You can find out more about the MSc course, giving students all over the world the opportunity to work with her and an outstanding team of colleagues. 

Read more about Sofie's research interests here too.

Sofie is delighted to have joined ECD architects on a part-time basis alongside her academic role and to be working with an innovative, progressive and forward looking practice and support and enhance the work they already do. ECD Architects sponsored the second edition of The Environmental Design Pocketbook. Designing and building buildings is becoming ever more complex. In my role as Head of Research I will be supporting ECD teams with evidence based design from the outset and to help teams to formalise, integrate and capture this process. To build a truly sustainable future we all need to share our knowledge and findings and contribute to the wider debate. Hence it is our aim not only to contribute to internal practice but to share our work with the outside world in industry and academia to help bridge the persistent information gap between academic research and industry practice. I also intend to build new links with the Sheffield School of Architecture such as creating paid student internships and identifying areas of mutual research opportunities, as well as building on links ECD already have with other academic institutions.

About ECD Architects: Together with forward-looking clients, local communities and consultants, ECD Architects have been designing and building high quality sustainable architecture since 1980. As times have changed, so have we continued to innovate to work towards a more resilient, affordable and sustainable built environment with use of minimal resources and which delight its users - now and in the future. 

Read more here about how we can work together to achieve this.

You can pick up a copy of the nearly 500 paged 2nd edition of The Environmental Design Pocketbook for just £20 during EcoBuild at the Riba Bookshop stand S7030, March 3rd, 4th and 5th. (S7030 (formerly Design Cafe), is in the South wing -  right at the back from entrance S2)

What is new in the second edition? New sections and major updates are clearly marked here. But in brief:

• All content was updated such as 2013 RIBA Plan of Work; updated 2013/2014 building legislation, regulations, standards, research and further reading, as well as some general clarifications and restructuring following reader feedback. 
• New and separate Part L sections for Scotland, England, wales and Northern Ireland.

New material includes:

• ‘form factor’
• the impact of urban form on urban climate
• an extended Retrofit chapter, including Green Deal updates and phased 'step by step' retrofitting
• new BREEAM credits are joined by the new addition of LEED credits. 
• The 'performance gap' 
• background and purge ventilation and addition of MEV (continuous Mechanical Ventilation) are included. 
• an entire new building maintenance section has been added with additional checklists, with a new emphasis in other chapters on commissioning, care and maintenance of buildings with new sections (indicated by a spanner icon)

As in the first edition, the latest in zero-carbon thinking and technological solutions to cope with both climate change mitigation and adaptation are covered, including a zero carbon 'calculator' and a new embodied carbon 'calculator'. Rules of thumb allow you to design and test your designs straightforwardly but without over-simplification. 

The second book edition of The Environmental Design Pocketbook is out and it includes updated research, guidance and new legislation (such as the new Building Regulations and the new RIBA Plan of Work) alongside an extended retrofit chapter and new sections on the performance gap, and the influence of building maintenance and care and commissioning of buildings on their energy performance and how to achieve good building maintenance, the need for which I have also written about elsewhere.

In total, an additional 80 pages are included in the 2nd edition, making the book now almost 500 pages. As a result the decision was made to print on thinner FSc sourced paper and not thicker recycled paper as for edition 1 to minimise the impact of the additional pages. It also has a flexible back now which means that navigating the book and leaving it open is so much easier! Despite the increased production costs, we managed to keep the cost of the 2nd edition as the same as the first edition (£25) due to generous sponsorship from ECD architects.

Thanks also to support from ECD architects, Riba Publishing and RIBA Bookshops we are hosting an experimental book swap on January 27th (and anytime that week actually).

What is it and why are we doing this?

Some 3000 copies of the 1st book edition were sold. During early stages in production, there were discussions with Riba Publishing about the book format, which I wanted as a ringbound book with all topics on a (combination of) double sided pages so that any later editions, updates and additions, meant that the reader could just buy the new pages and slot them into the ringbound book. However production costs and other practicalities and the fact that it became impossible to try to stick to a double-sided layout to enable this to happen, meant that this idea was quickly abandoned.

Yet, while about 30% material of the 1st edition is out of date, this means that 70% of it is still valid. So, the idea of a book swap was borne: readers can exchange their 1st edition book for a discounted 2nd edition book (£20) and we will donate the 1st edition books to local libraries with a note highlighting the out of date sections. This means that readers can plant ‘environmental design seeds’ by donating their book to inspire and inform others, while getting a discounted new edition for themselves. Of course you can donate books anytime to your local library or to charity shops – but we hope that giving a discount on the 2nd edition means that readers will be encouraged to do this rather than leaving old editions on our bookshelves (like I tend to do).  It is experimental as we have not yet heard of any other publisher or author who has done this and we have no idea how successful it will be – I guess you will hear about this in another blog post! 

In the meantime – do feel free to join me on 27.01.2015 at the RIBA Bookshop at Portland place between 6 and 8pm – whether you have a 1st book edition to swap or not! Now, I’d better go and clear my bookshelf to donate some of my multiple copies of other books to worthwhile places! 

PS: You can see here what is new in the 2nd edition and you can also read each of the 12 chapter introductions and look at the content list. 

Get the fully updated new edition! (and if you have a copy of edition 1 you can swap it too - unfortunately only in London  - but if you cannot make it on 27.01, you can swap your book all that week and buy the new edition for just £20. Info below!

It has just arrived! 

The green fluo-colour is lighter than expected but it is eye-catchy! Impressive too that the book does not feel that much heavier or thicker given the fact it has an additional 80 pages compared to the first edition. (You can see what is new here). The paper is slightly different giving the printed text greater contrast.  

Most of all: the flexible back makes such a big difference to the feel and use of the book: the spine is slightly curved and sits nicely in the palm, and the pages easily open in their entirety so it is much easier to read and use. Somehow the book format feels larger than the first edition, while the actual book pages are the same size - all because of the flexible back. 

Anyway - over to you readers now - let me know what you think in due course! 

After several months of updating the book and adding new content, the 2nd edition is finally in print! It should be in the book stores around mid-December but you can already pre-order now!