This is a fantastic opportunity to not only demonstrate sustainable design knowledge through a unique challenge, but also expand the participants' skill set with hands on practical experience on a real case study.

Claire Hopkins, Coordinator of the Living Laboratory for Sustainability

Participants are invited to focus on one or more of the following areas:

• Heating and Cooling: create a feasible strategy to reduce the building's heating and cooling loads.
• Solar Gains: consider shading and facade design options to reduce the impact of solar gains and the likelihood of summertime overheating.
• Equipment Loads: mitigate waste in plug loads such as computers and office equipment in ways that do not infringe on the research requirements for the building.
• Renewables: create a strategy for the installation of renewable energy sources. Solutions must consider feasibility, cost, and planning issues.
• Behaviour and Management: examine ways in which resources can be saved through management measures such as controls and behavioural interventions.
• Lighting: look at ways in which energy can be saved on the installed lighting systems.
• Well-being: design a strategy to encourage sustainable living and enhance well-being within the building. This could include spatial planning such as creation of green spaces or new layouts.

Claire Hopkins, Living Laboratory for Sustainability Coordinator, said: "The Living Lab is proud to partner with GreenBRIDGE to give students the opportunity to challenge themselves and be rewarded for innovative thinking. The Sustainable Retrofit Challenge provides students with an avenue to help influence the future sustainability of a building on the University Estate as well as gain real world experience through working with and presenting to industry professionals.

"This is a fantastic opportunity to not only demonstrate sustainable design knowledge through a unique challenge, but also expand the participants' skill set with hands on practical experience on a real case study."

Participants will be encouraged to make use of skills such as architectural design, engineering, building physics, behavioural change, thermal modelling, policy, planning, heritage management, CAD and simulation tools to create a report that assesses the sustainability of the building and makes feasible recommendations to change or retrofit the building to increase its performance.

An integral part of the event will be a series of skills seminars, which will present key aspects of sustainable design and management, aiming to help the participants acquire a general knowledge of various areas of sustainability in the built environment and the key challenges in achieving it. The seminars will take place in Cambridge during the forthcoming term and attendance is optional. They will be filmed and made available to all participants of the competition and they will be open to broader public. Participants are encouraged to incorporate the seminars' content into their final submission.

The participants are required to submit an A1 poster, along with a report showing supporting work and appendices, up to 20 pages, by midnight on June 15th. There will be a presentation and evaluation event on June 26-27th with a keynote speaker and networking event. Participants will present their findings to a panel of judges for a chance to win £1000 in cash prizes.

Participants from all disciplines are encouraged to register, and while there are no minimum experience requirements for entry, some knowledge of architecture or engineering principles in teams is recommended to get the most of the competition. The competition is not intended for established professionals.

Entrants should complete the online registration form at GreenBRIDGE by 15th April, although late registration will be accepted, as long as the participants acknowledge that this reduces the time they have to prepare for the competition submission.

For more information visit the GreenBRIDGE website or watch this YouTube video.

GreenBRIDGE is a society of graduate researchers at the University of Cambridge with an interest in the sustainability of the built environment. The Living Lab is a project managed by CU's Estates Management team to make the University's Estate a laboratory in which academics and students can study energy efficiency, CO2 emissions reduction, energy management, and related topics.