commercial buildings will assume heightened significance, as the urban population of India grows. Realising the need for sustainable habitats in future cities, the Center for Advanced Research in Building Science and Energy (CARBSE) at the Center for Environmental Planning and Technology (CEPT) University, Ahmedabad, Gujarat, is carrying out in-depth research in the areas of energy efficient building design and construction processes, environment friendly construction materials, and resource audit and management.

Broadly, the focus areas of CARBSE include passive and low energy building design, construction and maintenance, monitoring and benchmarking of the energy of buildings, simulation and modeling, thermal comfort and post occupancy evaluation, renewable energy integration, materials and building assembly characterisation, and performance testing. This foci, echoed by the recent UK delegation in India, overlaps well with the new Future Cities Catapult (UK) – a global centre of excellence on urban innovation, which strives to address the challenges and opportunities of urban integration.

CARBSE has been awarded the status of ‘Centre of Excellence for Solar Passive Architecture and Green Building Technologies’ by the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy (MNRE). It’s one of five centres of excellence at CEPT, the other four being: CEPT Research & Development Foundation (CRDF); Center for Urban Equity (CUE); Design Innovation & Craft Resource Center (DICRC); and Center for Excellence in Urban Transport (CoE).

I met with Prof. Rajan Rawal, Coordinator of CARBSE, who provided me with an overview of the goals and activities of CARBSE. He is currently spearheading the design and construction of a ‘net-zero energy’ building in the campus of CARBSE, one of the first such initiatives in India. This building will serve as a living laboratory. Focusing primarily on habitat management, Prof. Rawal’s research projects investigate energy efficiency on the demand side (consumption) rather than supply.

A number of MNRE funded projects are currently underway at CARBSE and these include, among others:

• building simulations and energy calculations for the design and investigation of energy efficient buildings
• evaluation of the thermo-physical-optical properties of building materials, building components and construction assemblies
• development of adaptive thermal comfort standard for buildings

Prof. Rawal also informed me about a future opportunity to discuss the aforementioned topics. The 30th international Passive and Low Energy Architecture (PLEA) conference on Sustainable Habitat for Developing Societies is being organised by CARBSE during December 2014 in Ahmedabad. The registration form is available on the conference site. PLEA, based in London, is an autonomous, non-profit, network of individuals sharing expertise in the arts, sciences, planning and design of the built environment.