- Manfren, M., Sibilla, M., & Tronchin L, (2021). Energy modelling and analytics in the built environment - A review of their role for energy transitions in the construction sector. Energies, 14(3), 679.
- Sibilla, M., (2020). Buildings-as-Energy-Service. A Tool Kit for re-thinking about a new generation of buildings as components of a future energy infrastructure. Firenze: Altralinea Edizioni, ISBN: 978-88-94869-97-2.
- Kurul, E. & Sibilla, M. (2020). Rethinking Buildings. Should buildings simply be enclosures that house different functions?
Envisioning BasES (Buildings-as-Energy-Service)
Principal Investigator(s): Dr Esra Kurul
Contact: msibilla@brookes.ac.uk
Project start: February 2020
Project finish: July 2020
Funded by: N+
About us
The main aim of this project is to develop a toolkit for knowledge integration. The toolkit will envisage buildings as components of future Distributed Renewable and Interactive Energy Systems (DRIs).
This ambitious proposal involves:
- exploring and analysing the emergent properties of DRI at local level
- developing, testing and implementing the toolkit.
The specific objective concerns the use of the toolkit in the organisation of a Technology Support Net (TSN) for Buildings-as-a-Service. TSN includes a multitude of actors who often have different perspectives and scopes. They all work collaboratively in order to establish:
- work rules
- requisite skills
- work contents
- standards and measures
- and culture and organisational patterns with regard to the emergent systems.
Buildings-as-Energy-Service is a completely new topic so an appropriate TSN is needed urgently.
Research impact
![Case studies and lines of research graph](/getmedia/a5e163d5-db99-4144-8022-94308f06c59d/Envisioning-BasES-02.jpg?width=800&height=450&ext=.jpg)
We created a conceptual framework to envision buildings as energy services which:
- consists of 5 main categories and 15 lines of research
- enhances and integrates the socio-technical complexity around buildings as energy services.
The framework promotes a better understanding of socio-technical implications in adopting the DRIs vision. So by exploring these factors, we formed the basis on which to organise a dedicated Technology Support Net (TSN) for DRIs.
The scope of this conceptual framework is not to include all the information on the socio-technical energy transition. Instead it identifies some of the key areas where an inter and trans-disciplinary approach could be developed.
We transferred the conceptual framework into a cognitive tool. This was tested, implemented and disseminated with a survey and online focus groups. Gathering opinions from academic and non-academic stakeholders on both the content and function of the toolkit allowed us to improve the quality of it.
Leadership
![Esra Kurul](/medialibraries/OxfordBrookes/Profile-images/staff/tde/be/Kurul-Esra-p0074200-small.jpg?width=256&height=256&ext=.jpg)
Dr Esra Kurul
Reader in Organisational Studies in the Built Environment