Built Environment

Built Environment is a relatively small subject area within the Faculty of Arts, Science and Technology, where current research strengths reside in contexts of architecture, architectural technology, construction, construction management, civil engineering and infrastructure. The team comprises members of staff chartered in each of these professional disciplines, and is underpinned by a collective industrial and professional experience of over thirty years.

The Built Environment team draws upon a broad industrial and professional subject-base that encompasses technical, scientific, managerial, legislative, creative, historical and analytical skillsets that lend themselves well to research in these areas, and in combinations thereof. Important research strengths are the team’s long-standing relationships with industrial, professional and sector-skills organisations, and the resultant potential for the development of collaborative research projects in association with public-, private- and third-sector organisations.

Research Areas

The range of opportunities for collaborative research within these suggested contexts is broad, particularly in those areas that might be considered strategic within the construction and infrastructure sectors, such as climate resilience, sustainability and future-proofing society against both natural and manufactured environmental threats. Therefore, such themes might be technological in terms of materials development, process-related when it comes to the development of future methodologies, techniques and their associated education and training requirements, or retrospective in terms of refurbishment and improvement when we appreciate that so much of the built environment already exists.

In considering the built environment in retrospect, we also learn significantly from researching our past and so historical analysis in all of the contexts identified above may present further research opportunities associated with how the built environment, its technologies, its architectures and therefore society has evolved over time, particularly in the Welsh context.

Areas of Interest for Future Research

The principal research ambition of the subject team is to extend current industrial and professional practice towards activity that can become a catalyst in the evolution of new technologies, improved methodologies, or a deeper understanding of our historical past. This said however, it is important to develop an approach to research that aims to improve and enrich the lives of individuals and wider society by adhering to the highest moral and ethical standards, within a sector that often involves many distinct and ambitious interested parties.

Whilst sustainability should be a fundamental consideration in all human activity, the built environment is perhaps the most significant sector within which critical threats to people and societies manifest themselves. In these respects therefore, any technological, process-related or retrospective research within the Built Environment subject area will be of interest to the Built Environment team here at Wrexham University, and the following areas of interest are offered as contexts within which the team would be enthusiastic to engage:

Engineering
Materials technology; civil engineering infrastructure; renewable/sustainable technologies; Flood Resilience; Active Travel; passive technologies

Architecture, Built Environment and Planning
Architectural design; architectural technologies and construction assemblies; rural and urban development; land-use; natural and built heritage; civil engineering infrastructure; housing; sustainable communities and environments; climate resilience; passive design

Geography and Environmental Studies
Land use; topography; hydrology; climate resilience

Business and Management Studies
Construction management; legislative provision; development of policy

Anthropology and Development Studies
Historical contexts in the rural and urban development of Wales; the sociology of architecture

Education
Education in the construction industry, particularly in the work of the Construction Industry Training Board (CITB)

Area Studies
Historical contexts in the rural and urban development of Wales; Welsh housing; civil engineering infrastructure in Wales; climate resilience and coastal protection in Wales

History
Architectural history; historical contexts in rural and urban development

Art and Design: History, Practice and Theory
Architectural criticism; architectural history/historiography; architectural practice