Practice and Education: Housing Design and Energy Saving in Britain

In the UK, two important energy saving legislations, namely, Part L of Building Regulations (2006 edition) and Code of Sustainable Homes, will both come into effect in April 2006. This paper is to investigate the massive impacts that these two pieces of new legislations will bring to the construction industry in England and Wales.

Part L is a statutory requirement, which aims to lead architects and developers to improve energy savings in their decisions on housing design. Code of Sustainable Homes, based on current regulations, is to be marketed to the consumers of the housing market. It is intended that the generated motivations from potential home-owners will encourage architects and developers to reach higher energy saving designs.

This paper will explore these two pieces of legislations respectively regarding to their forms, targets and potential influence. It will investigate the pressures and motivations they can generate among various parties in the construction industry in order to find new opportunities for promoting the energy efficient designs. The third part of the paper will briefly discuss the teaching of architectural designs with sustainable contents. It is important because the education will have great influence on the next generation of architects.