IDCOP Programme

“Innovation in Design, Construction & Operation of Buildings for People” (IDCOP) is a multi institutional research programme funded under the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) Sustainable Urban Environment (SUE) programme. The aim of the IDCOP consortium is to find new ways to improve the performance of building envelopes over the whole building life cycle.

The challenge for this research is to achieve a more sustainable urban environment which benefits people, creating a higher quality of life in their urban environments. The research focuses on the existing UK building stock. Within the research, new technologies and processes for maintenance and refurbishment of existing buildings are developed and promoted.

IDCOP Purpose and Programme Pathway. Powerpoint show in one slide showing the research purpose of the SUE IDCOP programme as well as the programme pathway towards achieving the overarching goal of an improved building performance. IDCOP Programme Pathway [pps 210 kB]

Research Focus

The main focus is to develop innovative solutions in terms of products and processes for maintaining, upgrading and improving existing buildings for the benefit of people. By providing information on the occupier behaviour, predictive models can be produced to ensure a reduction of waste, consumption of resources and carbon emissions, whilst improving occupier comfort. In essence the project aims to produce productive, energy efficient spaces in which people want to work and live.

In order to structure the consortium’s research and development strategies on improving the building envelope, the focus for the research will concentrate on the following:

Multi-storey, multi-occupancy buildings: this will cover sectors in: social housing, multi-storey housing, commercial offices, education, hotels and catering, health, and government etc

The consortium has produced a research focus document detailing the focus of specific parts within the IDCOP research. This document is available as pdf-file:

View the IDCOP research focus document [pdf 60 KB]

Solution Approach

The mission of the IDCOP consortium is to study people focused systems and to derive models and theories that explain and describe these systems. The consortium investigates how innovative technologies can be used for new / improved products and processes in order to reduce any adverse effects on buildings and the environment. The ideas for new solutions are:

• To develop sustainable façade technologies and enhanced methods for building refurbishment.
  
• To reduce the consumption of non-renewable resources in a way that is economically viable and socially acceptable.
  

Sustainability is considered from people, process and product perspectives for multi-storey, multi-occupancy buildings in both the domestic and commercial sector. From the perspective of facade refurbishment IDCOP focuses on three basic architectural envelope types, their benefits and constraints as well as their applicability for refurbishment:

• Single skin envelopes
  
• Double skin envelopes
  
• Climatic envelopes