Energy House 2.0 was designed by Bond Bryan Architects. Credit: via Aecom

Construction completes on £16m Salford research lab

Scientists at Energy House 2.0 will lead experiments on how to reach the UK’s target of net zero carbon emissions in homes.

Main contractor Bowmer + Kirkland finished work on the £16m lab, which is located at the University of Salford’s Frederick Road campus. The project was led by Aecom and procured through Scape consultancy, with Perfect Circle providing a range of professional services during the process.

The finished facility will enable four houses to be part of experiments at a time, using two specialist chambers that have been designed to imitate more than 90% of all climates.

David Maiden, the regional lead of Perfect Circle and Aecom project director, said: “This truly unique facility will be invaluable in guiding us to make better decisions for future developments and enable our wider industry partners to carry out important research.

“We believe innovation is crucial in helping the industry reach net zero and projects such as Energy House 2.0 are critically important in this journey.”

This project has been a collaboration between numerous companies, including Muse Development in partnership with the English Cities Fund.

Perfect Circle managing director, Victoria Brambini said: “We are proud to have been part of this exciting project and look forward to seeing how it will support the understanding of, and finding solutions for, some of the most challenging energy and climate change issues we are facing globally.”

Scape’s group chief executive Mark Robinson said: “The project sets out a clear case for the benefits of early collaboration. By identifying potential challenges and time pressures early on, the delivery team were able to rapidly accelerate a much-needed facility for Salford and benchmark project for the UK’s built environment sector.”

Other enterprises will be invited to use the lab to create items to help the country save energy.

The project received more than £8m from the European Regional Development Fund through the European Structural and Investment Funds Growth Programme.

Energy House 2.0 will be open later in the summer.

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