Environmental Sustainability of Future Social Housing
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by Mahmoud Alsaeed
As part of a collaborative partnership between the RE-DWELL project and SYHA, Mahmoud worked on a 3 month secondment at SYHA's office, an experience that was influential to the development of his research.
This PhD is funded by RE-DWELL project “Delivering affordable and sustainable housing in Europe” which has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under the Marie Skłodowska-Curie grant agreement No 956082.
This PhD is supervised by Prof. Karim Hadjri (Sheffield School of Architecture), Dr Krzysztof Nawratek (Sheffield School of Architecture) and Prof. Ignacio Guillén (Universitat Politècnica de València).
Year: 2020-21
Category: PhD
Environmental sustainability and social housing are closely linked concepts heavily influenced by the housing sector's design, construction and operation. In the UK, social housing accounts for 18% of the total housing stock - standing at 4.4 million units - and is responsible for 6.6% of the country's energy consumption and 4.4% of its carbon emissions. The UK government has adopted various strategies to tackle these challenges, including strengthening sustainable building regulations, targeting net zero emissions and promoting a sustainable and decarbonised housing sector. Mandatory and voluntary sustainability standards and housing policies have been introduced to achieve these goals. However, studies and reports by various scholars and the UK Environment Committee indicate slow progress in realising these national targets and cast doubt on their achievability.
This PhD study argues for the urgent need for a novel and simple approach to developing environmentally sustainable social housing. Consequently, it challenges existing unsustainable practices that appear inadequate due to the complexity and fragmentation of policies and practices. The widespread misconception of environmental sustainability among stakeholders and the unclear pathways to an environmentally sustainable housing future. A three-part approach is adopted, comprising an exploratory literature review and an analysis of two case studies in England totalling 72 social housing units. 30 Semi-structured interviews with housing associations' asset managers and sustainability team leaders, design architects and planners from architectural practices, and sustainability designers and systems specialists from sustainability service providers.
The outcome of this study is a theoretically informed and practice-oriented framework that provides a coherent theoretical-practical foundation on social housing perception, practices and regulatory frameworks. It explains the design and planning parameters and provides policy guidance for realising environmentally sustainable social housing in the UK. In addition to its practical applications, this framework possesses the potential to trigger nationwide policy change, and stimulate future research aimed at achieving sustainable social housing through streamlined and effective practices, regulations and standards.
Links:
Case study from SYHA: North Wingfield
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