
www.buildingsandcities.org/about/rihab-khalid.html
Dr Rihab Khalid is an interdisciplinary, socio-technical researcher specialising in problem-driven and human-centred research in sustainable energy, climate and housing infrastructure. She primarily investigates the intersections between gender equity, energy access, and spatial justice in architecture and urban spaces in the Global South, operating at the nexus of the UN's Sustainable Development Goals 5, 7 and 11.
She has been working as the Isaac Newton Trust Research Fellow at the University of Cambridge, UK these past three years, and currently serves as a climate science advisor at ECIU and gender specialist for the UNDP in Asia and Pacific region.
Latest Commentaries
Two Key Messages for COP31
Space Heating & Cooling in NDCs 4.0: Nationally Determined Constributions (NDCs) are at the heart of the UNFCCC Paris Agreement. NDCs embody each country's efforts to reduce their emissions and adapt to the impacts of climate change. So it is essential to include the building stock (particularly space heating and cooling) in the next NDCs.
Realistic Retrofit: Residential buildings are major users of energy and emitters of CO2. What constitutes realistic retrofit? Affordable, practical low-carbon policies for homes are described for both the Global North and Global South.
Thomas Lützkendorf and Nick Eyre send their messages to COP31: prioritise the building stock in NDCs and implement policies for practical retrofit. Watch their videos - for links to the videos click on "More" below:
Practitioners’ Views of POE
Post-occupancy evaluation (POE) is widely valued but weakly embedded in practice. Ant Marsh, Kate van Someren, Lara Clarke and Tom Randall (Arup Building Performance and Commissioning Services) explain the findings from a survey and focus groups with UK construction industry practitioners. They identified fragmented responsibility, split commercial incentives and a persistent fear of “bad news”. Making POE routine requires a shift from producing reports to a focus on improving outcomes by owning and acting on learning.