The Code for Sustainable Homes will require new homes in the UK to be 'zero carbon' from 2016. Drawing upon an evolutionary innovation perspective, a gap in the literature is addressed by investigating which low and zero-carbon technologies are actually being used by house builders, rather than the prevailing emphasis on the potentiality of these technologies. Using the results from a questionnaire, three empirical contributions are made. First, house builders are selecting a narrow range of technologies. Second, these choices are made to minimize the disruption to their standard design and production templates (SDPTs). Finally, the coalescence around a small group of technologies is expected to intensify with solar-based technologies predicted to become more important. A challenge is presented to the dominant technical rationality that assumes technical efficiency and cost benefits are the primary drivers for technology selection. These drivers play an important role, but one which is mediated by the logic of maintaining the SDPTs of the house builders. This emphasizes the need for construction diffusion of innovation theory to be problematized and developed within the context of business and market regimes constrained and reproduced by resilient technological trajectories.Le Code pour des logements durables exigera que les nouveaux logements construits au Royaume-Uni soient « sans carbone » à partir de 2016. En s'inscrivant dans une perspective d'innovation évolutive, une lacune est comblée dans la littérature par l'étude des technologies bas carbone et sans carbone qui sont réellement utilisées par les constructeurs de logements, plutô t que d'opter pour l'approche dominante qui met l'accent sur le potentiel de ces technologies. En utilisant les résultats d'un questionnaire, il est apporté trois contributions empiriques. Premièrement, les constructeurs de logements sélectionnent un champ restreint de technologies. Deuxièmement, ces choix sont faits de façon à réduire au minimum les perturbations pouvant être apportées à leurs modèles standards de conception et de production (« SDPT »). Enfin, il est attendu de cette convergence autour d'un petit groupe de technologies qu'elle s'intensifie avec les technologies basées sur le solaire qui, selon les prévisions, vont gagner en importance. Ceci pose une sérieuse difficulté à la rationalité technique dominante qui présume que l'efficacité technique et les avantages en terme de coû t sont les principaux facteurs du choix d'une technologie. Ces éléments moteurs jouent un rô le important, mais qui demeure soumis à la logique de conservation des modèles SDPT des constructeurs de logements. Ceci met en évidence la nécessité de problématiser et de développer la diffusion dans le secteur du bâ timent de la théorie de l'innovation dans le contexte de régimes d'entreprise et de marché contraints et reproduits par des trajectoires technologiques résilientes.

Reading's research outputs online 14BR0317v2 RL 23.12.14 RESEARCH Running title: Policy design for zero-carbon homes 41 pages, 2 tables, 2 figures Note to Cris: The Simmons (2015) reference has not been published yet, so the page range needs to be added by Carolyn when the issue is made up.

This paper presents an experimental method and apparatus of augmented reality (AR) for nDimensional (nD) building information modeling (BIM). BIM allows nD information to be visualized simultaneously by architects, engineers and constructors to gain a synchronized understanding viewing from different perspectives. However, BIM is conventionally being operated on a desktop-based computer which makes collaboration less flexible, and it also creates an isolation gap between the model and reality. This isolation gap does not severely affect experienced and skilled professionals, as they can bridge the isolation gap with their intuition developed over the years. Nevertheless, users who are lack of such experience will feel the isolation gap between the digital realm and practicable reality, which could be the hurdle in project participation and decision making. AR allows virtual content to be mixed with real environment for user experience. In the context of our study, AR is functional to present the nD information of BIM, at the same time retaining users' connection with the reality. It is not just being utilized solely for presentation, but also to maximize the potential for communication, interaction and experience. This pilot study investigates effective technological approach of using AR as an effective collaboration technology combining with BIM through proposed key aspects of contextualization, customization and curation. Contextualization is significant to enable users to understand the AR content by making the presented information meaningful to the target audience, implemented thru the means of 2D annotations, animations and options comparison. This study compares both AR BIM with and without contextualization. Customization can generate unique virtual environment and content for different level of users tailored to their needs and preference to create intuitive interaction with AR BIM. Curation is crucial to provide users with a reliable experience, and to formulate a continually improving AR BIM thru log data and users' feedback. All in all, this paper explores the major aspects of contextualization, customization and curation, to distinguish effective approach in the currently "free for all" AR BIM development. Finally, an implication is provided for future study in terms of balance in information sufficiency and complexity for AR BIM.