Low Carbon Housing

Driving sustainable housebuilding in the UK

Low Carbon Housing is a Future Observatory project led by Dr. Ruth Lang which aims to identify the hurdles to carbon reduction currently present in the housebuilding industry. The research will explore ways in which these hurdles can be overcome by using the Design Museum as a springboard for innovative practice.

The UK has long been in the grip of a housing crisis, which the government has chosen to address through their manifesto commitment to building 300,000 homes a year. However, since the built environment contributes nearly 40% of the UK’s carbon emissions, any new build homes would have to be low or zero carbon to meet government’s climate pledges. In responding to the twin crises of affordable housing shortages and climate breakdown, our project is to understand how low carbon construction can become a mainstream reality for this sector, rather than a prize-winning exception.

Working in collaboration with architectural practitioners, academics, and construction industry partners, Ruth’s research will invite different perspectives on how we can reduce the carbon consumption of the industry, and curb this impact on climate breakdown.

Research Lead

Dr. Ruth Lang is an architect, researcher, writer, and senior lecturer at the Royal College of Art and the London School of Architecture. Throughout her work lies an interest in the networks and mechanisms we engage with in delivering architectural projects, and how we might practice differently in order to achieve a more equitable profession.

She holds a PhD from Newcastle University, which explored the hidden, overlooked, and obscured facets of the post-war work of the London County Council Architect’s Department. Adopting this strategy to a contemporary context, she has recently published ‘Building for Change’ (pub. gestalten, 2022) which demonstrates how contemporary practitioners are applying creative reuse strategies in architecture at the scale of the material, the building, the site, and in designing for future deconstruction.

Ruth also regularly contributes to a number of non-academic publications including the Architectural Review, Volume, RIBA Journal, and FRAME, and has guest edited a special issue on the ‘Invisible’ in architecture for The Modernist.