Homes for the Future Group

The Homes for the Future Group is aiming to inform and promote best practice in building services when constructing or renovating better homes. The main areas of interest will be energy strategies and services for new and refurbished homes, and their integration with overall fabric and design.

There is a growing demand for high-quality housing to meet increasingly complex design and performance standards, as well as the challenging targets for delivery and performance of housing - namely Part L of the Building Regulations and the Code for Sustainable Homes. The zero-carbon housing agenda already poses a significant engineering challenge, and the refurbishment of existing housing stock to achieve low-carbon performance will be even more challenging, and on an even greater scale. Until recently the house-building agenda has been developed with limited detailed engagement with building services engineers.

Terms of Reference

• To act as a knowledge exchange for best practice and to increase members' knowledge, skills and awareness of techniques, tools and solutions for the residential market;
• To provide accurate information to meet service demands, planning requirements and Building Regulations;
• To produce information on fabric design, and analysis and engineering systems that are practical, modern and sustainable;
• To propose and contribute to the development of new publications, to provide design guidance;
• To work with other CIBSE groups to ensure knowledge is included on residential services design; and
• To identify and support the research required to fill the knowledge gaps.